news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

The first of a series of regular passenger flight to Antarctica took place on Friday, establishing the first regular service between Australia and the white continent.

A blue ice runway was built at a cost of $41 million, although there is no indication of how long it will last or how it was decided this would be cost effective. The wire service says this feat of engineering will bring scientists and other Australian Antarctic Division staff – but not tourists – to Antarctica on a weekly basis in the warmer months between October and March.

source: Nature

EasyJet will this week launch a credit card with loyalty perks just in time for the post-Christmas rush to book holidays.

The card, which charges interest at 16.9% on purchases – just above the average rate of about 15% – offers one free easyJet flight worth up to £40 including taxes if at least £250 is spent on the card in the first three months.

Also in the first three months it will offer 10% back on easyJet flights and purchases such as hotels and car hire made when booking the flight.

source: This is Money

Virgin Atlantic said Monday it would fly one of its Boeing 747 planes on biofuel during a demonstration flight from London to Amsterdam next month.

Virgin Atlantic Chairman Richard Branson said the test flight, which he called the first of its kind, would yield crucial information on how to reduce aviation’s carbon footprint.

Branson launched an alternative fuels division at Virgin in 2006, pledging the profits from his airline and trains for 10 years.

source: Business Week

Passengers who book between noon GMT today and noon on January 16th will be able to fly to Reykjavik for ₤52 from London, DKK 533 from Copenhagen and €71 from Berlin.

The offer gives travellers a unique opportunity to experience Iceland in mid-winter. Iceland is becoming an increasingly popular winter destination, thanks to the abundance of snow, clean air, winter landscapes, frozen waterfalls and awe-inspiring Northern Lights.

source: icenews.is

Flybe has signed a franchise agreement with Scottish regional airline Loganair that will see it introducing its low cost flights to the Highlands and Islands.

Loganair now operates as a franchise of British Airways, but will fly in Flybe colours from 26 October this year. The Scottish airline currently carries around 500,000 passengers a year and operates on 26 routes from 16 airports in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Dublin, Derry and the Isle of Man. Routes include Glasgow airport to Shetland, Orkney, Stornoway, Derry and Dublin, and Edinburgh airport to Shetland, Orkney, Wick, Inverness, Stornoway, and the Isle of Man.

source: holidayextras.com

Irish airline Aer Arann is to start flights from Galway and Waterford to Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Malaga, and Faro from May this year.

In a statement today the airline said it the four new destinations were being provided on the back of a franchise deal between Aer Arann and Nex Aviation.

Aer Arann said the route to Amsterdam Schiphol would give passengers to one of the best connected international airports.

source: ireland.com

American Airlines has been named Best International Airline for 2007 by readers of Travel Weekly in its annual Readers Choice Awards competition.

Travel Weekly announced the award at a recent ceremony and will publish the results in its Jan. 21 issue. American was chosen from a list of five finalists that also included British Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. About 5,000 Travel Weekly readers, which include travel agents and marketing executives, voted to select the finalists in this year’s polling and those readers were then asked to vote for the nominees in 51 categories.

source: CNN.com

Monarch, the low-cost airline, is repositioning as the “‘low fare airline that cares'” in a bid to distance itself from rivals easyJet and Ryanair.

The changes follow the interim appointment of Milton Bayer to the airline’s £5m advertising business.

Milton Bayer has developed a press and outdoor campaign, with the strapline “‘The low fare airline that cares'”. It will run in key areas near Birmingham, Gatwick, Luton and Manchester airports.

source: Marketingweek

Clickair carried 4.5 million passengers in 2007, in line with its business plan, but full-year revenue came in lower than forecast, CEO Alex Cruz told ‘ATWOnline’ while also confirming the LCC will scale down its planned fleet expansion this year.

Two new A320s are scheduled to be delivered in February and March, but deliveries beyond that are being put on hold. Clickair ended 2007 with 23 aircraft and had planned to grow to 30 by the end of this year. “‘We will not execute this fully this year,” Cruz said, citing a price war in Spain and high oil prices. “We favor a cautious approach in this difficult environment. Our contracts allow us flexibility, which also means we can add more capacity later in the year if the market conditions improve.'”

source: ATW

British Airways, in a move that could heat up competition for transatlantic passengers, said Wednesday it would launch a new airline in June that would offer nonstop flights between New York and cities in the European mainland.

The London-based carrier said the new airline, which would cater to business and affluent leisure travelers, would be named OpenSkies and begin with service to either Brussels or Paris.

If British Air picks Paris, the route would come on the heels of a new nonstop service that its European archrival, Air France, is to begin in March between Los Angeles International Airport and London’s Heathrow Airport, British Airways’ main hub.

source: LA Times