news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Spanish low cost airline Vueling Airlines, announced yesterday it is to run a Madrid/Malta flight from 31 March, adding to the growing ranks of low cost carriers plying the Malta route since the government opened up the airline travel sector.

In a statement, Vueling said tickets for the new route would run at an all-inclusive e40, at a frequency rate of three flights per week – from Madrid on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and from Malta on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

source: The Malta Independent

Zoom Airlines has announced two new routes for 2008. The new routes will operate from London Gatwick to Fort Lauderdale in Florida and San Diego in Southern California. The first of Zoom’s new routes will be launched in May 2008 from London Gatwick to Fort Lauderdale in Florida. Zoom will be the first scheduled airline in 10 years to offer flights from any European airport to this sunshine resort.

source: Travel Daily News

Low-cost airline easyJet has upgraded and introduced its Speedy Boarding Plus facility across Europe.

The upgraded procedure combines Speedy Boarding, which allows passengers to pay to be amongst the first to be called to board a flight, with a dedicated check-in service.

source: Hemscott

Ryanair is to launch 50 new routes in 2008 departing from seven airports across the UK to destinations in France, Spain, Germany and Italy.

Flights to Girona airport, a little over 60 miles from Barcelona, will be available from Birmingham, Manchester and Newquay airports. Alicante is another Spanish route set to launch in the new year from Durham Tees, Edinburgh and Newquay airports, as well as another route to Malaga (from Liverpool).

Also new for 2008 are flights to the Italian city of Pisa from Edinburgh and Birmingham, to Milan from Manchester, and to the Portuguese city of Faro, in the Algarve, from London Stansted.

Germany will also be served by the budget airline – with flights from Edinburgh to Frankfurt and Bremen, and Manchester to Frankfurt.

Holidaymakers looking for cheap flights to France will have the option of travelling to the southern French city of Marseille from Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester, and to Angouleme, close to Bordeaux, from London Stansted. Liverpool to Nantes flights are also set to start next year.

source: Travelbite.co.uk

Budget airline easyJet is to begin flights from Manchester as part of a massive expansion of its services in the north west.

Planes carrying the airline’s famous orange and white logo are set to lift off for foreign destinations from the airport for the first time late March.

Bosses at easyJet say the move, which is subject to approval by regulators, will make it the north west’s biggest operator.

source: manchestereveningnews.co.uk

JetBlue, the struggling discount carrier, sold a 19 percent stake in its business to Lufthansa of Germany for $300 million Thursday, the first major investment by a foreign airline in an American rival since British Airways took a stake in American Airlines in the early 1990s.

While Lufthansa’s investment is strictly financial and does not include any strategic partnership for now, industry watchers speculated that the deal could lead to further cooperation and give Lufthansa an important foothold in the United States.

source: The New York Times

Virgin America is launching flight service between Seattle and San Francisco, and Seattle and Los Angeles.

The new airline, which launched in August, said it would open service between Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and San Francisco in March 2008, with three daily round-trip flights. Service between Sea-Tac and Los Angeles will follow in April, also with three daily round-trip flights.

Virgin America said it would add a fourth Seattle-Los Angeles daily round-trip flight beginning in May.

source: Business Journal

BMI, the UK’s third-largest airline, will start daily non-stop flights from London Heathrow to Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport in March, becoming the second British carrier to fly that route. British Airways Plc had been the only UK airline allowed to operate between London and Tel Aviv.

The UK and Israeli governments agreed in September to allow another British carrier to operate the route.

source: The Jerusalem Post

Two firms have announced plans to offer free, in-flight Wi-Fi connections for laptop computers and smart phones on flights on the JetBlue airline.

The new service, offered by Yahoo and Research in Motion (RIM), will allow passengers to access customized Yahoo mail and instant messenger services on their laptops or access corporate e-mails on Wi-Fi enabled versions of the popular Blackberry device from RIM.

Indian low-cost carrier Jet Airways launches daily flights from the eastern Indian metropolis of Chennai to Toronto and New York, both via Brussels, starting tomorrow.

The flight involves a two-hour layover in Brussels, from which passengers can fly to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport or John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The airline is introducing the route with an economy return fare of 36,000 rupees (US$913) plus taxes, and a premier class return fare of 157,500 rupees (US$4,000) plus taxes.

source: Wall Street Journal