news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Ryanair has swooped in to take on 26 additional routes from the Budapest airport after Hungarian national carrier Malév suddenly ceased all flights Feb. 3 in response to an “‘unsustainable'” financial situation. Industry analysts say the Irish low-cost airline is just the first of a swarm of companies that will try to expand routes to Budapest now that Malév is out of the running.

On the heels of Ryanair’s announcement, several other European carriers, including Lufthansa and Air Berlin, have said they plan to increase services to Budapest to fill in the hole left by Malév’s services to the city, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of all the air traffic at the Budapest airport.

source: praguepost.com

UK-based bargain airline easyJet has thrown its weight behind the development of an electric taxiing system in a bid to cut its fuel consumption and enhance its environmental credibility. The “‘electric green taxiing system'” (EGTS) is a joint venture by engineering and aerospace conglomerates Honeywell and Safran. Safran claims that four percent of easyJet’s fuel consumption is used taxiing aircraft before take off and after landing from and to gates.

Four percent may not sound much, but it’s a figure that’s higher than the norm for budget airlines like easyJet which typically have a high turnover of short-haul flights and so spend a proportionately higher amount of time on the ground. easyJet’s planes are thought to average 20 minutes of taxiing time per flight, amounting to 3.5 million ground-miles a year over its entire fleet.

source: gizmag.com

Budget airline easyJet saw passenger numbers nudge 0.4% lower last month, but the load factory saw a slightly improvement.

The load factor – a measure airlines use to gauge how full their planes are – increased by three percentage points (pp) from 78.9% to 81.9% year-on-year. This, however, is well under the 12-month rolling average load factor of 87.7%.

source: sharecast.com

The European Court of Justice will today hear a landmark case involving Ryanair and the rights of passengers affected by natural events such as the ash cloud generated by volcanic eruptions.

In March 2010 the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in Iceland, resulting in the creation of a huge ash cloud over Europe which closed swathes of European airspace from April 15th to 23rd, grounding aircraft and leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

Ryanair has argued the closure of airspace went beyond extraordinary circumstances and that it shouldn’t be liable for associated passenger costs.

source: irishtimes.com

Rising baggage charges and weakening competition helped EasyJet push up revenues per seat by 8 per cent in the three months to December, buoying investor confidence.

The mild winter also helped Europe’s second-biggest budget carrier, with an absence of snow-related disruptions boosting the number of seats flown in its first quarter and subduing unit costs other than fuel.

But innovations aimed at boosting the number of higher-paying business passengers are not yet proving drivers of top-line growth. Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, EasyJet’s founder and biggest shareholder, on Thursday lambasted management for trumpeting an incremental, 200,000-person rise in the number of passengers who said they were travelling on business.

source: FT.com

Start-up carrier JetXtra.com has been ordered by the Civil Aviation Authority to stop selling seats after the company claimed, incorrectly, that bookings would be protected by travel partner CTT Group’s ATOL.

The CAA said today that it had not yet approved an increase in the number of licensed sales CTT could make in a year so JetXtra’s bookings were not covered by its ATOL.

The carrier, launched by the founder of failed airline venture Nexus, started selling summer-only flights from Humberside Airport to Majorca and Malaga earlier this month.

source: Travelmole

Alaska Airlines, America’s seventh-largest carrier in terms of passenger traffic, said on Wednesday that it would end a decades-old tradition of handing out prayer cards with its in-flight meals.

The prayer cards, which the Seattle-based airline began offering in the 1970s after an executive spotted them on another airline, were intended to serve as a marketing strategy and to put passengers at ease, a spokeswoman said.

The airline sent an e-mail to its frequent flyers on Wednesday explaining the change, which takes effect February 1.

source: Reuters

Spanish airline Iberia‘s new low-cost carrier Iberia Express, whose creation has been stiffly opposed by unions, will operate its first flight on March 25, company president Antonio Vasquez said Monday.

Iberia argues the move is needed to help it compete with other low-cost carriers but employees of the airline fear it will lead to job losses and lower salaries.

Iberia says the pilots’ strikes later this month would cause 289 flight cancellations over the three days, mostly within Spain and Europe.

source: Expatica.com

You’ll have more company on some full Southwest Airlines flights beginning this summer.

That’s when the Dallas-based low-cost airline begins a $60 million overhaul of the interiors of its Boeing 737-700 aircraft. The upgrade process will mean installing new carpet and new seats. In the process, Southwest’s 737-700s will gain six seats each, raising capacity from the present 137 to 143.

But Southwest claims you’ll hardly notice if you’re a passenger. The new seats are both lighter ” by about 6 pounds each ” and thinner, said the airline.

source: seattletimes.nwsource.com

Australia’s consumer watchdog has taken budget airline AirAsia to court for allegedly failing to disclose the full price of fares for international flights from Australia.

The regulator began legal proceedings in Melbourne seeking penalties and orders for the Malaysian airline to issue corrective notices on its website.

In documents filed in the Federal Court, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission claims that fares sold on the airline’s website disclosed only part of the total price for flights from Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Perth to destinations in Asia, Europe and India because they excluded taxes, fees and other charges.

source: Heraldsun.com.au