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Low-fares airline Flyglobespan has become Dublin Airport’s newest customer after announcing plans to start flights to Calgary and Vancouver from May.

The new long-haul flights are an unexpected boost for the airport, which has suspended its long-haul route incentive scheme indefinitely.

The suspension of that scheme makes Dublin less attractive to most international airlines, but the launch of the Flyglobespan flights was unaffected because their flights only run twice-weekly and flights must run at least three times a week to be included in Dubin’s now defunct scheme.

source: independent.ie

JetBlue Airways has filed for authority to fly between Fort Lauderdale and Bogota, Colombia, which if granted, would reshape the low-fare marketplace to Latin America.

The airline’s plan calls for seven weekly Bogota flights from Fort Lauderdale beginning next Oct. 1, as well as seven from Orlando, starting next April.

source: Sun Sentinel

Continental Airlines today announced that interline eTicket capabilities have been implemented with DragonAir, its 100th eTicket partner, and that it is nearing its target to have all interline agreements eTicketable by the end of the year.

“‘While completing our 100th eTicket partnership is an important milestone, Continental is more focused on completing eTicket development with all of our interline partners,'” said Mark Erwin, senior vice president, Corporate Development. “‘With just over a dozen carriers remaining, Continental is committed to refining the customer’s experience with truly convenient, paperless travel on all itineraries.'”

Interline eTickets permit customers to fly and check baggage on Continental and other carriers on a single paperless eTicket itinerary.

Today, Continental passengers are already taking advantage of convenient eTickets, which reduce loss, theft and paperwork hassles for both the customer and the airline. Currently, over 99 percent of Continental’s customers systemwide travel on eTickets. eTickets are valid at all of the more than 280 airports served by Continental around the world.

source: CNN

Swiss has been voted “‘Europe’s Leading Airline'” in the 14th World Travel Awards. The distinctions, which are among the most prestigious within the travel industry, were presented in Newcastle, UK on October 9. “‘We are delighted to receive this award,'” says Christoph Beckmann, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at Swiss.

source: traveldailynews.com

More than 20 low cost airlines now fly from Portuguese airports, and this number continues to grow. As of the 28th of this month, Lisbon airport will be host to 12 low-cost airlines, and Oporto will introduce new companies and new routes.

Eight low-cost companies currently operate from Oporto, which will soon be connected to Milan (Malpensa) courtesy of new-introduction Volareweb.com, and three new routes, to Stockholm, Pisa and Valencia, will also soon be available through Ryanair.

Lisbon will be expanding its routes with the arrival of its newest low-cost airline SkyEurope, which will be flying to Vienna, as well as introducing a new route to Seville, as of December, courtesy of Spanish company Vueling.

source: News Online

JetBlue Airways, the low-fare, low-cost airline with the most flights to the Caribbean, today announces it will add new service this winter to two more island destinations: St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles and Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. The award-winning airline will offer one daily nonstop flight between Puerto Plata and New York/JFK effective January 10, 2008, and one daily nonstop flight between St. Maarten and New York/JFK effective January 17, 2008.

With its new nonstop flights to St. Maarten and Puerto Plata, JetBlue now offers its unique brand of low-fare service and high frills to a total of eleven Caribbean/Atlantic destinations including Aruba; Bermuda; Cancun; Nassau; Aguadilla, Ponce and San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Santiago and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. JetBlue will serve 55 destinations in seven countries this winter.

source: CNN

Major airlines have agreed on a standard that will allow travellers to check in using a bar code sent to their mobile phones.

Passengers will register their number when buying a ticket and receive a bar code by text message, the International Air Transport Association, which represents most commercial carriers, said.

Check-in staff will scan the bar code directly from the phones, doing away with the need for a boarding pass.

source: Press Association