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Southwest Airlines is adding new nonstop flights in a number of the carrier’s key markets, including San Antonio.

In May, Dallas-based Southwest is adding a San Antonio to Denver flight on May 10, its first nonstop flight from San Antonio International Airport to the Mile High City.

Southwest is conducting a “‘refining'” of its current flight schedule. It is eliminating 57 of its existing roundtrip flights from its May flight schedule and will add 40 roundtrip flights to key growth markets.

fuente: Business Journal

The new-generation airline, carried a total of 6,219,605 passengers during 2007, an increase of 77.20% in relation to 2006. Annual average load factor was 73%, 3.61 points above last year’s.

Vueling carried a total of 1,603,265 passengers during Q4 2007 (from October to December) and 534,808 passengers during last December, which translates into increases of 67.23% for the former, and 45.23% for the latter.

source: Boarding.no

Skybus Airlines will add even more flights to its new hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport and now plans flights to airports near Philadelphia and Chicago.

Beginning today, Skybus will sell tickets to the Philadelphia area via Wilmington, Del., and to Chicago via Gary, Ind., beginning March 13.

The airline will continue its policy of issuing 10 seats for $10 on every flight as long as they last.

source: news-record.com

Passengers flying from UK airports face chaos and confusion at check-in desks with the introduction of complex new rules on hand-baggage allowance.

The Department of Transport is allowing two items of hand luggage to be carried through 22 UK airports, including Glasgow, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Heathrow, London City, Manchester, Newcastle, Plymouth, Southampton, Southend and Stansted.

But other airports have not yet been given permission to accept more than one bag, including Gatwick, Luton, Leeds Bradford and Liverpool.

Some airlines will continue to restrict passengers to one item of hand luggage, even at airports which have permission to carry more.

source: Times On Line

Low-budget airline Jazeera Airlines said yesterday it would debut on the Kuwaiti stock market on January 14, more than six months later than initially planned.

The company won Kuwaiti approval for the listing, Jazeera said. It had initially planned to list its shares in the second quarter, but had to wait for final approval.

Jazeera shareholders approved in September 2006 a plan to double the airline’s capital to 20 million dinars ($73.23m) by selling stock to existing shareholders.

source:  Gulf Daily News

A strike by Virgin Atlantic cabin crew, which would have seen 48-hour walkouts this week and next, has been called off.

The deal between the airline and the trade union, Amicus, will see the crew get a 4.8 per cent pay increase this year and a guarantee of a rise in line with inflation next year.

But the agreement came too late for the airline to reinstate the flights it had cancelled – with Virgin having already made alternative arrangements for those passengers affected.

source: telegraph.co.uk

Europe’s environment chiefs have, as predicted, delivered a politically charged salvo to the world’s airlines over plans to wrap international flights into the European Union emissions trading scheme (EU ETS).

The compromise deal hammered out between the EU’s 27 member states on 20 December at the Council of Ministers represents the collective state-level response to the European Commission’s original proposal to impose a cap on aviation’s CO2 emissions in the same way other energy-intensive industries are already treated.

source: flightglobal.com

British Airways passengers are likely to see fuel surcharges on longhaul flights top £100 for the first time as the airline grapples with soaring oil costs.

A rise this month will come on top of November’s increase, which saw the fuel surcharge on a return longhaul ticket rise from £76 to £96.

source: thisismoney.co.uk

A total of 22 airports across the UK, including Heathrow, Glasgow and Manchester, will lift hand baggage restrictions on Monday.

However, a ban on the carrying of any liquids, creams or gels of more than 100g in hand or cabin baggage remains in place.

Passengers were told that they could only take one item of luggage with them on flights after increased security measures were introduced over a plot to bomb planes in the summer of 2006.

The Department for Transport (DFT) has said it believes that 22 airports were able to meet new increased security guidelines and are permitted to lift the restrictions. But the rule will still be in force at the north terminal at Gatwick airport as engineering works have resulted in delays in the introduction of new measures.

source: inthenews.co.uk

Three new low-cost airlines will be operating to Malta from March, amid ambitious targets of a four to five per cent increase in arrivals over a record 2007.

The news comes days after British Airways and Easyjet announced they will be operating between Malta and London from March, signalling a ten per cent increase in seat capacity on the all-important UK route.

“‘It’s not too soon to say we’re going to try and make 2008 an even better year,”‘ Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech told The Sunday Times.

Spanish budget airline Vueling will be servicing the Madrid to Malta route three times a week; Italian airline Volare four times weekly; and airline Norwegian.no will be flying from Malta to Oslo three times a week.

British Airways will operate a daily service to London Gatwick from March 30. GB Airways, which operated British Airways flights to Malta, has been sold to giant low-cost carrier Easyjet, which is also starting a 10-flights-a-week service to Malta from its base in Gatwick.

Though it is a budget airline, the minister confirmed that no subsidies will be provided to Easyjet since it has assumed the slots previously operated by GB Airways.

source: TimesOfMalta.com