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Southwest Airlines Co., Ryanair Holdings Plc and the world’s other low-cost carriers have doubled capacity in the past four years, OAG Worldwide, a travel and transportation data provider, said.Low-cost carriers are offering 46 million seats on more than 323,000 flights this month compared with 22 million seats on 169,000 flights in September 2002, Dunstable, England-based OAG said in an e-mailed statement today.

Budget airlines now account for 17 percent of all seats on sale worldwide. Discounters have been taking market share from network carriers since Southwest cut costs, slashed prices and increased demand in the U.S., and Ryanair adapted the model to the European market.

source: Bloomberg

Two major low-cost airlines, Ryanair and Easy Jet, have received the go-ahead from the Maltese government to operate new routes to the Mediterranean island.

Accepting incentives worth some $3 million a year to operate year-round services, Ryanair will within eight weeks be offering a daily service to Malta from London’s Luton airport and a thrice-weekly flight from Pisa, Italy.

CanJet Airlines, a four-year-old company that has tried to muscle business from Canada’s two big carriers, is grounding its scheduled service, blaming high fuel costs, rising landing fees and stiff competition, it said Tuesday.The move by CanJet, a unit of privately held IMP Group Ltd., leaves a gap in domestic flight services, especially in Atlantic Canada, and represents the latest in a series of failed attempts at establishing major discount carriers.

source: USA today

A symbolic ground-breaking ceremony Tuesday marked the start of work on a huge new airport for the German capital after 14 years of planning, legal wrangling and political disputes.Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit took part in the ceremony at the new site adjacent to the current ex-East German airport at Schoenefeld.

But complaints by budget airlines that the new airport ignores their needs have cast a shadow over the 2-billion-euro (2.5-billion- dollar) project, which is expected to give a boost to the economy and eventually generate around 40,000 jobs.

source: Expatica

Ryanair shrugged off the cancellation of 265 flights last month to post a 23% increase in the number of passengers in August. The low-cost airline carried just over 4 million passengers, up from 3.3 million in the same month last year, as it benefited from new routes and more frequent flights from Dublin, Liverpool, Nottingham and Pisa. Ryanair was one of the hardest-hit airlines when the government imposed emergency security restrictions at airports last month, forcing it to cancel hundreds of flights from its Stansted base.

source: Guardian

GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, Brazil’s low-cost, low-fare airline, yesterday began operating daily flights to the city of Ilhes, in southeast Bahia. The new flights will operate on the Sao Paulo (Guarulhos) – Ilheus – Salvador route.

Located 458 km from Salvador, Ilheus is the most important city in the Costa do Cacau region of Bahia. The city, which is over 470 years old, has been the setting of several novels by the renowned Brazilian author Jorge Amado (1912-2001), for whom Ilheus’ airport is named. Main attractions include the city’s beautiful beaches and Atlantic Forest Reserves. Last year, the number of passengers flying to and from Ilheus was approximately 238,075, a 13.1 percent increase over 2004.

source: PR news wire

A Northwest Airlines flight to London made an emergency landing after smoke was reported in the cabin, and passengers waited aboard for nearly 10 hours before the trip was cancelled.

Flight 44 from Minneapolis landed without incident just before 9:50 pm (0820 hours IST) at Duluth International Airport, as airport fire trucks stood by. Passengers remained aboard until about 7:30 am (0600 hours IST) yesterday.

According to airport officials, no injuries were reported among the 255 passengers and 10 crew members.

source: The Hindu

This weekend, as travelers flock to the skies for their final vacations of the season, the nation’s airlines will cap what’s likely to be the strongest and most-profitable summer travel season since 2001.The summer months saw heavy travel demand, coupled with higher fares and a slowing of competition among the airlines. That pushed the struggling industry to a profitable second quarter and is likely to produce another industry profit in the third quarter, which ends Sept. 30. Although overall passenger traffic was down slightly in June and July compared with last year, airplanes, on average, were flying fuller than ever.

source: kansas.com

Obesity is fast becoming a problem for airlines. A little extra weight means a little extra cost for the airline. The bottom line of many airlines is being hurt by the expanding bottoms of some passengers.

Dr. Andrew Dannenberg, Disease Control and Prevention: “As the average weight of the American public has gone up and airlines are having to fly more weight.”

More weight means higher costs. A survey in 2000 revealed airlines were spending an extra 275 million dollars a year in fuel costs just to carry the extra weight. Doctor Andrew Dannenberg with the Centers for Disease Control says there is no danger to the public, because the FAA has already factored in extra weight.

source: WLNS news

Hurricane John lashed the main city in the southern part of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula with fierce winds and rain early today after sparing the tourist resorts of Los Cabos a direct hit. The storm made landfall as at Category 2 storm about 40 miles northeast of San Jose del Cabo, but slipped to Category 1 status with 85 mph winds this morning.

fuente: CNN