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Struggling Slovak low-cost airline SkyEurope said Wednesday its fleet had shrunk to five planes over the past few months from an original fifteen Boeing 737s it had last autumn.

SkyEurope with bases in Prague, Bratislava, Kosice and Vienna has never posted a profit in the six years of its existence.

The company listed in Vienna posted a loss of 59.4 million euros in the last financial year ending September 30, compared to 24.07 million last year, while its revenue grew 10.5 percent to 260.9 million euros from 236.2 million euros last year.

source: AFP

In one of the southern England’s greatest modern property rushes, more than 5,000 people signed up today to become joint owners of an acre of farmland on the line of the proposed third runway at Heathrow airport. They join Oscar winner Emma Thompson, comedian Alistair McGowan and Conservative party green adviser Zac Goldsmith who bought the land from under the nose of Heathrow airport owners BAA last week to try to slow airport expansion plans.

source: guardian.co.uk 

A new system for entry into the US comes into force next Monday, which will require travellers to submit electronically before their travel the information usually collected on green entry forms.

The Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) becomes mandatory next Monday (12 January) for travellers from countries which participate in the Visa Waiver Program, which includes the UK.

Once an application is accepted, the authorisation is valid for multiple visits during a period of two years or until the approval is revoked or your passport expires.

source: Business Travel World

The takeover of much of the European airline industry by the continent’s biggest carrier seemed to move ahead today as separate reports linked German giant Lufthansa with bids for SAS of Scandinavia and Italy’s Alitalia.

Lufthansa recently took control of Britain’s bmi  –  Heathrow’s second biggest carrier  –  and has already taken over Swiss and Brussels Airlines and is in negotiations with Austrian Airlines.

Now executives at the German carrier have fuelled the belief they are stalking SAS.

source: Daily Mail

Southwest Airlines has put a Chicago-based pilot on paid leave and is investigating an incident Tuesday in which the pilot allegedly prepared to operate a flight from Columbus, Ohio, with alcohol on his breath.

Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins said Friday that the carrier “‘immediately replaced the captain’,” and the flight to Orlando, Fla., operated on time.

The airport police officer who investigated said in his report that the pilot never appeared under the influence of alcohol or drugs and didn’t stagger or fall.

source: Dallas News

Spanish budget airline, Vueling, have added four more destinations to their growing network. Bases on operating services to popular Mediterranean destinations Vueling has added Barcelona to Ibiza and Minorca, Madrid to Ibiza and Malta and Malaga to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Flights commence late in March 2009.

source: alternativeairlines.com

The Spanish no-frills airline Clickair has become the first European carrier to allow pets in the cabin on domestic and international flights. From July 2009, and subject to local regulations, dogs, cats and rabbits (and possibly chickens) weighing no more than 17lb “‘may travel in a suitable crate placed at the feet of their owners’”.

source: timesonline.co.uk

Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, is considering an investment in Air Berlin, Germany’s second-largest airline.

The company’s senior management has been intensively studying the idea for several weeks; no decision has been made.

The German carrier has a well-established, dense and non-centered European and domestic network currently served by a fleet of 112 aircraft. Its biggest bases are Duesseldorf and Berlin — two airports that Etihad does not serve. To a limited degree, Air Berlin could feed Etihad’s Munich services and to an even lesser degree its Frankfurt departures. Slot constraints make reshaping of the network difficult to achieve.

source: aviationweek.com

Ryanair has announced a one-off return flight to Madrid for Liverpool FC fans travelling to the Spanish capital.

Usually, the route is available only in the summer, but the airline has bowed to popular demand.

Large numbers have called the Ryanair telephone lines inquiring about flights to Madrid for the Reds Champions League away match on February 25.

The special flight will depart Liverpool at 9am on February 25 and return from Madrid on February 26 at 1pm.

source: liverpoolecho.co.uk

Yoichi Shimamoto says United Airlines was negligent for allowing him to continue drinking to the point of inebriation during a flight from Osaka, Japan to San Francisco.

Shimamoto claims it was the multiple glasses of Burgundy, served at 20 minute intervals, which led him to strike his wife Ayisha, while the couple were walking through customs in December 2006.

In a lawsuit filed at the US District Court in Tampa, Florida, he claims the wine left him so drunk that “‘he could not manage himself'”.

source: Telegraph.co.uk