news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, Brazil’s low-cost, low-fare airline, marks its sixth anniversary of operations today. The Company, which took on the unprecedented responsibility of popularizing air transportation in Brazil and South America, celebrates this anniversary with some of the best numbers in the history of Brazilian aviation. Over the last six years, GOL transported 55 million passengers; including five million first time flyers. GOL’s current fleet of 65 aircraft operates over 600 daily flights to 55 destinations, including seven international routes to five countries in South America. In December 2006, GOL had domestic and international Brazilian market shares of 37.1 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively. The Company’s average load factor in 2006 was 74%, the highest in the industry, and GOL has been the most punctual airline in Brazil for over 18 months.

source: Yahoo!

A second dead body had been found on in the wheel well of aircraft originating from West Africa over the weekend.

Belgian carrier SN Brussels has confirmed that a deceased human body has been found inside the main gear wheel well Number 1 (left) of an Airbus A330-300 operating flight SN 204 from Banjul, The Gambia via Dakar, Senegal that landed at Brussels airport this morning. SN Brussels Airlines, which is soon to complete its merger with Virgin Express to become Brussels Airlines, says it is cooperating fully with the Belgian investigation authorities.

source: flightglobal.com

Ryanair today announced that it had taken a record 1,000,000 bookings between the 5^th and the 11^th of January. This is the first time Ryanair has sold more than 1m seats in a week and makes Ryanair the first European low fares airline to do so.

source: finfacts

A second new airline for the Caribbean has been born. It is to be called “‘LIAT, The Star of the Caribbean'” and will start up operation at the crack of dawn on Thursday February 1, 2007 – one month after the other new carrier, Caribbean Airlines, took to the skies.

source:  Caribbean360.com

The Mexican low-cost carrier Interjet has signed a contract with Airbus at the end of December 2006 for the acquisition of ten additional A320s, hereby converting their options into a firm order. These were part of an order for ten A320s plus ten options placed at the Paris Air Show in June 2005.

Interjet is based at Toluca airport near Mexico City, and recently celebrated its first anniversary of scheduled services in the Mexican domestic market.

source: luchtzak.be

Monarch have this week announced the introduction of new low cost air fares for economy flights from London to Larnaca for 2007, pushing Cyprus further up the property hotspot list for 2007.

Cyprus is already tipped as being one of the top 3 investment opportunities in Europe for the overseas investor in 2007, and this news will add more fuel to the buying frenzy.

source: UKPRwire

The German low-cost LTU International Airline will take over most of the collapsed carrier Air Madrid’s Latin American routes and about half of its staff, the Spanish Infrastructures Ministry said Tuesday.

Air Madrid suspended operations and its licence was cancelled mid- December over delays, security concerns and other problems, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded.

The ministry said LTU would take over Air Madrid’s routes from Spain to Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Peru. The agreement, which will not cover routes to Brazil and Colombia, was expected to go into force by the end of the month.

source: Playfuls.com

American Airlines might have lost out on its bid to fly to Beijing, but the airline on Tuesday announced two deals to swap passengers with airlines in Hungary and the Ukraine.

American said it applied to the Transportation Department for permission to begin a code share service with Malev Hungarian Airlines, under which the carriers would sell each other’s seats. The code sharing would begin March 25.

American would place its AA designator code on Malev daily flights between Budapest and New York JFK, as well as on flights to Budapest to and from London Gatwick, Frankfurt, Paris de Gaulle, Brussels, Rome and Zurich. Also included are flights beyond Budapest to destinations in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Malev would place its MA designator code on American’s trans-Atlantic flights between Malev’s European gateways and the United States, as well as on AA flights between New York and Toronto and other points in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and South America.

American and Malev also said they plan a reciprocal agreement allowing their frequent flyers to redeem their miles or points on each airline.

Norwegian airlines have registered a marked increase in passenger traffic in 2006, from 14.5 million passengers in 2005 to nearly 17 million last year.

More than five million passengers travelled with low fare airline Norwegian in 2006, up by more than 55 per cent from the previous year.

source: The Norway Post

Alaska Airlines will open two nonstop transcontinental markets from Portland beginning Sept. 9, the airline announced Friday.

Seattle-based Alaska began selling seats Friday for Portland’s only daily nonstop flights to Boston and Orlando.

To start the new service, Alaska is offering introductory one-way fares of $99, plus fees, for Portland-Boston and Portland-Orlando flights. Customers must purchase their tickets by Feb. 8 and travel by Dec. 14.

source: Oregon Live