news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) said on Tuesday it plans to cut its capacity growth in 2008 on concerns that a weakening U.S. economy will stifle travel demand.

The largest U.S. low-cost carrier said in a statement that it plans to increase its fleet by five to 10 aircraft in 2008. The capacity growth will amount to 4 percent to 5 percent year over year, the airline said.

Southwest said it is concerned about the surge in energy prices.

“‘We are concerned about growing evidence of slowing economic growth that would inevitably affect passenger demand, coupled with a surge in energy prices,'” Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly said.

source: Washington Post

The airport Rostock-Laage has been successful in winning a new airline partner for the summer timetable. From 1st May 2008 the low cost carrier Germanwings will operate the route Rostock-Laage – Cologne-Bonn three times weekly (Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays).

source: Boarding.co

More than 3,000 cabin crew working for Virgin Atlantic have started balloting on industrial action in a wages dispute.

The result of the ballot, being conducted by Unite – the union formed following the merger of the TGWU and Amicus – will be announced on Dec 20.

If the Virgin crew vote for industrial action, a stoppage would be most likely to take place in January and could coincide with another proposed walkout by the 5,000 Unite members working for airport operators BAA.

They have threatened industrial action in protest at plans to axe the company’s final salary pension scheme for new staff.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

Delays in the nation’s aviation system intensified in October, causing the airline industry’s on-time arrival record to fall from September’s level, while still remaining ahead of last year.

Figures Monday from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics show 78.2 percent of domestic flights operated by the nation’s biggest carriers arrived on time, down from 81.7 percent in September but stronger than October 2006, when 72.9 percent of flights landed on schedule.

source: Salt Lake Tribune

A new low-cost airline was launched in the Arab world, Bahrain Air. The first private carrier of the small kingdom of Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf, accepts reservations as of December 16. The first flight is scheduled for January 17 next year. For the moment the destinations are four, Dubai, Mashad, Beirut and Alexandria, but the company aims at expanding to 25 by 2010.

source: Avionews

The low-cost carrier has added seven more flights per week from Logan International Airport to the Caribbean through April 30, bringing the weekly total up to 24 from last winter.

JetBlue has introduced three weekly winter flights to Aruba, a route it didn’t offer a year ago. And it has six weekly flights to Cancun, Mexico, up from three last winter, and eight weekly flights to Nassau in the Bahamas, up from seven.

Additionally, the airline is temporarily offering flights for the holidays, from Dec. 12 to Jan. 15, between Boston and Santiago, Dominican Republic.

And it plans to add “‘a handful of extra flights on those ‘super-peak’ February and April vacation weekends'” so travelers headed for Cancun or Nassau can choose between two flights a day, said spokesman Sebastian White.

source: boston.com

Let’s face it. As an industry, airlines have never made money since the Wright Brothers.

Because of this mismanagement, they’ve decided to try lining their coffers by coming up with a slew of obnoxious extra charges.

Whatever additional costs these services could possibly impose on the airlines are clearly lower than what passengers pay. Read on for the most egregious examples.

1. Making a reservation on the phone or in person – Fee: $5-$20. US Airways is among the greediest on this count: $10 to book over the phone, or $20 to book at the airport or at a city ticket office (if you can find one).
2. Re-banking frequent flyer miles – Fee: $50-100. If you cash in your miles and decide not to use your ticket, you’ll be hit with a fee to place the miles back into your account.
3. Cashing in frequent flyer miles without sufficient advance notice
4. Bringing a pet onboard in the cabin – Fee: $50-85 (each way). These fees have skyrocketed lately.
5. Checking luggage – Fee: $3-10 (each way). Spirit Airlines charges $5 for each of the first two bags if paid for online, $10 each otherwise.
6. Getting a refund when a fare goes down – Fee: $25 to $200 or more. If you bought a TV from Costco or BestBuy and they lowered the price the following week, chances are you could get a refund, no questions asked. Even Apple gave credits when it dropped the price of its iPhone soon after launching it.
7. Flying standby on the same day of travel – Fee: $0-50. Time was, if there were empty seats on a later or earlier flight on the same day as your original, the airline would confirm you for free.
8. Paying for lap children – Fee: $10 to 10 percent of the adult fare (international flights).
9. Getting a seat assignment – Fee: $5-$11 each way. Air Canada, AirTran and Allegiant are some of the carriers that now charge for this “perk.”
10. Using the lavatory – Fee: OK, airlines are not installing pay toilets. Yet. But the way things are going …

source: MSNBC