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While European and American airlines rarely feature in the top 10 rankings for best customer service, airlines from these regions have dominated a new list of the world’s safest carriers

Air France-KLM, British Airways and Lufthansa are the safest airlines in Europe.

The safest US-based airlines are AMR Corporation, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways, while the safest from Asia is Japan Airlines, it said, without giving a ranking within the top ten.

To obtain this classification, the first of its kind, ATRA examined publicly available information on 15 criteria, such as the average age of the aircraft used or the homogeneity of the fleet, it said.

World’s 10 safest airlines (in alphabetical order)
Air France-KLM
AMR Corporation (American Airlines, American Eagles)
British Airways
Continental Airlines
Delta Airlines
Japan Airlines
Lufthansa
Southwest Airlines
United Airlines
US Airways

source: smh.com.au

Gerard Depardieu reportedly relieved himself in the aisle of a plane cabin yesterday.

The French actor’s flight was delayed on the tarmac; when Depardieu asked to use the restroom, he was told by flight attendants to wait until the plane had taken off. At that point, he apparently urinated in the aisle.

source: news-briefs.ew.com

A strong performance from its UK and Nordic arm, a bigger range of exclusive holidays and a broader customer base have all helped Tui Travel widen the gap with its troubled rival Thomas Cook.

Tui Travel highlighted “‘a number of headwinds'” ahead, however, including high fuel costs, weak sterling and “‘slower than anticipated recovery in the important North African destinations'”.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

Airline-industry earnings suffered the first year-to-year decline for two years in the three months to June as fuel costs rose and capacity increases outstripped demand, according to International Air Transport Association.

Early figures for 16 carriers showed operating profit shrinking by one-third and net income tumbling by almost two- thirds. North America, the Asia-Pacific region, and Latin America are all showing declines, while European earnings advanced only because traffic disruption caused by a volcanic ash from Iceland crimped profit last year.

source: Boston.com

Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has warned passengers to avoid checking some types of electronic devices into an aircraft’s hold.

The organization said that passengers would see additional screening since lithium batteries, used to power items such as laptops, mobile phones, cameras and iPods, have been linked to a rise in dangerous goods incidents onboard airplanes in recent years.

It said that given certain conditions, the new type of battery is more susceptible to starting a fire as the energy contained in them is greater than that found in previous types of rechargeable or dry cell batteries.

source: Independent.co.uk

Brighter Planet, a consultant on carbon accounting and mitigation, has rated the carbon efficiency of U.S. domestic and international airlines. The top three among U.S. domestic carriers: Continental, JetBlue and Frontier. In last place was American Eagle. The international winners were Ryanair, Singapore Airlines and Delta. SAS Scandinavian was the least environmentally friendly.

source: northjersey.com

International tourism continues to rise around the world, with only the Middle East and North Africa lagging, and even those regions expected to improve later this year, according to the latest United Nations figures.

The World Tourism Barometer, released recently by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) at its headquarters in Madrid, shows that international tourist arrivals rose by 4.5 per cent in the first four months of this year compared to the same period of 2010.

About 268 million tourists travelled between January and April, up from 256 million last year, which was affected by the closure of much of European airspace because of the ash cloud resulting from the eruption of an Icelandic volcano.

source: UN News Centre

Businessman Andrew Gaule invented this coat with huge pockets in frustration at seeing fellow budget passengers charged over the odds for their luggage.

”This jacket allows you to carry on board everything that you would otherwise have to pack in the hold. The pockets are big and strong enough to take 10kg of luggage, including even laptop computers or bottles of wine.”

A recent study showed that the budget airline’s extra luggage charges have resulted in a dramatic change in the way people pack for holidays. The ‘Co-operative Travel’ study found that a quarter of all leisure budget air passengers now either take only hand luggage or share a hold bag.

source: dailymail.co.uk

Business class flights for ministers and civil servants will be for the chop, as David Cameron seeks to rescue his government’s green credentials on Wednesday by announcing tougher energy efficiency targets – even as most of his MEPs defied his wishes by voting against more ambitious climate aims for Europe.

For the first time, travel by ministers and civil servants will be taken into account in judging central government’s greenhouse gas emissions – meaning flights that account for higher carbon dioxide emissions will have to be cut back.

source: guardian.co.uk

U.S. airlines will step up their campaign against European Union climate policy next week, with a legal challenge at Europe’s highest court to their inclusion in the EU carbon market.

The EU aims to lead the world in fighting climate change, and says it needs to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions to guard against future climate impacts such as crop failures, droughts or flooding.

From January 2012, airlines flying to or from Europe will have to buy permits from the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme for 15 percent of the carbon emissions they produce. They join 11,000 factories and power plants already in the scheme.

source: Reuters