news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Virgin America Inc., based in Burlingame, said Monday a report in London’s Daily Mail newspaper incorrectly stated the upstart carrier plans flights between the United States and England. Virgin America is only planning domestic service, said spokesman Gareth Edmondson-Jones.

“‘Our focus is to bring more travel choices and fare competition to U.S. travelers, beginning with flights between San Francisco and New York,'” Edmondson-Jones said.

source: bizJournal.com

UK regional airline Flybe said it has closed one of the operating bases of BA Connect, the loss-making former UK regional operation of British Airways PLC that it purchased last month, as it announced the appointment of a new chief financial officer.

Flybe said last month that it plans to cut about 200 jobs as part of the integration of BA Connect, which will lead to the closures of BA Connect’s head office in Manchester and an engineering centre on the Isle of Man.

The reductions are part of a plan to make cost savings and revenue gains of more than 40 mln stg a year to staunch similar annual losses accumulated by BA Connect in its last 12 months of operations, the FT said.

source: Forbes

German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG has shown renewed interest in Spanish carrier Iberia and may make an offer this month, according to a German weekly, WirtschaftsWoche.

The German company declined to comment on the report saying it has nothing more than its previous comments — made by its chief executive Wolfgang Mayrhuber — that the Spanish carrier is of strategic interest, but it is too expensive.

source: earthtimes.org

Brazil’s TAM said it is about to become the first airline to promote itself in the Second Life online virtual world by offering cyberspace flights that correspond to its real-world international service.

Second Life, created by US-based Linden Lab, has millions of registered users and its own economy and currency, known as the Linden dollar, which can be exchanged for US dollars.

Several companies are already active in Second Life, including car maker Toyota, IBM and Reuters Group, which has a virtual news bureau there.

A noreaster battered the East with strong wind and pouring rain Sunday, grounding hundreds of airline flights, downing power lines and threatening severe coastal flooding.

The storm flooded people out of their homes in the middle of the night in West Virginia and trapped others. Some New Jersey shore residents evacuated, and officials in Connecticut urged some residents along the Long Island Sound to do the same. Inland areas from eastern New York to Maine faced a threat of heavy snow.

source: Forbes

The Dallas-based, low-cost airlines said it is adding an additional nonstop, daily flight between Dallas and Albuquerque, making a total of eight; and a flight between Dallas and New Orleans, for a total of five.

source: bizjournals.com

Following an agreement signed on Thursday, the Malta Tourism Authority confirmed yesterday that Spanish low-cost carrier Clickair will begin serving the Malta route in June on a twice-weekly basis.

In a statement issued yesterday evening, the MTA said the agreement, signed by MTA chairman Sam Mifsud and Clickair CEO Alex Cruz, had been finalised in collaboration with Malta International Airport and effectively confirms that the airline will be commencing operations between Malta and Barcelona as from the first week of June.

source: The Malta Independent

During this week, American Airlines was subjected to a legal act by the widow of Taisuke Matsuo, the passenger that on April 2005 was found dead in the toilette of an airline’s plane departed from Tokyo only two hours after the landing.

The man, that apparently had a hearth attack during the first leg of the trip to Indianapolis, was found only two hours after the arrival to the final destination, the O’Hare international airport of Chicago.

source: Avionews

JetBlue Airways today announces the continuing expansion of destination choices for its Boston customers with the launch of new low-fare service to San Diego, CA and the Caribbean island of Aruba, bringing to 27 the number of nonstop destinations served nonstop by Logan’s fastest-growing airline.

Beginning June 28, 2007, JetBlue will operate the only daily nonstop low-fare service between Boston and San Diego, with fares ranging from $159-$399(a) each way. Then on June 30, JetBlue will add Saturday-only nonstop service to Aruba with fares ranging between $149-$399(a) each way.

source: Primenewswire.com

Budget carrier Ryanair is considering launching a separate airline that would fly long-haul between Europe and the United States around the turn of the decade.

Ryanair on Thursday confirmed comments made in an interview by Chief Executive Michael O’Leary that he has already had speculative approaches from U.S. airports about setting up a service.

More competition is expected on trans-Atlantic routes after the European Union approved an aviation deal with the United States last month to open up the restricted routes to new rivals.

The “‘Open Skies'” deal, which takes effect from the end of March 2008, will allow airlines to fly from anywhere in the EU to any point in the U.S., shedding limitations that also discourage them from charging what they like or combining with other carriers.

source: USA today