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Airline ticket websites which contain “‘pre-ticked boxes’” that force customers to specifically opt out of paying for extra services will be banned across Europe, under newly ratified laws.
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The new rules will make it illegal for companies to require consumers to “‘untick’” unwanted services such as travel insurance or car rental when shopping online.

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Consumers groups welcomed the changes to the ‘Consumer Rights Directive’, which EU officials said would strengthen consumer rights on shopping websites.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

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More than a third of passengers travel without travel insurance, risking huge medical bills if they have an accident or become ill abroad.

This was revealed in a survey of 4,000 passengers by low cost airline Ryanair which also shows 82 per cent with insurance did not know if their policy offered ski, business travel or sports (golf) cover.

Ninety per cent of those who travelled without insurance were unaware that medical repatriation flights within Europe could cost them more than €18,000, and substantially more from other parts of the world, should they become seriously ill when abroad.

source: euroweeklynews.com

The airline industry has presented its vision for the future of check-in security, including hi-tech colour-coded scanning corridors.

Passengers will be able to keep their shoes on and their bags in their hand – toothpaste, nail clippers, laptops and all – as they pass through the “‘checkpoint of the future'”.

Under a mock-up checkpoint on display at the ‘Aviation Security World Conference’ in Amsterdam, passengers are guided into one of three corridors upon presenting their passports: blue for frequent travellers, purple for normal passengers and orange for those deemed to require enhanced vetting.

People do not have to empty their pockets, remove any of their clothing or subject themselves to pat-downs before walking through a 20-foot tunnel that scans metals, liquids, laptops and other potential dangers one by one.

source: Press Association

Airlines criticized the European Union’s plan to limit jetliners’ greenhouse-gas emissions, which analysts estimate could cost carriers world-wide more than $1 billion next year.

EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard presented this week details of how the 27-country bloc’s existing cap-and-trade system will expand to cover aviation beginning next year. From Jan. 1, all airlines will be required to hold permits that allow them to emit carbon dioxide during any flight landing at or taking off from an EU airport. Carriers with minimal EU operations will receive exemptions.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it will grant airlines permits to cover 85% of their carbon-dioxide emissions in 2012 free of charge. This will fall to 82% from 2013 through 2020. Carriers will be required to buy the rest.

source: Wall Street Journal

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned of tough times ahead for the airline industry and the head of Thai Airways said on Tuesday financial market turmoil as the European and U.S. economies slow down was “‘frightening'”.

IATA has already warned that a weak global economy would prompt a 29-percent fall in airline profits in 2012 and cut the industry’s profit margins to a wafer thin 0.8 percent from 1.2 percent this year.

IATA, whose 230 members carry more than 93 percent of scheduled international air traffic, forecast global economic growth of 2.4 percent in 2012, lower than the International Monetary Fund’s projection of 4.0 percent.

source: foxbusiness.com

The Air Transport Assn. issued an statement claiming the new rule proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would increase the industry’s costs but wouldn’t improve its safety record.

The proposed FAA rule was drafted in response to the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 in February 2009. The accident killed 50 people when the plane stalled and plummeted to the earth outside Buffalo, N.Y. It was attributed to pilot error and fatigue.

The proposed rule would set a nine-hour minimum rest period prior to the start of a shift, a one-hour increase over the current minimum.

source: Los Angeles Times

The inclusion of aviation in the ‘European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS)‘ is under increasing pressure from North American, Russian, and Chinese lobby groups, airlines, and governments. Launched in response to the anticipated additional costs to airlines, the extent and level of these challenges is considerable. The US airlines estimate an additional cost burden on industry of $1bn by 2020, while Emirates estimates between $500m to $1bn by 2020.

The inclusion of aviation in the system is already set in law, so changes to it are unlikely. It does, however, contain a provision that countries may be exempted from the scheme if they impose “‘equivalent measures'”. So far, however, the US has not submitted any proposals for what could be considered an equivalent measure.

source: businessgreen.com

Airlines including EasyJet, Lufthansa’s BMI and Flybe are being investigated by the ‘Office of Fair Trading’ over surcharges for using debit and credit cards.

The OFT said on Thursday it had opened a formal investigation into “‘a number of airlines’”.

The probe followed a warning by the regulator in June that retailers that levied artificially high fees for card payments, or did not advertise fees charged, faced action under consumer protection laws.

source: FT.com

The standard row-block method of airplane boarding isn’t the most efficient way to get passengers to their seats. In fact, it’s the worst, according to a new experiment by an astrophysicist ” yes, an astrophysicist, who works with Batavia-based Fermilab.

Based on the trials, Jason Steffen found boarding by alternating rows at once was most efficient, followed by boarding window-to-seat and letting passengers board randomly. They’re all faster than block rows, Steffen concluded.

Alternating rows gives passengers enough room to squeeze their luggage into bins while others find their seats.

source: MSNBC

Boeing, moving to counter a competitive offering from rival Airbus, said it will roll out a more efficient version of its best-selling 737 narrowbody with a new engine in 2017.

The new model, named the 737 MAX, will compete with the revamped A320neo family from Airbus, a similar model due to be equipped with fuel-saving engines and delivered in 2015.

The Boeing jet will have engines from CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric Co and France’s Safran.

source: Reuters