news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

A company claims it has developed a scanning machine that could mean an end to liquid restrictions on planes.

Oxfordshire-based Cobalt Light Systems said its INSIGHT100 device could analyse bottles up to three litres for explosives in less than five seconds.

A ban on liquids over 100ml in hand luggage was introduced after a foiled 2006 plot to blow up planes using explosives hidden in drink bottles.

The UK government said it was working towards plans to ease the ban in 2013.

source: BBC.co.uk

International airline partnership Star Alliance will likely tender for a broker this year to help its members buy CO2 permits, while Air France, a member of rival group SkyTeam, said its alliance partners would give first refusal to each other when selling allowances.

From January 1, around 4,000 airlines that fly to and from EU airports were included in the bloc’s Emissions Trading Scheme ETS and must next year surrender carbon credits against their 2012 emissions.

The carrier expects fleet emissions of 16-17 million tonnes in 2012, meaning it would need to buy around 4 million permits on top of its free allocation of 12.6 million EUAAs, the aviation CO2 units distributed under the ETS.

Rival coalition Star Alliance, which boasts members Lufthansa, United Airlines and U.S. Airways, does not have a similar arrangement, its director responsible for emissions trading told Point Carbon.

source: Reuters

The government is to hold a formal consultation on UK aviation – including controversial plans for a new airport in the Thames Estuary.

The study, to begin in March, will look at options for “‘maintaining the UK’s aviation hub status'”.

David Cameron has ruled out expanding Heathrow but his deputy Nick Clegg is said to be opposed to the estuary idea.

The airport would be built partly on reclaimed land and could be on either an island or a peninsula. But concerns have been raised about damage to the environment.

source: BBC.co.uk

Australia’s consumer watchdog has taken budget airline AirAsia to court for allegedly failing to disclose the full price of fares for international flights from Australia.

The regulator began legal proceedings in Melbourne seeking penalties and orders for the Malaysian airline to issue corrective notices on its website.

In documents filed in the Federal Court, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission claims that fares sold on the airline’s website disclosed only part of the total price for flights from Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Perth to destinations in Asia, Europe and India because they excluded taxes, fees and other charges.

source: Heraldsun.com.au

Ryanair has said it plans to hire 1,000 people this year, an increase in its workforce of more than 10%, as it boosts its fleet to 305 aircraft from 270. Europe’s biggest budget airline is opening new bases in Billund, in Denmark, Wroclaw, in Poland, Palma, on the Spanish island of Mallorca, Paphos, in Cyprus, and Manchester. A spokeswoman for Ryanair said some of the new jobs would be created in the UK, including Manchester, though details are still being finalised.

source: Guardian.co.uk

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has predicted that the airline will continue to seize business from rivals in Spain as the Irish low-cost carrier became the biggest passenger carrier in the country last year.

Figures from Spanish government-owned airport operator AENA show Ryanair shifted 32.2 million passengers through the country’s airports last year — 21.1pc more than in 2010.

source: Independent.ie

A major new global study released last week outlines how transformative technologies and evolving social values and trends will combine to establish a new era of collaborative travel over the next decade and beyond.

The report, ‘’From chaos to collaboration: how transformative technologies will herald a new era in travel”, demands increased partnership across the travel industry, in turn removing the stress, uncertainty and chaos which is usually associated with travelling in the 21st Century, as well as providing much richer, deeper and more personal travel experiences at the same time.

source: breakingtravelnews.com

TUI Travel waltzed into the spotlight on Monday after UBS initiated coverage on the holiday company with a “‘buy'” rating and 220p target price.

The broker added TUI to its merger watch-list following recent speculation that its parent company, TUI AG, is looking to buy out the remaining 45.5pc of the business it does not already own.

UBS also initiated coverage on TUI’s beleaguered rival Thomas Cook, which it handed a “‘neutral'” rating. The broker said it preferred TUI because of its developed product mix and stronger balance sheet.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

The Finnish airline Finnair has been ranked as the safest air carrier in Europe and the second safest in the world by Germany’s Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC).

The report also indicates that flying has never been as safe as it was in 2011. The top ranked airline in the international survey was Japan’s All Nippon Airways.

source: yle.fi

The websites of Israel’s national airline, El Al, and the Tel Aviv stock exchange have been disrupted just hours after they were reportedly threatened by a Saudi computer hacker.

Flights and trading on the stock exchange have not been affected.

There has been a series of hacking attacks affecting Israeli businesses in the past two weeks.

The most serious saw details of tens of thousands of Israeli credit cards posted online.

source: BBC.co.uk