Trabber News

news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber


News of May 2008


Bag charge plan hits US airline

22 May 2008

American Airlines is to become the first major US carrier to charge passengers to check in a first bag.

The new fee of $15 (£7.50) comes as US airlines struggle with soaring fuel costs and a slumping economy.

The airline says it will also cut a number of its domestic flights and get rid of older, fuel-guzzling jets.

International travellers will be exempt from the fee. American joined other US carriers last month in charging $25 for a second checked bag.

source: BBC News


Satisfaction with U.S. airlines lowest since 2001-poll

20 May 2008

Customer satisfaction with airlines in the United States has fallen to its lowest level since 2001, according to a survey published on Tuesday.

The University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index found that the airline industry scored a mere 62 on a 100-point scale for the first quarter of 2008.

Thousands of flight cancellations for safety checks have battered some airlines’ reputations with customers this year.

US Airways Group Inc and United Airlines, which have recently been in merger talks, received the lowest scores in the poll: 54 and 56, respectively.

Continental Airlines fell 10 percent to 62 in the poll, a score that matches its all-time low, and Northwest Airlines, which has agreed to be acquired by Delta Air Lines Inc, fell 7 percent to 57, its lowest score since 2001.

source: Reuters


Ryanair to charge web passengers for priority boarding

20 May 2008

Ryanair, Europe’s largest low-cost airline, today announced changes to its optional priority boarding service which allows passengers to be first to board their flights.

Web check-in passengers receive this service free of charge in order to promote online check-in, whilst airport check-in passengers currently pay £4 or €5 for the service. However, from June 3 this year the airline will introduce a new web check-in policy, which means that web check-in passengers will no longer receive priority boarding free of charge.

source: ireland-digital.co.uk


SAS to pay Norwegian Air $26 mln in court case

20 May 2008

Norwegian air shuttle said on Tuesday that a court ruled that Scandinavian airline SAS should pay it 132 million Norwegian crowns ($26.33 million) in compensation in an industrial espionage case.

It also ruled that SAS should pay Norwegian Air’s legal costs of about 6.8 million crowns, said Norwegian – a low-cost rival to SAS.

source: Reuters


BA to raise fares and slash flights to protect profits

17 May 2008

British Airways will raise fares, slash flights and consider cutting its order of new aeroplanes as the flag carrier prepares to follow a year of record profits with its toughest 12 months since 2001.

BA staff secured a £35m windfall today after the airline hit its 10% profit margin target for 2008, but analysts warned that the coming years could be bonus-free as a high oil price and a weak global economy pose a fundamental threat to the industry.

source: Guardian.co.uk


Singapore Airlines adds iPhone/iPod connectivity to select business flights

17 May 2008

iPhone is about to hit Singapore and the country’s airline announced iPod and iPhone connectivity on its newly reconfigured, all-Business Class Airbus A340-500 flights between New York and Singapore, and between Los Angeles and Singapore. According to the official release, passengers are able to enjoy their personal audio and video content from their iPod or iPhone on Singapore Airlines’ KrisWorld in-flight entertainment system. Each seat features a 15.4-inch wide LCD screen as well as active noise-cancellation headphones.

source: Intomobile


Norwegian plane on fire lands at Prague airport

15 May 2008

A plane of the Norwegian Air Shuttle low-cost airline whose crew reported a fire aboard safely landed at Prague’s Ruzyne airport and the fire has been extinguished, investigator Jiri Hosek, from Prague firefighter corps, told CTK.

Nobody of the crew and 131 passengers has been injured during the fire and the emergency landing.

source: Prague Daily Monitor


Ryanair passengers flying to Spain from UK and Ireland to provide ‘advance passenger information’

15 May 2008

Since Jun-07, the Spanish government requires that all passengers travelling from the UK/Ireland to Spain (including the Canaries and Balearic Islands) provide ‘advance ‘passenger information” (‘API’ or ‘APIS’ data) before their flight departure. 

From 1-Jun-08, all passengers flying with Ryanair to Spain from the UK and Ireland must provide this APIS at the time of original booking or at least 4hrs before departure on the airline web site.

Spanish Government APIS requirements are :
 
  *Full Name (as it appears on the passport)
  *Date of birth
  *Nationality
  *Passport or Travel document number
  *Type of Document
  *Issuing State

source: Peanuts!


Austin man charged after refusing to hang up cellphone during Southwest Airlines flight

13 May 2008

An Austin businessman was charged with disorderly conduct after he allegedly refused to stop using his mobile phone on a flight Monday from Austin to Dallas Love Field.

Dallas police met the plane after the pilot radioed ahead to the Love Field tower. They cited Joe David Jones, 50, president of an Austin-based environmental start-up company called Skyonic Corp., with the Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500.

The incident occurred as a Southwest flight from Austin began its descent into Dallas.

source: Dallas News


NY man sues airline over flight spent in toilet

13 May 2008

A New York man who says he was denied a seat on a five-hour jetBlue flight and was instead told to “‘hang out'” in the plane’s bathroom has sued the airline for $2 million, saying he suffered “‘extreme humiliation.'”

When Gokhan Mutlu arrived to check in for a jetBlue flight from San Diego to New York in February he was told the flight was full, according to the lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.

But Mutlu was allowed to board after a jetBlue flight attendant agreed to give up her seat and travel in an airline employee “‘jump seat.'” It was not clear in the lawsuit whether the flight attendant was working.

source: Reuters