news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

While the rest of Europe’s airlines are grounded, waiting for March 2008 to take advantage of the EU-US agreement to liberalise the transatlantic airline market, the Irish flag carrier is in full flight. Under an agreement negotiated with the US authorities, the airline has created its own open skies environment between Ireland and America a full year before its competitors.

By opening new routes, dropping out of the oneworld alliance and creating a link with JetBlue, the low-cost US carrier, Aer Lingus has a model for operating in a liberalised transatlantic environment that will be looked at, and possibly copied, by its European peers.

Given the relatively short head start Aer Lingus has over its European competitors it is perhaps no surprise that the company announced new routes to three US cities within an hour of the EU-US open skies agreement being ratified in March. Services to Washington Dulles will start in September, with San Francisco and Orlando being introduced in October.

source: telegraph.co.uk

Three new nonstop flights from European airports to Boston are starting from this March with Air Lingus opening Dublin-Boston route from March 25, Iberia flying from Madrid to Boston from May 6 and flyglobespan operating the Glasgow-Boston from May 25, 2007.

source: Traveldailynews

Aer Lingus has signed a strategic partnership with JetBlue, a low-cost American airline, that will allow passengers access to 51 routes across the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Set to launch in August, the deal is designed to give Aer Lingus passengers travelling to New York JFK and Boston the opportunity to connect with JetBlue flights to destinations across the US, to Cancun in Mexico and to the Caribbean islands of Aruba, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.

The deal comes against a backdrop of increased transatlantic competition. Delta and American Airlines are all adding capacity to their Irish routes while Flyglobespan last week agreed a deal to offer services to New York from Knock airport.

source: AMT online

Hundreds of flights left Denver’s beleaguered airport on Christmas Eve with many passengers who had been stranded when a two-day blizzard shut down the runways last week.

The airport’s two biggest airlines, United and Frontier, said they flew full schedules of a combined 1,200 flights Sunday. They had a similar schedule Saturday as travelers around the country whose itineraries were wrecked by the storm raced to get home.

source: Forbes

No frills airline Ryanair yesterday withdrew its ambitious bid to take over Ireland’s national carrier Aer Lingus after the European Commission announced an “‘in-depth investigation'” into its plans.

Following the announcement Ryanair said the buyout automatically lapsed under takeover rules – but the company still intends to make a further offer for Aer Lingus if the EC review clears the way.

Dublin-based Ryanair launched its £1 billion bid in October – a takeover offer which Aer Lingus asked shareholders to reject.

source: The Birminghan Post

Budget airline Ryanair has extended for a second time the deadline for Aer Lingus shareholders to accept its takeover offer after investors with less than 1 percent of the carrier accepted its bid.

The bid, which values Aer Lingus at 1.48 billion euros (1.0 billion pounds), is widely expected to fail given intense opposition from major shareholders, including the Irish government with 25 percent and current and former Aer Lingus staff with 12.6 percent.

source: Reuters

Irish airlines are the most complained about in Europe, and the most common problems are lost and damaged luggage, delays and cancellations, and people getting bumped off flights.

Irish-based airlines Ryanair and Aer Lingus topped the complaint ranks by generating 17% of all complaints and disputes from passengers reported to European Consumer Centres (ECC) last year.

Ireland’s Aer Lingus issued a forthright rejection on Friday of a takeover bid by low-cost rival Ryanair and urged its shareholders to snub the offer valuing it at 1.48 billion euros.

In a strongly worded letter to shareholders, Chairman John Sharman reiterated the company’s view that Ryanair’s offer undervalues Aer Lingus and said Europe’s biggest budget carrier lacked the know-how to deal with unionised staff.

source: Reuters

Aer Lingus is to operate an additional 86 flights per week from Dublin and Cork airports – totalling an additional 15,000 extra seats in and out of Ireland. New flights include routes from Dublin to Athens, Newcastle and Milan-Malpensa for next summer and from Cork to Manchester, Madrid and Prague. The airline will also increase the frequency of flights to a range of current European destinations.

source: Ireland OnLine

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