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German leisure carriers Air Berlin and TUIfly are in advanced merger negotiations, industry sources said yesterday.

The two carriers are understood to be undergoing due diligence by external auditors at this moment. Details of the planned combination — which is likely to take place under the Air Berlin roof — have yet to emerge and neither company is prepared to comment officially.

The sudden turn of events comes after separate and exclusive talks to combine TUIfly, Lufthansa affiliate Germanwings and Thomas Cook’s leisure carrier, Condor, failed. A merger of the three carriers would have created a third large German airline roughly equivalent in size to Air Berlin, but with financially powerful shareholders Lufthansa, TUI and Thomas Cook. The combination would also have taken the three airlines off their parents’ balance sheets, a move the three groups have been trying to accomplish for several years.

source: Aviation Week

Spanish low fares carrier clickair today announced a £40 flat fee, per sector fare to help XL Leisure Group and Futura passengers stranded in Spain – primarily in the Balearic and Canary Islands – get home.

The offer follows the cancellation of flights by the British tour operator and Spanish charter airline and also applies to European originating passengers looking to get back to Spain from the UK.

source: TravelWeekly

Just weeks after American Airline started offering in-flight wireless internet, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants is urging the airline to add filters restricting passengers from browsing porn and other inappropriate sites. Many passengers and attendants have reportedly complained about the issue.

source: Wired

The holidays of more than quarter of a million people have been wrecked following the collapse of Britain’s third largest tour operator as the crisis engulfing the travel industry intensified.  

XL’s failure, which grounded flights around the world, is the biggest to hit the industry in 17 years as soaring oil prices and a collapse in consumer confidence hit home.

More than two dozen carriers have now folded in less than a year, the victims of surging fuel costs and the credit crisis.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

U.S. airlines carried fewer domestic passengers but more international travelers during the first half of this year.

The overall number of scheduled passengers fell by 1.5 million, or 0.4 percent, to 378.2 million compared to the first six months of 2007, the Transportation Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said.

BTS said U.S. airlines carried 1.1 percent fewer domestic passengers and 5.1 percent more international passengers during the first half of the year.

source: IHT

United Airlines’ stock fell more than 75 percent Monday morning after a link to a nearly six-year-old Chicago Tribune news report was circulated through Bloomberg News Service.

United stock, which had closed Friday at $12.30 a share, hit a low of $3 a share before the confusion was cleared up. The stock closed Monday at $10.92.

In a statement Monday morning, United said it is launching an investigation. United exited bankruptcy in February 2006.

source: Sun Sentinel

A JetBlue flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was diverted Saturday when a fight broke out after someone was smoking in the bathroom, federal officials said.

One passenger aboard JetBlue Flight 455 was taken into custody at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina after the plane landed about 5:45 p.m.

The jet was held at the North Carolina airport for about two hours while FBI investigators interviewed passengers.

source: CNN

Virgin Atlantic has held talks with financial partners over a possible bid to buy Gatwick Airport.

A spokesman for the airline said that the talks were at a very early stage but that it intended to approach other airlines about forming a consortium to table a bid, once it had secured suitable backing.

Sir Richard Branson’s airline already owns a seventh stake in a consortium that owns NATS, the UK’s system of air traffic control and the entrepreneur believes consortium-ownership could be suitable for an airport, now that the Competition Commission has signalled its intention to force BAA to sell up to three of its seven airports.

source: Times Online

The International Air Transport Association on Wednesday significantly cut its air traffic forecast for domestic and international markets, reflecting weakening economic conditions and waning demand.

Global passenger traffic is now expected to grow on average by 2.8 percent this year, compared with a 3.9 percent growth prediction in June.

For 2009, traffic volume growth of 2.9 percent is expected, compared with a previous prediction of 4.5 percent growth.

source: BusinessWeek

Spain is considering changing commercial airline routes to make them shorter and more direct in order to offset high fuel prices, Public Works minister Magdalena Alvarez said Saturday.

Alvarez said she would ask the defence ministry to alter airspace currently reserved for military use in order to make this possible.

“If the problem is the rise in fuel prices, the best measure to support airlines is to study how to reduce fuel consumption,” the minister told reporters in the southern port of Malaga.

source: AFP