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Low cost fares, quirky blue potato chips and even a mea culpa from JetBlue Airways’ founder may not be enough to ease passenger anxiety Monday as the airline braces for another day of disrupted flights.

The company said it would be canceling almost a quarter of the day’s flights but hopes to be fully operational on Tuesday, almost a week after a Valentine’s Day snowstorm created a meltdown for the airline.

David G. Neeleman, the company’s founder and chief executive, said he was “humiliated and mortified” by the breakdown in the airline’s operations. He promised in an interview with The New York Times for its Monday editions that in the future the company would pay penalties to customers should they be stranded on a plane for too long.

fuente: ABC Actions News

As an ice storm stranded JetBlue airplanes for up to 10½ hours, passengers sat within sight of the terminal without food, adequate restrooms or a reasonable explanation as to why they weren’t moving.

They could have been evacuated much sooner if the airline hadn’t waited so long to ask airport officials for help. JetBlue acknowledged Thursday that it hesitated nearly five hours before calling in shuttle buses to unload 10 jets that spent much of Wednesday sitting on runways because of icy weather and gate congestion.

source: TheGlobe&Mail

Uk low-cost airline Easyjet opened its 17th base at Madrid’s Barajas airport.

The airline said it expects to carry over 2 million passengers from Madrid this year on 18 routes.

Last year the airline said it carried 8.4 million passengers to and from Spain – a 15% increase on the previous year.

First airlines took away free food. Then blankets and pillows disappeared. And now checked luggage may be on the endangered list.

Spirit Airlines will become the first U.S. carrier to allow passengers to check only one piece of luggage for free. A second bag will cost passengers $10.

“‘I’m surprised it’s taken them this long to get around to doing this,'” aviation analyst Darryl Jenkins said.

Spirit says it’s a way to keep ticket prices low, but passengers worry about other airlines joining in.

source: ABC News

Aer Lingus has signed a strategic partnership with JetBlue, a low-cost American airline, that will allow passengers access to 51 routes across the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Set to launch in August, the deal is designed to give Aer Lingus passengers travelling to New York JFK and Boston the opportunity to connect with JetBlue flights to destinations across the US, to Cancun in Mexico and to the Caribbean islands of Aruba, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.

The deal comes against a backdrop of increased transatlantic competition. Delta and American Airlines are all adding capacity to their Irish routes while Flyglobespan last week agreed a deal to offer services to New York from Knock airport.

source: AMT online

Brazil’s airline company Gol in January increased the number of passengers it transported by 70% when compared to January 2006. The occupation rate was 77%.

Also when compared with January 2006, domestic passenger traffic increased 61%. International passenger traffic increased 174%. The occupation rate in these flights was 68%.

The information was provided by the company’s press office, which also informed that the average ticket price went down 15% in the last year. When compared to last December, however. ticket had a 1% hike.

source: Brazzilmag.com

Ryanair announced today its 19th European base in Düsseldorf Weeze. From June 2007, Ryanair will invest €140m in two new aircraft and 10 routes. Ryanair will deliver 1 million passengers in its first full year, rising to 2 million p.a. from 2008. Europe’s largest low fares airline also today annoujnced 16 new routes across Europe.

These 2 million passengers will create 2,000 local jobs and enable passengers to fly for a fraction of the high fares charged at Düsseldorf International airport.

source: finfacts.com

Southwest Airlines Co. on Monday said January traffic rose 8.8 percent on expanded capacity on its flights.

Traffic rose to 5.18 billion revenue passenger miles from 4.76 billion a year ago. A revenue passenger mile is equal to one paying passenger flown one mile.

Capacity during the month increased to 8.12 billion available seat miles, up 8.2 percent to 7.51 billion in the same month last year. Load factor, or occupancy, rose slightly to 63.8 percent from 63.4 percent.

source: Business Week

Ryanair posted a 30 percent jump in third-quarter net profit on Monday, confounding analyst expectations for a fall, and ramped up its full-year profit goal while predicting big fuel-cost savings for the following year.

Europe’s biggest low-cost carrier said profit after tax rose to 47.7 million euros (31.4 million pounds) in the three months to end December from 36.8 million in the same period of 2005, against analyst expectations that they would fall by over 60 percent.

source: Reuters

Jazeera Airways, the Middle East’s first private passenger airline, this weekend launched its direct flights between Kuwait and the resort destination Sharm El Sheikh.

The airline flies twice a week from Kuwait to the city every Thursday and Sunday, operating brand new Airbus A320s, all fitted with leather seats.

source: AMEinfo