news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Ryanair has been voted the world’s least liked airline because of cramped seating, unfriendly staff and delays.

Online travel service TripAdvisor said it polled 4,000 of its users on a range of subjects from airlines and airports, to worries and holiday hotspots.

Ryanair was not the only low-cost carrier singled out for criticism, with Easyjet voted the second worst. British Airways was picked as the best airline.

Ryanair countered that it consistently topped customer-service indicators.

source: BBC News

Aer Lingus has warned staff that it will make job cuts as the airline attempts to fight off a hostile takeover bid from rival Ryanair.

Dermot Mannion, chief executive of the Dublin-based company, told employee representatives yesterday that cost-cutting plans will have to be stepped up after Ryanair pledged to slash Aer Lingus’s cost base in the event of a takeover.

source: Guardian Unlimited

US Airways Group Inc., formed last year from the merger of US Airways and American West Airlines, on Thursday posted a net loss for the third quarter after fuel hedging and merger-related costs.

The airline said the loss amounted to $78 million, or 88 cents per share, compared with a loss of $99 million, or $5.74 per share, for American West a year earlier. For accounting purposes, America West was treated as the acquiring company.

source: Reuters

In Marseille the first airport for the low-cost flights will open. It will be independent and will be built near the “Marseilles Provence”‘s airport. About 3,5 million passengers might pass every day. Ryanair wants to the new airport became its only hub in France, like base to launch its challenge to Air France-KLM, which has already provided to have recourse and threatens legal acts against the Irish airline with the accusation of social dumping.

source: AvioNews

Oasis Airlines, which promotes itself as the world’s first long-haul budget airline, is making its inaugural cut-price flight from Hong Kong today.

One of Oasis’ two leased Boeing 747 jumbos was due to be airborne at 1:00 pm with a full complement of more than 300 passengers bound for London’s Gatwick Airport.

source: lse.co.uk

Dusseldorf International`s winter schedule begins with 68 airlines heading to 165 destinations all over the world. Among the destinations are interesting vacation spots like Samana in the Dominican Republic or Aswan in Egypt. More  connecting flights, including some to Southampton or Leipzig-Halle, and more frequent flights, for example at Lufthansa, make the largest airport in Nordrhein-Westfalen even more attractive for business travelers. The winter flight schedule begins next Sunday, October 29, and continues until March 24, 2007.

source: TravelDailyNews.com

Low cost airline Wizz Air has launched flights to Eastern Europe from the North East.

The flights to Warsaw, capital of Poland, from Durham Tees Valley will start from 28 July 2007 and will operate three times a week.

John Stephenson, Chief Commercial Officer of Wizz Air said: “We are very pleased to start flying from Durham Tees Valley. The airport is ideally placed to serve a large population area including Newcastle and provides excellent connectivity to the neighbouring cities.”

source: n-e-life

The load factor improved by 2.8 points compared to 2005, reaching 83.3%, a record level for this month. Traffic -measured in RPK (revenue passenger kilometre)- grew by 5.7%, while capacity -measured in  ASK (available seat kilometre)- increased by 2.1%. The traffic growth in international flights (+8.9%), accompanied by a mix improvement; the load factor improved in all sectors. The average stage length increased by 5.9% due to the growing weight of long haul traffic.

source: Travel Daily News

Ryanair passengers bound for a number of Spanish destinations will be limited to travelling with hand luggage only today.

Strike action by baggage handlers across Spain, the second strike in as many weeks, means the carrier will not accept checked baggage on today’s flights to and from four Spanish airports: Seville, Girona, Granada and Jerez.

source: Times

Air China is due to start a flight between Beijing and Sao Paulo with a stop off in Madrid, Spain, as of December 10, according to a local press report.

According to the Beijing Youth Daily, this would be the first time a Chinese company had a route from China to Latin America and will also be the first time Air China flies to Brazil.

source: MacauHub