news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport will announce this morning a new airline that will offer nonstop flights to Las Vegas, linking the gambling meccas in an effort to bolster the Coast’s recovering economy and the tourism industry.

Allegiant Air, which in January 2006 began nonstop jet service to Vegas from Shreveport, La., will soon begin its operations on the Coast. Details about the partnership will be released today at the airport.

“‘We’re bringing a new airline and new service that will be a tremendous boost to the tourism on the Mississippi Gulf Coast,'” said Jim Pitts, the airport’s director of marketing and business development.

source: The Sun Herald

Canada’s main no-frills airline has struck a deal to fly around executives from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest discount department store and food retailer.

WestJet Airlines announced a ‘preferred airline’ link with Wal-Mart on Wednesday in a move the discount air carrier hopes will generate new revenues from expanded transportation and group services to the giant retailers’ business travellers.

source: Canoe Money

Condor, a German airline, will drop its twice-weekly service to Frankfurt, Germany, at the end of April, but LTU International will pick up some of the slack by increasing its service to Munich and Dusseldorf in May.

Every six months, Condor looks at its service and decides where to make changes, said Janet Gorecki, a sales and marketing manager for the North American division of the airline.

“‘For the summer season, Orlando is a stronger destination,’ Gorecki said. “‘It was decided to focus on that and possibly increase capacity to Orlando in the future.’

Brazilian airline Gol on Monday announced a 186-percent rise in ticket sales on Brazil-Argentina air routes in 2006.

Gol’s sales of tickets to Argentina (and to Brazil from Argentina) amounted to 70 million U.S. dollars in 2006 from 24.4 million U.S. dollars in 2005.

The company opened the routes to and from Argentina in December 2004, its first international destination. The routes represented 4 percent of the company’s total sales in 2006.

source: people.com.cn

The Transportation Department removed a barrier yesterday to Virgin America’s plans to start a U.S. airline, voicing support for its plan to comply with laws limiting foreign control of a domestic carrier.

The agency gave a tentative OK to a revised plan filed in January by Burlingame, Calif.-based Virgin America, saying in a prepared statement that the revised plan “‘should meet U.S. ownership rules'” that cap foreign control of a U.S. airline at 25 percent. The startup still faces opposition from several U.S. airlines.

source: Baltimore Sun

The Denver-based airline will have a flight departing Jacksonville at 6:10 a.m. and arriving in Denver at 7:50 a.m. mountain time. The return flight will depart Denver at 11:55 p.m. and arrive in Jacksonville at 5:15 a.m. The flights will be on 132-passenger A319 aircraft.

From its Denver hub Frontier flies to 48 U.S. destinations, eight in Mexico, and Calgary and Vancouver in Canada.

Senior Vice President for Operations Chris Collins said Jacksonville was a hole in Frontier’s schedule and the largest market in the U.S. without a direct flight to Denver.

Sky Express airlines is starting daily flights Moscow-Tumen-Moscow from April 12, 2007, the company informed.

Sky Express Airlines was founded in March 2006 is first Russian low-budget airline performing flights on the European part of Russia. It is expected that by the end of 2007 its itinerary network will include 20 flight paths to Russian countries, located in 600-3000 from Moscow.

SkyEurope Airlines, created a new world record in distance flown by a Boeing 737-700NG in commercial configuration. SkyEurope’s 10th brand new Boeing 737-700 Next Generation aircraft landed at Bratislava airport on Saturday 17 March 2007 at 4:36 p.m. after the record flyover of 9,101 kilometres without any fuel stop.

The longest documented distance flown by the Boeing 737 type until today was 8,382 kilometres on the route Seattle to Prague on 27 January 2007, also performed as a SkyEurope delivery flight. Christian Mandl, CEO of SkyEurope Airlines, came to the airport to welcome the record breaking crew personally:

source: Boarding.no

EasyJet, which calls itself Europe’s leading airline, appears to have lost interest in Malta, The Malta Independent on Sunday has learnt.

Nonetheless, industry sources said negotiations have not been cut off completely.

Last August, EasyJet had submitted an application to operate from London Luton and Mulhouse-Basel. The airline had kept a very low profile compared to competitors Ryanair, which were negotiating with the Maltese government during the same period.

Minister for Tourism and Culture Francis Zammit Dimech had said EasyJet wanted to operate from Gatwick, but the government could not provide the airline with market support to operate from this major airport, as it is not one of the underserved routes.

source: Malta Independent

Arkia Airlines Ltd. is considering a $120 million investment to buy or lease four 70-100 seat jets with a range of 2,000 miles for flights to Cyprus and other regional destinations. The airline is examining CRJ 700 and CRJ 900 jets building by Canada’s Bombardier Inc. and Embraer 170 and 175, built by Brazil’s Embraer-Empresa Brasileira De Aeronutica SA. Arkia initially plans to buy or lease two planes, followed by two more at a later date.

These planes use short runways, which means that they can operate out of Tel Aviv’s Sde Dov Airport. Arkia is planning several flights per day, including to Cyprus, where it began to fly at the beginning of March.

source: Globes