news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

EasyJet stuck to a five-year-old pledge yesterday and promised not to introduce a fuel surcharge, even as its shares fell 17 per cent amid warnings that it would be spending £45 million more than it had forecast on aviation fuel in the second half of the year.

A profit warning from the low-cost airline dragged down the aviation sector and easyJet predicted worse to come from its rivals, which it said were basing their forecasts on oil at $850 a tonne, while it had risen to more than $1,000 a tonne.

source: Times OnLine

Southwest Airlines is conducting a “‘fierce study’” of potential partnerships with other airlines that could result in the discount carrier offering international service for the first time in its history, a top executive said Friday.At the same time, it has been pulling back from long-haul flights in the United States and is focusing on shorter trips that are more profitable, said John Jamotta, Southwest’s senior director of schedule planning.

The Dallas-based airline has implemented a number of changes to its strategy in the past year as it struggles to boost revenue to offset higher costs. But the possibility of offering international travel to customers would likely be the biggest change for the airline, which is the most profitable in the nation.

source: star-telegram.com

Liverpool John Lennon airport’s axed transatlantic routes will not be brought back this summer.

Last year Scottish airline Flyglobespan said it would renew its New York and Toronto services in May. They were scrapped last October due to operational problems.

But the Edinburgh-based business said soaring fuel costs and the poor reliability of leased aircraft meant they were unable to return to Liverpool.

Centralwings, the low-cost arm of the Polish national airline carrier LOT, which noted significant losses last year is now cancelling dozens of unprofitable flights, Gazeta Wyborcza writes.

Since April 1 Centralwings will serve only one route from the mid-western Polish city of Poznań to Rome. The connections to Paris and Edinburgh will be put on hold. New flights to Amsterdam and Manchester which were supposed to take off in April were cancelled.

source: Polish Market

Ryanair launches its first domestic routes in France, from Marseille to Paris, and Germany from Frankfurt Hahn to Berlin. The routes will start in May 2008.

source: Boarding.no

Monarch have this week announced the introduction of new low cost air fares for economy flights from London to Larnaca for 2007.

The award winning airline which was recently named as Leisure Airline of the Year, will introduce this service from March 2007.

To get a little more leg room on JetBlue’s airplanes, you’ll need to stretch your wallet a little bit more.

Hoping for a leg up on the competition, JetBlue will give you four extra inches to stretch, flex, cross or rest your legs.

The extra room will cost you an extra $10, $15, or $20 depending on the length of the flight.

source: 11alive.com

Vueling, the new-generation airline, culminates its most ambitious Ibiza programme ever, by linking the island with eight destinations in Spain, France, and Italy. Overall, Vueling puts on sale more that 430,000 seats in order to fly between March and October.

From May 30th to September 21st, the company will base one Airbus A-320 at Ibiza airport. This will reinforce the Barcelona and Valencia routes and will allow three new destinations: Seville, Bilbao, and Alicante.

source: Travel Daily News

Ryanair, Europe’s most successful low-cost airline, is going nose to nose with Europe’s largest and most successful high-speed railway system.

The Irish-based airline announced yesterday that it was starting cheap flights in May from Beauvais airport, 50 miles north-west of Paris, to Marseilles. Ryanair will also try to break into the German domestic market for the first time with flights between Frankfurt and Berlin.

source: The Independent

UAE’s premium airline, Emirates, will launch a new low-cost carrier in response to the growing number of passengers traveling to and from the UAE, according to the official news agency Wam. The decision was taken by Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice-president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai.

A statement said that the new airline would price its services to passengers based on their ”’economic and living conditions to suit their incomes.”’

source: Domain-b