news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

New London Gatwick route starts on 21 June. Clickair announced it is launching new flights from London Gatwick to Vigo, its sixth Spanish route from the UK. The three times weekly Airbus A320 flights to Vigo will commence on 21-Jun-08 with seats already on sale.

Clickair’s decision to commence the service follows the ratification of an agreement between the Foundation Provigo, the city’s Mayor, the head of the Galician Regional Government’s Tourism Authority and clickair. It is anticipated the route will support 60,000 passengers in its first year, taking the number of passengers travelling through Vigo’s expanding international Peinador Airport to 1.5 million passengers during 2008.

source: Peanuts!

Norwegian Airlines began to offer a new flight connection between Malaga and Stockholm at the beginning of April 2008. Furthermore, the low-cost airline Volareweb, belonging to the Alitalia group, began to fly between Malaga and Milan-Malpensa. The new flight connection between Malaga and the airport of Milan-Malpensa, offer four flights a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

source: eventplannerspain.com

easyJet, the UK’s largest airline, launches three new routes this week from Bristol to Biarritz, Olbia and Split . The new services this morning to Biarritz will provide the region’s travellers with access to some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe, whilst Olbia and Split will join the network from Bristol on Saturday 26 April 2008; perfect timing for the summer sun.

Biarritz is easyJet’s 39th route from Bristol and Katie Walsh from Southampton was the lucky passenger selected at check-in to receive two free flights to both Olbia in Sardinia and Split in Croatia, giving them the opportunity to experience easyJet’s new destinations from Bristol.

source: Easier

Belgium’s Brussels Airlines has announced it is slowing speeds and reducing weight on some of its aircraft in order to reduce fuel costs.

The airline said slowing its planes by about 10km/h would cut its annual fuel bill by 1m euros ($1.6m; £800,000) and add a minute or two to flight times.

The measures will also reduce the airline’s emissions of global warming greenhouse gases, a spokesman said.

source: BBC News

Five of the six major airlines in the United States plan to start charging coach passengers as much as $25 next month to check a second bag, the latest move in their quest to offset high fuel prices.

The new fee of $25 for a second bag is being levied by Continental, Delta, Northwest, United and US Airways. The low-fare carrier AirTran has announced that it will charge $10 for a second checked bag. Airlines have long levied fees for checking a third bag. Some carriers have recently increased those as well, and the fees on the major carriers now run as high as $100.

source: New York Times

Flybe has been named as the fastest growing low cost airline flying to and from Germany.

Budget airline Flybe now offers 128 flights a week to Germany, compared to just 26 flights in 2006/7, an increase of 392%. The statistics are published in the latest ‘Low Cost Monitor’ survey from the German Centre for Aero- and Spacetravel, which tracks the development of low fares airlines operating to and from Germany.

Irish airline Aer Lingus is refusing to honour an online offer which mistakenly sold business class transatlantic flights for five euros (eight dollars, four pounds), a spokesman said Thursday.

The flights would normally sell for 1,775 euros one way, said Enda Corneille, Aer Lingus director of corporate affairs who apologised to the customers concerned.

“It is a genuine mistake, a fundamental mistake on our part. We rectified it as quickly as we could. We have contacted the customers and given them the opportunity to re-book,” he told RTE state radio.

source: Yahoo!

Low cost airline easyJet broke advertising rules by raising fares after promising a 25 per cent discount on all its routes, a watchdog said today.

Some passengers taking advantage of the Easter deal would have paid more for a seat than before it was introduced, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled.

It told easyJet not to use the claim again unless it made clear that prices, although discounted, could rise during the promotion.

source: scotsman.com

Oasis Airlines, a low-cost carrier based in Hong Kong, grounded its planes for good this week — the fourth in a recent string of bargain airlines to call it quits.

Launched in 2006, Oasis ended its run on Wednesday, citing the high price of jet fuel. It operated flights between Hong Kong and destinations including Vancouver and London, charging as little as $300 per flight.

Thousands of Oasis passengers have been left with useless tickets. The company continued to sell tickets until the end of March despite knowing much earlier in the month that it would be going out of business.

source: CTV.ca

A weekly service between Glasgow and the popular resort of Hurghada in Egypt is being launched by FlyGlobespan.

The service, which starts on November 5, is in addition to the airline’s weekly service to Egypt which flies to from Edinburgh to Sharm El Sheikh.

source: dailyrecord.co.uk