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The German airline LTU has agreed to start flying between Melbourne international Airport flights and Berlin or Hamburg, Germany, starting in November, the airport director said.

Melbourne Aviation Director Richard Ennis said German-based M-Touristik has until August to determine whether there is enough interest, both in Germany and Florida, to justify flights once a week.

The deal will provide the airport its first scheduled international flights. Delta Air Lines provides daily flights between Melbourne and Atlanta.

Southwest Airlines Co. has signed a 10-year contract to sell tickets through the Galileo distribution service to win more business travelers.

The agreement, Southwest’s second with a ticketing company, will be “‘a significant revenue growth opportunity,'” Chief Executive Gary Kelly said Wednesday at the airline’s annual meeting.

Kelly is betting that wider availability of tickets will lure more corporate travel accounts, bolstering Southwest’s bid to add revenue while limiting fare increases. Jet fuel and labor costs rose 59 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively, in 2006.

source: Chicago Tribune

Jetstar is about to face its first challenge on the long-haul “low-cost” airline market between Asia and Australia, after the Chinese budget carrier Viva Macau confirmed plans to fly to Sydney by late July.

The airline, which is based in Macau, plans to launch three weekly services to Sydney once it takes delivery of its third Boeing 767 next month.

source: smh.com.au

Icelandic airline Icelandair Group said last week that it had signed a letter of intent to buy Czech charter and airline operator Travel Service for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition, expected to be completed next month, will push Icelandair’s expected 2007 turnover to more than $1 billion (Kč 20.9 billion), up 30 percent from 2006. Travel Service, which operates low-cost airline Smartwings and has turnover of € 190 million and passenger numbers of 1.8 million, had been in talks last year about a tie-up with state airline Czech Airlines (ÄŒSA).

source: cbw.cz

ExpressJet Airlines will begin daily non-stop service from El Paso to Los Angeles/Ontario today, airline officials said.

In a press statement released this morning, ExpressJet President and CEO Jim Ream said the airline intends to save time for travelers by eliminating layovers in crowded hubs. “‘We intend to deliver our customers more convenience and more service in growing cities like El Paso with populations that are the right size for our 50-seat aircraft,'” Ream said.

Asia’s top budget carrier AirAsia will fly direct to Vientiane in Laos from Kuala Lumpur from July.

The airline’s chief executive Tony Fernandes said: “‘Our aim is to become an Asian airline. Without a doubt, the resumption of a direct air link after nearly a 10-year hiatus will spur economic benefits.’”

“‘That is the beauty of a low cost carrier. We can fly to destinations which others don’t,’” he said.

Rookie low-fare carrier Skybus Airlines earned final certification from the Federal Aviation Administration Thursday, clearing the way for its scheduled May 22 launch.

“‘FAA certification is the final hurdle,'” said Ken Gile, the president and chief operating officer of Skybus. “‘We are ready to take our place in the US airline community.'”

The carrier’s first scheduled flight is a 9:36 am departure May 22 from its hub in Port Columbus, OH to Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, CA.

The carrier will start by offering nonstop service from CMH to the Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay and Seattle/Vancouver areas, and to Ft. Lauderdale, Richmond, Kansas City and Greensboro/Winston-Salem with $10 tickets available on every flight.

Ryanair ticket promotions arrive so frequently that investors tend to ignore them. Sure, a £15 flight to Frankfurt sounds like suicidal economics but why worry if profits are soaring?

But this week was different. Europe’s largest budget airline launched its biggest ever fare sale, days after admitting it was struggling to fill its planes. Analysts were extremely surprised to see that the airline was discounting 10m tickets during its most profitable time of year. For all the regulation bluster from Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary about “kicking the competition”, something was wrong. Some analysts have also asked if the onslaught from environmental organisations is having an effect.

source: Guardian.co.uk

Southwest Airlines Co., the nation’s largest low-fare carrier, announced Friday it will begin service at San Francisco International Airport in August with 18 flights and cut-rate introductory fares on its initial departures to San Diego, Las Vegas and Chicago.

The 18 nonstop departures starting Aug. 26 represent the airline’s largest initial new-city schedule in its history, and beats its announcement in February to resume SFO service this fall with 14 flights. Southwest will resume SFO flights six years after it pulled out of the airport because of high costs, flight delays and restraints on growth.

“‘We’ve been longing to return to San Francisco,'” said Gary Kelly, Southwest’s chief executive. “‘We beat our promise of coming back in the fall.'”

fuente: insidebayarea.com

The low-cost airline, Ryanair, has announced that it expects to reach passenger volume of 285,000 through Málaga this year, thanks to three new routes brought in this year.

The latest will be in October, with four connections a week to Düsseldorf, expected to generate 60,000 passengers.

The airline introduced earlier in the year new routes to other cities in Germany: Frankfurt and Bremen. They also operate links from Málaga with Dublin, Shannon and Brussels.

source: typicallyspanish.com