news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Ryanair and easyJet are threatening to withhold payments to BAA in a row over landing fees at Gatwick and Stansted.

Ryanair said yesterday that it will refuse to pay the latest price increases if BAA “‘continues to abuse its monopoly'”. EasyJet asked BAA chief executive Colin Matthews to accept a deferral of payments pending a judicial review of the increase in take-off and landing fees at Gatwick to £6.97 a passenger, with annual increases capped at 2% above inflation.

source: Guardian.co.uk

Even as rising fuel costs are grounding weaker airlines — including three this month — airline competition is heating up for travelers flying the Pacific coast.

On the runway is JetBlue Airways Corp. with new 100-seat jets that will begin flying next month from Long Beach up and down the coast in a move that financial analysts say may be bold but risky

Next month, the low-cost carrier, popular with Southern California leisure travelers, is adding six flights from Long Beach to San Jose, Seattle and Austin, connecting some of the nation’s top tech-heavy cities.

source: LA Times

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh admitted today that moving the airline’s long-haul flights to Heathrow’s Terminal 5 on April 30 would be an “‘unnecessary risk'”, as BA drew fierce criticism from airlines by postponing the transfer until June.

Walsh, who has rejected calls to resign over the T5 fiasco, said the carrier and Heathrow owner BAA had made a “‘pragmatic'” decision in waiting until problems with the building and baggage handling operations are solved. Other airlines are expected to seek compensation over the delay with BMI, Heathrow’s second largest carrier, slamming the decision as “‘outrageous'” and claiming it had been taken without consulting other airlines.

source: guardian.co.uk

The Moroccan low-cost airline Atlas-blue launches carbon offset contribution dynamically calculated for every itinerary.

The Moroccan Low-Cost airline Atlas-blue subsidiary of Royal Air Maroc became the very first carrier in Africa and only the second serving the European continent, to offer carbon offsets as an integrated part of its booking platform.

source: 4hoteliers.com

Delta Air Lines Inc will buy Northwest Airlines Corp for more than $3 billion under a proposal unveiled Monday to create the world’s biggest airline, as carriers seek to counter skyrocketing fuel prices and a weak economy.

After racking up $35 billion in losses and finally emerging from a five-year slump in 2006, U.S. airlines are hoping mergers could lead to higher fares as combined carriers reduce flights and use their increased market power to raise prices.

source: guardian.co.uk

An investigation was under way last night after a Scottish aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing when a man brandished a knife on board.

Reports suggested the man threatened to harm other passengers on the plane, which was leased to a Bangladeshi airline but crewed mainly by staff from the Edinburgh-based low-cost company Flyglobespan.

A spokesman for the airline which also operates from Glasgow and Aberdeen raised concerns over airport security after the man was seen with what police described as a four inch knife during the flight.

source: The Herald

The largest US carrier American Airlines scrapped around 570 flights Friday to inspect wiring on its fleet of MD-80 aircraft. The cancellations represented around a quarter of the airline’s flights.

Another 900 flights were cancelled on Thursday and more than 1,500 over the previous two days, affecting over 250,000 passengers. The airline grounded the same planes just last month, cancelling 200 flights in connection with an industrywide probe by government aviation authorities to ensure compliance with safety inspections.

source: earthtimes.org

Andy Harrison, easyJet’s Chief Executive, officially opened the airline’s 20th base at Lyon Saint-Exupéry airport this month (April 4), with an inauguration ceremony held at the airport in the presence of Mr Gérard Collomb, Mayor of Lyon.

The new base in France’s second largest city is part of a €600m investment over a four-year-period that will strengthen easyJet’s position as the largest low-fares airline in France. The investment will enable easyJet to increase its fleet in France from 6 based aircraft to 20 and to double the number of passengers from 6 million in 2007 to 12 million in 2011.

source: Easier

Ryanair has extracted savings of more than €50m by renegotiating airport contracts in recent weeks and has also quietly extended its management pay freeze to “‘more than half'” the airline’s staff.

However chief executive Michael O’Leary said the airline had failed to secure any cost savings at Dublin airport and is now planning to scale back its Dublin presence next winter.

The savings drive comes as the airline continues its war against rising fuel prices.

source: independent.ie 

Heathrow’s beleaguered Terminal 5 was thrown into chaos again yesterday as snowfalls led to 144 flights being cancelled.

Thousands of passengers were stranded or forced to find alternative flights due to the weather and continuing problems with the airport operator BAA’s automated baggage system.

British Airways said more than 60 of its flights to the terminal and a similar number from it were grounded after air traffic controllers reduced the number of aircraft allowed take off and land per hour because of snow.

Another 55 flights were cancelled at Gatwick, most of them BA and easyJet domestic and short haul flights. A further 12 were scrapped at Heathrow Terminal 5 because of baggage handling problems.

source: telegraph.co.uk