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Air France-KLM Group, the world’s largest airline by sales, agreed to buy Alitalia SpA in a bid valued at 747 million euros ($1.2 billion) as part of the Italian government’s plan to save the unprofitable carrier from bankruptcy.

Air France-KLM will swap one of its shares for every 160 of Alitalia’s, valuing the Italian airline at 139 million euros, or 10 cents a share, Air France said. That’s 81 percent less than the closing price March 14. Air France offered 608 million euros for the carrier’s convertible bonds. Alitalia’s board accepted the bid after a 12-hour meeting yesterday in Rome.

source: Bloomberg

British Airways is looking to use European competition law and a threat to seek “‘unlimited damages’” against the UK pilots’ union in order to stop them going on strike.

An overwhelming majority of BA’s 3,200 pilots voted last month in favour of taking strike action over BA’s plans to set up OpenSkies, a new airline subsidiary, with a pilot workforce separate to its mainline operations, which fly to and from Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

Conciliation talks aimed at resolving the bitter dispute over future pilot staffing at BA subsidiary airlines in Europe collapsed on Friday.

Balpa, the pilots’ union, had planned to issue dates for its first strikes, which would ground the airline, but was forced to postpone the move when BA warned the union it had “‘a valid legal claim’” against it, if it “‘took the disproportionate step of calling a strike’”.

source: FT.com

European Union competition regulators yesterday began a fresh probe into suspected antitrust abuses in the airline sector, raiding offices of several carriers providing flights to Japan.

The Commission said there was reason to believe that airlines might have violated EU rules on restrictive business practices.

Germany’s Lufthansa quickly confirmed that it was among the companies visited, and said the Commission appeared to be looking into possible price-fixing and collusive behaviour over flights between the EU and Japan, and involving aviation companies in Europe and in Japan.

source: FT.com

Norwegian, a low-cost airline operating out of Scandinavia, will soon begin operating direct flights to Dubai. The airline announced the new route at the end of February, saying it would be the first budget airline to fly from Europe to Dubai, reports Gulf News.

Flights from Oslo and Stockholm to Dubai will take off for the first time on October 26th 2008. The new service will contribute to a growing number of links between Scandinavia and the Middle East.

source: IceNews

The biggest danger facing the airline industry is the global oil price, easyJet warned today, after it released strong passenger numbers.

The no-frills carrier said the passenger load factor, or proportion of seats sold per flight, was 84.6% in February compared with 82.8% for the same month last year. Passenger numbers, driven by the airline’s acquisition of more jets, rose by nearly a quarter to 3.2 million.

source: Guardian.co.uk

Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe’s second-biggest airline, will expand seating capacity 7.4 percent this summer as it adds destinations in Europe, Asia and the U.S.

Lufthansa will offer 5.8 percent more seating on European routes and 8.2 percent more on intercontinental flights, Thierry Antinori, the airline’s sales chief, said at a Berlin press conference today. The move takes effect with the summer schedule, which runs from March 30 to Oct. 25.

source: Bloomberg.com

Five people got the lavish ride of a lifetime as the only passengers on a transatlantic flight, causing environmental groups to criticize the major carrier for leaving a wasteful carbon footprint.

Using about 68,000 liters (15,000 imperial gallons) — or 13,000 liters per passenger — of jet fuel for the nine-hour trip from Chicago to London, American Airlines is being accused of unnecessary waste.

Each passenger left a footprint of 35.77 tons of carbon dioxide, enough to drive an average car 160,000 kilometers (100,000 miles).

American Airlines said it chose to continue with the flight because of the full load of passengers waiting at London’s Heathrow airport to return to the United States.

source: CNN

Centralwings, the low-cost airline owned by LOT flag carrier had PLN 73m of EBIT loss in 2007, up from PLN 65m a year earlier.

“‘This was supposed to be our last year in the red. We estimated that the losses would amount to PLN 35m. Unfortunately, market conditions deteriorated substantially and our costs grew by 13.4 percent’”, Waldemar Krolikowski, Centralwings CEO explained.

He pointed out that the market is consolidating. Irish Ryanair has acquired AirLingus. In Germany, the consolidation of Eurowings, Germanwings and TUI has already started. The CEO believes that Centralwings won’t be able to operate alone.

source: pb.pl

Germany’s leisure airline sector could be set for a major consolidation with Germanwings, Eurowings and TUIfly discussing a merger. If completed, the deal would create a group with a combined fleet of more than 100 aircraft and a network of about 185 destinations.

TUI Travel confirms it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Lufthansa and Eurowings majority shareholder Albrecht Knauf concerning the merger, but little else has been revealed.

The airlines will be brought together under a joint independent holding company in the proposed deal, but the companies stress that the process is at an “‘early stage'” and there is “‘no guarantee'” it will lead to an integrated airline group.

fuente: flightglobal.com

Vueling, the new-generation airline, culminates its most ambitious Ibiza programme ever, by linking theisland with eight destinations in Spain, France, and Italy. Overall, Vueling puts on sale more that 430,000 seats in order to fly between March and October.From May 30th to September 21st, the company will base one Airbus A-320 at Ibiza airport. This will reinforce the Barcelona and Valencia routes and will allow three new destinations: Seville, Bilbao, and Alicante.

source: traveldailynews.com