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Air France-KLM filed a complaint to the European Union on Thursday over Austria’s plans to sell its national airline to German carrier Lufthansa, saying the deal depended on unfair state aid.

Air France-KLM said a decision by the Vienna government to cancel a 500 million euros ($659.5 million) loan to Austrian Airlines as part of the sale to Lufthansa had not been on the table when Air France-KLM was itself considering bidding for the airline.

source: Reuters

Thousands of people were forced to wait for hours at the Essex airport as police grappled with protesters who invaded the runway after using bolt cutters to slice through a perimeter fence.

The strike – just after 3am when the airport closed for maintenance – was organised by Plane Stupid to highlight Government’s “‘hypocrisy'” for allowing a new runway at the airport while claiming to be looking for ways to cut CO2 emissions.

The result was 57 arrests, 52 cancelled flights and around 100 more – operated by some 30 airlines – delayed.

source: telegraph.co.uk

Travellers to Greece face further disruptions today as a strike by airport staff forces the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The 24-hour strike is part of a general strike orchestrated by Greece’s largest union, the GSEE, against the government’s economic policies.

The disruption comes as violent protests in Greece entered a fourth day, with 6000 people attending the teenage boy’s funeral whose death sparked the civil unrest.

source: the age

Air Berlin, Europe’s third-biggest low-cost airline, saw third quarter operating earnings increase as cost cuts helped its bottom line and more business travellers appeared to sign up for discount travel.

The three months to September saw an end to several quarters of worsening performance, following the takeover of two smaller rivals – DBA in 2006 and LTU in 2007 – that saw capacity and costs spiral.

A merger with Condor, a charter airline, was called off earlier this year.

The carrier this summer said it would shrink its fleet by 10 per cent to 120 aircraft, as well as reduce European and some long-haul routes. These moves helped boost seat-utilisation rates even as passenger numbers fell.

source: FT.com

The price of air tickets should start coming down soon because of the world financial crisis, experts are predicting, while ruling out a plunge that would endanger the health of airlines.

Cut price airline Ryanair’s boss Michael O’Leary forecast a reduction in an average ticket of between 15 and 20 percent by the end of March, and claims to be attracting passengers from more conventional companies like British Airways.

Most airlines nowadays use the yield management system, whereby prices are adjusted by computer on an almost daily basis in line with demand, starting relatively low then rising if a particular flight fills up, or falling if it does not.

Few airlines have yet adopted an aggressive pricing strategy, as they try to recover from the massive cost of fuel which neared 150 dollars a barrel in mid-July, forcing them to slap surcharges on tickets.

While oil has now fallen to a third of this level, companies have held back from price-cutting at the same rate, while from time to time announcing a reduction in the surcharges since September.

source: AFP

Irish government opposition is weakening to Ryanair’s 750 million euro ($952 million) bid for former state airline Aer Lingus.

The government, which owns more than 25 percent of the loss-making flag carrier, opposed Ryanair’s 2006 bid for Aer Lingus, which was blocked by the European Union on competition grounds.

A spokeswoman for the transport ministry said it would not comment until Ryanair submits its formal bid for Aer Lingus. Europe’s biggest budget airline said on Thursday it would publish the formal bid within the next two weeks.

source: Reuters

The International Air Transport Association said that international air traffic fell in October, the second month in a row, and warned the airline industry is in a dangerous condition.International passenger traffic — measured in revenue passenger kilometers, which factor in how far passengers are flown — fell 1.3% from a year earlier in October, a less-steep decline than the 2.9% drop in September.

source: The Wall Street Journal

British Airways is in merger talks with the Australian airline Qantas in a deal that could create the world’s first global airline.

BA has also been discussing a merger with Iberia, the Spanish national carrier, and hopes to expand its alliance with American Airlines. The combination of the four would create the largest airline in the world which would be capable of carrying 198 million passengers a year – nearly six times BA’s current traffic.

Historically, the aviation industry has been highly fragmented, with each country trying to operate its own flag carrier and guard against competition.

source: Times Online

Lufthansa has launched an Italian subsidiary based in Milan and will begin services to the city four times a day from Heathrow at the end of March.

The German airline’s move comes as Italian carrier Alitalia remains in bankruptcy protection as it undergoes privatisation and a restructuring that will lead to a significant reduction in its network.

Lufthansa Italia will commence operations at Milan Malpensa on February 2 with a fleet of six aircraft. It will fly from Barcelona and Paris Charles de Gaulle to begin, adding services from Brussels, Budapest, Bucharest and Madrid in early March, and from Heathrow and Lisbon at the end of that month.

source: travelweekly.co.uk

The budget airline Ryanair is to make a fresh takeover offer for the Irish flag-carrier Aer Lingus. The all-cash offer would value Aer Lingus at 748m euros ($950m; £619m).

Ryanair’s previous offer for Aer Lingus, which valued it at 1.5bn euros, was blocked by the European Commission on competition grounds.

Other major shareholders include the Irish government and Aer Lingus employees, both of which rejected the takeover offer last time.

source: BBC