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Australia recently won the top spot of the ‘2008 Country Brand Index’. Nation branding, as it’s officially referred to, is the theory and practice of measuring and building the reputations of countries; basically applying standard commercial brand management that you’d find with commodities and using it to analyzing everywhere from Austria to Zimbabwe.

The 2008 study conducted used rankings from 30 different categories to come up with the final index. Among the categories were History, Standard of Living, Friendly Locals and Environmentalism. It’s like a beauty pageant for countries, with the most well-rounded coming out on top. Here are the top ten:

1. Australia
2. Canada
3. USA
4. Italy
5. Switzerland
6. France
7. New Zealand
8. United Kingdom
9. Japan
10. Sweden

source: Gatling

The supreme court declined to hear an appeal by Air Canada and WestJet, the country’s two largest airlines, on a January 2008 decision by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA), which gave the airlines a year to implement the policy after they failed to show that a “one-person, one-fare” structure would cause undue hardship.

By convention, the court gave no reason for declining to hear the case.

What remains unresolved is when exactly obesity constitutes a disability. The CTA said airlines must develop procedures to assess eligibility, adding that free seats need not be awarded to overweight people who are merely uncomfortable in a single seat.

source: telegraph.co.uk

British Airways has launched a remote check-in service, allowing travellers ”on the go” to check-in for flights wherever they may be, via their mobile handsets. The service is quick, free and available in 11 languages – without any need to download accompanying software.

This latest initiative follows the success of the recent iPhone Apple application from BA, allowing iPhone users the opportunity to check-in via handsets. Proving to be a popular product, there were more than 16,000 UK downloads in its first month of launch alone.

source: Easier

The chief executive of British Airways PLC said he expects consolidation in the airline industry to speed up, but he added that the London-based carrier will be extremely selective in the companies it chooses to team up with.

Speaking at an analyst conference in New York, CEO Willie Walsh forecast more airlines will falter in the coming months as global economic conditions remain tentative. But Walsh said the company will not invest in weakened companies that might put British Airways’ financial position at risk.

source: Business Week

The budget airline’s 2009 calendar features bikini-clad young staff posing next to jet engines, petrol pumps and tool kits.

Last year’s calendar raised more than £55,000 for charity, and the airline hopes to top that figure with the new shots, which feature the likes of Miss Runway, Miss Hostess and Miss Cockpit.

All the money raised will go to Dublin Simon Community, an Irish homeless charity.

source: telegraph.co.uk

France faces more transport disruption this week as the Air France strike continues. Workers are protesting against government reforms to raise the retirement age of flight crew members up from 60 to 65 years of age.

So far the strike has affected over 35% of overseas flights and is estimated to cost Air France more than 100m euros.

source: lost-in-france.com

Ryanair’s recent decision to designate both Alghero and Cagliari on the island of Sardinia as bases is another step in the airline’s on-going expansion in the Italian market. Passenger traffic at Sardinia’s three main airports of Alghero, Cagliari and Olbia has almost doubled from just under three million in 1996 to over five and a half million in 2007. Cagliari has remained the busiest airport on the island followed by Olbia and Alghero, though thanks to Ryanair’s existing network Alghero has been the fastest growing, especially last year when passenger numbers increased by 22%.

Virgin Atlantic, the British airline owned by tycoon Richard Branson, said on Friday that it was in talks about forming a consortium that would bid for London’s second biggest airport, Gatwick.

Analysts have estimated that the sale of Gatwick could fetch up to three billion pounds (3.48 billion euros, 4.42 billion dollars).

Britain’s Spanish-owned airport operator BAA announced in September plans to sell London’s Gatwick hub after regulators called for the offloading of two of its airports on competition grounds.

source: AFP

Individually, airlines are finding it hard to stay viable, let alone turn a profit. For smaller airlines trying to bill themselves as budget, cooperation may be the solution in creating a wider distribution of resources and lowering operating costs. Flyholding, the holding company of MyAir.com, and SkyEurope Holding announced Oct. 15 a cooperation agreement that would boost their standings in Europe’s budget airline industry.

MyAir.com has entered a protocol agreement with Bratislava-based SkyEurope Airlines for an operating partnership that is an example of a new trend in strategic alliances. MyAir.com said it hopes the partnership will streamline operations and cut costs by taking advantage of the economies of scale on the market in which both airlines currently operate. With largely complementary networks, the partnership will also bring additional destinations to customers in their major hubs.

source: The Prague Post

Ireland-based low-cost airline Ryanair has opened its 26th base at the Reus Airport in Spain.The airline has announced new domestic routes which will link Reus with Santander, Seville, Santiago de Compostela and Palma de Mallorca starting December 19, 2008 and a new international route to Paris, France.

Four of the new Reus routes will operate as daily services, while the new service to Seville will operate twice daily

source: Redorbit.com