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American Airlines is to go head-to-head with Eos and MAXjet at Stansted on the transatlantic route to New York JFK. The airline announced today that it will launch daily services from the Essex airport from 29 October and will add a second daily service from March 2008.

The new services will be operated by two-class Boeing 767-300 aircraft with 221 seats, including 30 in business class. The airline has recently revamped its business class to include lie-flat seats and audio and video on demand.

source: Times Online

Angola’s national carrier, TAAG-Angola Airlines, is set to make its final flight from Europe on Thursday amid a deepening row with the European Union over aviation rights, a senior company official said.

TAAG was put on the European Union’s blacklist due to safety concerns but its UK country manager, Joao Rodrigues, told Reuters the firm hoped the EU would reverse its decision.

“‘It’s a critical situation. Angola will try to negotiate for the EU to meet again soon so that they can re-evaluate the situation,'” he said.

source: Reuters

Scandinavian airline SAS said on Friday group traffic (revenue passenger kilometres) rose 6.6 percent year-on-year in June after a rise of 1.7 percent the previous month.

The total load factor, a measure of how efficiently it filled planes, fell 0.1 percentage points to 76.4 percent in June.

The yield for May, the latest month available, was up 7.6 percent. The airline said it expected June yields to rise in line or slightly less than in May.

source: Reuters

Virgin America has asked regulators to let the start-up airline begin selling tickets, amid signs that market conditions in the US are more favourable than many industry executives had expected.

The San Francisco-based group could launch flights as early as August after finally securing approval to start domestic services following a 17-month battle with rivals and watchdogs over its ownership structure, which includes a 25 per cent stake held by Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Group.

source: MSN

Belgian flag carrier Brussels Airlines is to introduce four more aircraft for its East African customers.

This is in a review of its operations in the region that will see the line take on competition from Nairobi and Entebbe.

In the realignment that takes effect from December 16, Entebbe will get two new direct flights to Europe per week while Rwanda and Burundi will get an additional service each.

source: NationMedia.com

U.S. airline delays worsened in May for a fifth straight month, and the passenger-complaint rate surged 45 percent, the Transportation Department said.

Only 77.9 percent of May flights arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, down from 78.3 percent in the same month in 2006, the agency said today on its Web site. The complaint rate jumped to 1.13 per 100,000 passengers, compared with 0.78 last year.

source: Bloomberg.com

JetBlue Airways Corporation (Nasdaq:JBLU), in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox, today announced it has been named “‘The Official Airline of Springfield'” — the hometown city of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson — to celebrate the summer theatrical release of The Simpsons Movie. In honor of America’s favorite animated family of comedy, the low-fare, high-frills airline will unveil its first-ever specialty aircraft, christened “‘Woo-Hoo, JetBlue!'” and featuring an image of Homer along with a permanent logo of the airline’s new Springfield status.

source: CNN

After generating nationwide buzz with its $10 cross-country fares, ultra low-cost carrier Skybus is apparently ready to test its formula on international flights. The Columbus, Ohio-based carrier has applied to the Department of Transportation for the permission to begin flights to both Mexico and the Bahamas. In one of its federal filings, Skybus says it “‘plans to operate nonstop scheduled air service six days a week [Monday through Saturday] between Columbus and Nassau [in the Bahamas], and between Columbus and Cancun, commencing on or about Oct. 1, 2007. For this service, Skybus plans to utilize Airbus A-319-100 aircraft, currently in its fleet, with either 144 or 156 seats.'”

Northwest Airlines is now offering PayPal as a way to pay for tickets at its Web site www.nwa.com. With PayPal, Northwest customers now have a new way to pay for tickets using debit cards, bank accounts, stored balances, or credit cards through their individual PayPal accounts.

Stephanie Tilenius, Vice President of Merchant Services for PayPal, said, “‘We are excited to add Northwest Airlines, one of the world’s largest airlines, as the first airline to accept PayPal. Many of our customers already book travel with Northwest Airlines and are eager to use their PayPal accounts to do so.'”

Eurostar, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn AG and France’s SNCF joined Dutch, Austrian, Swiss and Belgian train companies to form a rail alliance, Railteam, that aims to make international train bookings far easier and simpler by building a single online reservation system.

They want to attract at least 25 million travelers by 2010 ” 10 million more than now ” taking a 5 percent chunk out of the short-haul airline market by promoting four-hour business trips and up to six-hour leisure journeys across western Europe.

They said rail travel can and will compete with low-fare airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet that have revolutionized European travel by encouraging people to fly more often and take weekend trips away.

source: International Herald Tribune