news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Rental cars in the UK are safer and used more efficiently than some other types of vehicle, new research has revealed.

Conducted by TRL on behalf of the ‘British Vehicle Rental’ and Leasing Association (BVRLA), a study found rented motors emit 12 per cent fewer emissions than their privately-owned counterparts.

Because they are used more frequently they are cost efficient, while they are often newer and better maintained.

source: trl.co.uk

British Airways has launched a new digital magazine for members of its ‘Executive Club’ to celebrate the services relaunch.

Sporting a clean design and simple navigation ‘’The Club” is designed to be easily accessible to millions of Club members.

The Club is published by Cedar Communications, who already oversee BA’s inflight magazines ‘High Life’, ‘Business life’ and ‘First Life.’

source: thedrum.co.uk

Students at the ‘Miami School of Advertising’ have developed a concept for airline Virgin Atlantic that allows people to book holidays according to their weather preferences, rather than by country or city.

The Virgin “‘Book By Weather'” application would allow users to select a holiday destination based on the preferred temperature, cloud cover, average rainfall, wind speed, humidity and UV strength. The students — Otilia Dobrea and Glen Hansen — propose that this could take the form of a dashboard with a sliding scale for each of the weather conditions which customers could use as an alternative to the traditional search functionality.

source: wired.co.uk

Paris is launching an electric car sharing program to cut air and noise pollution on the city’s medieval cobblestone streets and beyond.

‘Autolib’, a project built on the success of the city’s bike rental scheme, makes its debut today and officials want the self-service ‘e-cars’ to be as much a part of Paris life as the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame Cathedral.

While many world cities have been developing greener alternatives to carbon-emitting vehicles, Paris says its program is the biggest of its kind: 250 vehicles hit the road on Monday, 2000 are expected by next summer and 3000 are planned within the next two years.

source: news.smh.com.au

Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines (SIA) have received final approval for their proposed alliance. The two airlines got the go ahead from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) last week, having already received approval from  Singapore’s aviation authorities.

The move means that the two airlines will now be able to coordinate their flight schedules on a range of international and domestic Australian routes. This is likely to give travellers from the UK better connections for flights to Australia, via Singapore.

source: traveldaily.co.uk

For US Airways, the merger-hungry fifth-largest U.S. airline, a bankrupt American Airlines may present an irresistible takeover target, but many in the aviation world think the headaches and hassles of consolidation are not worth the payoff of such a tie-up.

American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday in a bid to shed some of its uncompetitive costs and restructure its debt.

Bankruptcy leaves the company vulnerable to potential takeover attempts from would-be suitors like US Airways, whose chief executive Doug Parker has long promoted consolidation as a means to slim down an industry plagued by overcapacity. US Airways once tried and failed to buy Delta Air Lines as it restructured in bankruptcy.

source: Reuters

British Airways and Iberia parent IAG  said its transatlantic joint venture with American Airlines would continue to operate as normal after AMR Corp, the carrier’s parent company, filed for bankruptcy protection.

“We have every confidence in the future of American Airlines. We are pleased they are taking this step which shows commitment and determination,” IAG, which has a joint venture with American Airlines on transatlantic routes, said in a statement on Tuesday.

source: Reuters.com

Ryanair has pledged not to ‘’hike-up” fares after Friday’s European Championship draw, but warned that its lowest fares will sell out fast.

Ryanair advised fans who are planning a trip to Poland to book early to avoid the disappointment of the lowest fares being snapped up already.

A Chinese airline has promised to brush up on the language skills of its employees after a flight took off from a Japanese airport without clearance, apparently because the pilot could not speak enough English to understand the instructions that he was given by air traffic control.

The incident is the latest in a string of mishaps that have raised serious questions over pilot training in the booming Asian aviation market.

According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, Asia will be short of about 9,000 pilots per year in the next decade. There is enough capacity to train 5,000 pilots but 14,000 will be needed every year. In total, the ICAO predicts that Asia will need 229,676 pilots over the next 20 years – a significant increase from the total of 50,344 in 2010.

source: theaustralian.com.au

Ryanair and easyJet are going head-to-head on the new battleground of paid-for allocated seating, as they seek to ramp up passenger numbers.

Ryanair is to extend its allocated seating service across all of its routes from January 2012.

EasyJet said that its prices for allocated seating would “‘stay true to easyJet’s commitments to low fares'”.

Both airlines operate a priority boarding service, which means for an extra charge, passengers can get first choice on seats.

source: marketingmagazine.co.uk