A strong performance from its UK and Nordic arm, a bigger range of exclusive holidays and a broader customer base have all helped Tui Travel widen the gap with its troubled rival Thomas Cook.
Tui Travel highlighted “‘a number of headwinds'” ahead, however, including high fuel costs, weak sterling and “‘slower than anticipated recovery in the important North African destinations'”.
source: Telegraph.co.uk
A pilot and a flight stewardess were fired from Cathay Pacific after photos of them having oral sex in a cockpit were published online and in print.
The Hong Kong airline’s CEO John Slosar revealed that the couple, who have not been identified, “‘are no longer employees of the company'”.
source: newstrackindia.com
easyJet launches its UK spring schedule this week with around 300 low fare destinations.
More than 60,000 spring flights are now on sale, enabling passengers to secure the best fares early with 10 million seats available for travel from 25th March through to 24th June 2012.
Additional flights have been added to popular destinations including Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante and Rome, making Europe more accessible than ever before for passengers travelling from easyJet’s 10 UK bases.
source: 4-traders.com
American Airlines passengers can watch streaming movies over in-flight wifi, in a world first.
American is launching the system — which is basically a movie server sitting on board the plane — on its Boeing 767-200 fleet, the mainstay of its Flagship Service from New York to LA and San Francisco, plus LA to Miami.
source: ausbt.com.au
British Airways is poised to launch its biggest recruitment drive in a decade. The airline is expanding pilot numbers by 800 and it’s using YouTube to entice pilots willing to meet the £100,000 training cost.
The airline, which currently has 3,200 pilots, says it’s increasing pilot numbers by 25% because the airline is expanding its fleet. This means current pilots will be reshuffled to fly the new aircrafts, which includes the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A380, creating space for new pilots.
BA’s recruitment drive comes on the tail of Virgin Atlantic‘s announcement that it’s undertaking a major recruitment take-off of its own. More than 1,000 new jobs will be created for cabin crew and pilots as the airline also expands its aircraft carriers.
source: managementtoday.co.uk
Ryanair announced that traffic to Spain grew by 800,000 in July, which is up 25 per cent on last month. This means Ryanair alone delivered over half of the extra 1.4 million passengers who flew through Spanish airports.
Ryanair saw growth in traffic in all of its major Spanish airports including Barcelona El Prat (+100 per cent), Palma (+45 pc), Alicante (+14 pc), Gran Canaria +74 pc, Ibiza (+63 pc), Tenerife (+92 pc) and Lanzarote (+89 pc). This meant that Ryanair delivered more traffic growth at Spanish airports than all the other airlines combined.
source: joe.ie
Swiss and Lufthansa – are to start charging customers for using debit and credit cards, just weeks after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) backed the consumer rights group Which? in calling for an end to the fees.
From 2 November, Lufthansa and Swiss will charge a £4.50 fee on all payment card bookings, a little over a month after the OFT responded to a complaint from Which?, stating that surcharges were misleading and detrimental to consumers.
Which? claimed that the actual cost to the retailer for processing card transactions was no more than 20p for debit cards and no more than 2% on credit cards. The OFT has recommended that the government ban retailers from imposing surcharges for payments made by debit card or at least limit their use.
source: Guardian.co.uk
Air France ruled that only male cabin crew were allowed to serve Dominique Strauss-Kahn, currently fighting accusations he attempted to rape a New York hotel maid.
The claim was reported Thursday by Le Parisien newspaper, which also says lawyers for the former IMF chief’s alleged victim, Nafissatou Diallo, are soliciting testimony from female flight attendants at the national carrier, who may have been subjected to inappropriate behavior by the Frenchman.
source: Fox News
British Airways is giving its customers the chance to win tickets to the London 2012 Olympic Games at ba.com.
The official airline partner is giving away 24 tickets every 24 hours, every day between 17- 24 August, to attend the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Customers buying a flight on ba.com during that period will be given a password allowing them to enter the prize draw. Names will be selected at random and the lucky winners will win a pair of tickets, with their names listed on ba.com.
source: finchannel.com
Ryanair is disputing claims that its crewmembers recently tried to help a passenger suffering a heart attack by feeding him a sandwich and a soda. The man’s horrified family has also alleged that the airline then charged him for the food.
Per-Erik Jonsson was flying from England to Sweden when he felt ill, then fell into cardiac arrest and began to lose consciousness.
Although EU regulations require that all cabin crew be trained in basic first aid, a Jonsson’s family member told that the crew were slightly dismissive of the situation.
Jonsson family has expressed their desire to see Ryanair apologize, and say they are considering legal action.
source: irishemigrant.com
