news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

A new summer flight to the Costa Blanca by low-cost airline flyglobespan has been cancelled before its first take-off.

The airline announced in October it would be starting flights to Murcia from Aberdeen on Sundays and Wednesdays from April 29.

But it removed the Wednesday flights from its website without warning on Wednesday and confirmed to callers they would not be going ahead “‘for technical reasons'”.

Last night, flyglobespan confirmed it was a lack of passengers which had prompted the decision which has left some travellers furious.

source: The Herald

go!, Hawaii’s low-fare interisland carrier, today announced expansion of its route network in Hawaii with the launch of go!Express, operated under a code share agreement with Mokulele Airlines. Beginning April 16, go!Express will offer 12 flights per day between Kona and Kahului, Kahului and Kapalua, and Kapalua and Honolulu.

source: PR-inside

A survey carried out by Certet (Center of regional economics, transports and tourism) has evidenced that 13% of the overall flights operating in Italy (718 per week) is low-cost, and has identified Ryanair as the leader airline with regard to the international routes (33.4% of the weekly flights) and WindJet for the national ones (616 flights).

The data related to the busiest route by passenger-traffic is very interesting, and reveals that the leadership gained by the Milan-London connections is due to the cheap tickets requested to reach the British capital, operative center for many no-frills carriers.

source: Avionews

Tiger Airways has got the green light from Australian authorities to set up a domestic airline in Australia.

Tiger, which is 49 percent owned by Singapore Airlines, said last month that it wanted to operate domestic Australian routes.

With the approval, the next step for Tiger Airways Australia is to obtain its air operator’s certificate from Australian regulators.

source: Channel NewAsia

easyJet, Europe’s leading low-fares airline, today announced the latest addition to its growing network, a route connecting London Luton and Zurich.

Zurich, the little big city, is Switzerland’s financial centre and largest city. Most famous for its banking sector, Zurich is also home to a picturesque old town with cobblestone streets built along the crystal blue River Limmat, with a surprisingly hip and trendy social scene on the banks of the stunning Lake Zurich.

source: Easier

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair plans to start serving larger airports in a bid to double passenger numbers, its chief executive said in an interview with German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche.

“‘If we want to be so big in five years’ time, we can’t avoid such airports,'” Michael O’Leary told the magazine in an interview released ahead of publication on Monday.

Ryanair has focused its network so far on airports where landing fees and other costs are low.

“‘Five years from now we will carry 85 million passengers, twice as many as today, and will have expanded our network,'” he said.

Ryanair plans to use part of its EUR2.4 billion euro (USD$3.2 billion) cash pile to pay a special dividend or buy back shares at the end of the year, the magazine said.

source: Airwise

Southwest’s expansion comes just a week after another low-fare carrier, JetBlue Airways, announced it was temporarily reducing its number of flights out of Pittsburgh and needed customers to fill more seats on flights from here to Boston and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Low-fare carriers have had mixed results in the Pittsburgh market. Since 2000, eight have launched service here, but only four remain. The remaining carriers have been able to bring down average fares, though, helping Pittsburgh become the nation’s 13th-cheapest midsize airport.

source: Times online

National air carrier Czech Airlines (ÄŒSA) last year again carried the largest number of passengers (more than 5.3 million) to and from the Czech capital, Prague. Domestic Travel Service, which operates under the Smart Wings brand, followed with 997,000 cleared passengers. U.K.’s easyJet Airline Company was next, followed by Germany’s Deutsche Lufthansa and the U.K.’s British Airways.

Slovakia’s SkyEurope Airlines, which last year in April became the third airline with a base in Prague next to domestic ÄŒSA and Smart Wings, was number two in terms of the number of transported passengers by low-cost airlines after leader easyJet. SkyEurope Airlines carried more than 297,000 passengers in less than nine months, according to statistics provided by LetiÅ¡tÄ› Praha.

source: CBW

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair plans to start serving larger airports in a bid to double passenger numbers, its chief executive said in an interview with German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche.

“‘If we want to be so big in five years’ time, we can’t avoid such airports,'” Michael O’Leary told the magazine in an interview released ahead of publication on Monday.

Ryanair has focused its network so far on airports where landing fees and other costs are low.

source: smh

Easyjet is poised to become only the second airline ever to enter the FTSE 100 ” a move that could eventually trigger a bumper payout for its senior management.

The low-cost airline was last week placed on the reserve list for the elite group of companies after the quarterly reshuffle of the membership list.

This means Easyjet is in contention to join the index should one of the current members drop out before the next quarterly review.

Elevation to the fringes of the FTSE 100 confirms a startling change in the stock market’s valuation of the company.

source: Times Online