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Southwest Airlines and Continental Airlines , two of the largest U.S. carriers, posted higher quarterly earnings on Thursday as fuller planes and fare increases helped offset soaring fuel costs.

The earnings from Southwest and Continental are the latest sign that the U.S. airline industry’s recovery from a long slump remains on track despite a slowing U.S. economy.

Earlier this week, American Airlines parent AMR and Delta Air Lines posted better-than-expected earnings, benefiting from tighter cost controls and lower capacity in the United States.

source: Yahoo!

Budget airline easyJet has unveiled a brand new look for its cabin crew – designed by the mile-high workers themselves.

The stylish and more formal self-desgined uniform replaces the previous black trousers and orange shirts worn by cabin crew on flights.

It is made up of a number of different pieces, including a black suit, orange or white shirt, waistcoat and orange necktie, so that crew can create their own combination in which they
fell most comfortable.

source: biggleswadetoday.co.uk

The regional airline Flyglobespan has had one of its flying licences suspended as a result of serious concerns about its operations.

Several of the Edinburgh-based firm’s services to North America have been affected.

The firm has had its ‘ETOPS’ licence, which lets it fly over large expanses of water with two engines, suspended.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it is the first time in 15 years a UK operator has lost ETOPS approval.

source: BBC

Low-fares airline Flyglobespan has become Dublin Airport’s newest customer after announcing plans to start flights to Calgary and Vancouver from May.

The new long-haul flights are an unexpected boost for the airport, which has suspended its long-haul route incentive scheme indefinitely.

The suspension of that scheme makes Dublin less attractive to most international airlines, but the launch of the Flyglobespan flights was unaffected because their flights only run twice-weekly and flights must run at least three times a week to be included in Dubin’s now defunct scheme.

source: independent.ie

JetBlue Airways has filed for authority to fly between Fort Lauderdale and Bogota, Colombia, which if granted, would reshape the low-fare marketplace to Latin America.

The airline’s plan calls for seven weekly Bogota flights from Fort Lauderdale beginning next Oct. 1, as well as seven from Orlando, starting next April.

source: Sun Sentinel

More than 20 low cost airlines now fly from Portuguese airports, and this number continues to grow. As of the 28th of this month, Lisbon airport will be host to 12 low-cost airlines, and Oporto will introduce new companies and new routes.

Eight low-cost companies currently operate from Oporto, which will soon be connected to Milan (Malpensa) courtesy of new-introduction Volareweb.com, and three new routes, to Stockholm, Pisa and Valencia, will also soon be available through Ryanair.

Lisbon will be expanding its routes with the arrival of its newest low-cost airline SkyEurope, which will be flying to Vienna, as well as introducing a new route to Seville, as of December, courtesy of Spanish company Vueling.

source: News Online

JetBlue Airways, the low-fare, low-cost airline with the most flights to the Caribbean, today announces it will add new service this winter to two more island destinations: St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles and Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. The award-winning airline will offer one daily nonstop flight between Puerto Plata and New York/JFK effective January 10, 2008, and one daily nonstop flight between St. Maarten and New York/JFK effective January 17, 2008.

With its new nonstop flights to St. Maarten and Puerto Plata, JetBlue now offers its unique brand of low-fare service and high frills to a total of eleven Caribbean/Atlantic destinations including Aruba; Bermuda; Cancun; Nassau; Aguadilla, Ponce and San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Santiago and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. JetBlue will serve 55 destinations in seven countries this winter.

source: CNN

JetBlue Airways Corp. said Thursday its traffic rose 11.8 percent in September as occupancy fell on increased capacity.

The carrier’s traffic rose to 1.84 billion revenue passenger miles last month from 1.64 billion a year earlier. A revenue passenger mile is an industry unit measuring one paying passenger flown one mile.

Capacity rose 13.7 percent to 2.57 billion available seat miles from 2.26 billion in September 2006. An available seat mile is an industry unit that factors in the number of seats available and the number of miles flown.

source: Forbes

Air Berlin reports positive figures for September 2007. The number of passengers transported amounted to 2,454,637 passengers, i.e. a 21 percent increase in comparison with the corresponding month of the previous year.

source: Boarding.no

Budget airline bmibaby has announced the launch of services from Cardiff to Warsaw and the port of Gdansk in the wake of a growing Polish immigration.

Flights went on sale today with fares starting from just £21.99 one way, including all taxes and charges.

The new route to Warsaw starts with a three times a week service operating from Cardiff on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays, commencing on February 10.

Flights to Gdansk run twice weekly from Cardiff, departing on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with flights beginning on February 9.

source: icWales