Spain’s Iberia has launched a new entry in Europe’s competitive market for low-cost airlines.
Iberia Express will cover Spanish cities including Madrid and the islands such as Ibiza, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.
he low-cost Iberia Express has 500 staff and has a fleet of four Airbus A320 aircraft, according to Iberia Express chief executive Luis Gallego.
source: BBC.co.uk
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The seats are popular with travellers as they provide additional leg room, which in turn has encouraged Ryanair to charge passengers for the privilege of sitting there. Fliers occupying those seats are also expected to follow directions and – if necessary – open the doors in the event of an emergency.
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However, due to some passengers refusing to pay the extra charge, many Ryanair flights have taken off with those seats vacant. In those cases, passengers in the surrounding rows, further from the exit, are asked to familiarise themselves with the evacuation procedure.
source: Telegraph.co.uk
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Germany’s second largest airline, Air Berlin, has reported worse-than-expected losses for 2011 as it continues its efforts to downsize.
The budget carrier reported a net loss of 271.8m euros ($322m; £205m) for the year to 31 December 2011. It made a loss of 97.2m euros in 2010.
Air Berlin blamed the weather, strikes, rising fuel costs, the Arab spring and a new tax for its poor performance.
source: bbc.co.uk
Virgin America Inc., the trendy California-based discount airline, is aiming for an initial public offering as soon as next year, after it hopes to post its first annual profit in 2012, Chief Executive David Cush said.
When the carrier was founded in 2007, it targeted this year or next for an IPO. But fuel costs “‘essentially wiped out the operating profit'” for 2011, delaying plans, Mr. Cush said Thursday in an interview.
Virgin America is the fastest-growing airline in the U.S., with plans to increase capacity by about 30% this year. The Burlingame, Calif., airline lost nearly $70 million in the first nine months of 2011, according to the most recent results available, but Mr. Cush said the company is showing strong profits in routes it has operated for at least a year.
source: WSJ.com
An advertising watchdog has reprimanded Irish airline Ryanair over an ad campaign that suggested British travel company Thomas Cook was likely to collapse.
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The London-based Advertising Standards Agency says in a judgment Wednesday that Ryanair’s newspaper ads in the run-up to last Christmas misled viewers and denigrated Thomas Cook, which was struggling financially after a string of profit warnings.
source: Boston.com
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A new regional airline has been announced that plans to link Europe’s small and mid-sized airports, starting from 5 April (just before Easter) with the Venice Marco Polo market. Volotea, which is based in Barcelona and whose start-up management team features a number of former Vueling employees, will initially operate two 717s in a single-class 125-seat configuration, increasing to four for the peak summer season.
By mid-summer, the airline plans to serve 24 destinations and become the leading airline at Venice Marco Polo in terms of destinations served, of which 80% will be new routes according to the airline. The number of weekly flights will grow from 90 per week in April to 160 in August, while the number of weekly seats will increase from 11,250 to some 20,000 during the same period.
Easyjet has refunded a man £50 after charging him to take his dialysis machine aboard a flight.
Andrew Williamson, 44, from Ashburton in Devon, was charged a £50 excess baggage fee to take his 22kg medical equipment on the plane to France.
He said: “‘I have to pay an extra £50 for the privilege of being alive.'”
Easyjet apologised to Mr Williamson and said it had updated its policy and would no longer charge for the transportation of medical equipment.
source: BBC.co.uk
Based in Spanair’s former home of Barcelona, Volotea ” derived from the Spanish verb “‘revolotear’†meaning “‘to fly around’†” is being launched by two men with solid experience in the Spanish low-cost carrier biz: Carlos Munoz and Lazaro Ros, co-founders of Vueling Airlines. With the help of private equity firms, Munoz and Ros have secured about $65 million (€50 million) in capital for Volotea. Up to 20 former Spanair employees may be brought on as the airline staffs up.
Two UK newspaper adverts for budget airline Ryanair have been banned after complaints from readers that they were sexist and treated women as objects.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which received 17 complaints, said they were likely to cause offence.
The adverts showed women posing in bra and pants with the headline “‘Red Hot Fares & Crew! One way from £9.99′”.
source: BBC.co.uk
Thousands of passngers travelling from Hawaii to Thailand were stranded on Friday after the budget airline Air Australia ran out of money and went into voluntary administration, immediately grounding its five jets.
The Brisbane-based international and domestic airline – formerly known as Strategic Airlines – said all flights had been cancelled and it would not be accepting new bookings because it could no longer pay its bills.
Voluntary administration in Australia is similar to bankruptcy protection in the US, and can buy a company time to trade out of its financial problems.
source: guardian.co.uk
