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The low-fares airline Ryanair has lost its battle to win control of an Internet domain name from a disgruntled former customer, according to a ruling issued by a United Nations panel Wednesday.

Michael Coulston of London, England, set up a Web site in July under the domain name http://www.ryanaircampaign.org which is critical of Ryanair’s business practices.

The Irish carrier complained to the World Intellectual Property Organization that the domain name infringed on its trademarks and should therefore be transferred into Ryanair’s possession.

source: International Herald Tribune

AirAsia will be strengthening and enhancing its route network by connecting all the existing cities it flies to and expanding to new destinations, group chief executive officer Datuk Tony Fernandes said.

The budget carrier plans to expand further in Indochina, Indonesia, Southern China and India next year with the delivery of more new Airbus A320s.

source: the star online

Spirit Airlines has received approval from the U.S. government to fly to Haiti from Fort Lauderdale, the local low-cost carrier’s president and CEO said Friday.

Spirit plans to start daily flights to Port-au-Prince in April, Ben Baldanza said during an interview with The Miami Herald on Friday.

source: MiamiHerald.com

No frills airline Ryanair yesterday withdrew its ambitious bid to take over Ireland’s national carrier Aer Lingus after the European Commission announced an “‘in-depth investigation'” into its plans.

Following the announcement Ryanair said the buyout automatically lapsed under takeover rules – but the company still intends to make a further offer for Aer Lingus if the EC review clears the way.

Dublin-based Ryanair launched its £1 billion bid in October – a takeover offer which Aer Lingus asked shareholders to reject.

source: The Birminghan Post

Italy’s Meridiana airline, owned by the Aga Khan, said it is buying a 29.9 pct stake in the quoted charter airline Eurofly SpA from Eurofly’s 44 pct shareholder Spinnaker.

The sale is subject to approval by Italy’s antitrust authority and cancellation of the lock-up on Spinnaker selling shares, it said.

source: Forbes

Italian low-cost airline MyAir, which has been operating on the domestic market for around two years, plans to introduce some internal flights next year, being the first foreign airline to announce such intentions.

In the wake of EU integration and owing to the “open sky” regulation, foreign companies will be allowed to operate flights on any destinations inside the EU.

Thus, whereas so far an Italian airline could only operate flights from or to Italy, the “open sky” regulation will allow it to operate flights between any of the EU member states, as well as internal flights.

Turkish Airlines is looking to set up a low-cost operation as it works to join the Star Alliance in early 2008. The carrier says it may use Antalya-based leisure airline SunExpress, which it owns jointly with Germany’s Thomas Cook, as the base for its new low-cost subsidiary. It is unclear when the new airline, provisionally named Turkish Express, will be formally established, but Turkish says a launch is not imminent.

source: Flightglobal.com

Budget airline easyJet said it will expand its Edinburgh Airport operation by adding three low-cost direct flights to Italy and Spain.

The flights – daily to Madrid and Milan, and twice weekly to Palma in Spain – are scheduled to begin early next year.

They bring to 12 the number of destinations served by easyJet from Edinburgh, a capacity increase of 10 pct, the airline said.

source: Forbes

Chinese regulators fined a low-cost carrier nearly $20,000 after the airline rolled out a fare sale offering 13-cent tickets. In doing so, regulators say the airline broke national pricing rules: “‘Spring Airlines … sold more than 400 tickets on a new route between Shanghai and the northern city of Jinan for just 1 yuan (US $0.13),'”.

Spring Air’s fares apparently violated a 2004 rule that bars airlines from offering more than a 45% discount off government-set base fares. “‘A regular one-way ticket on that route costs 910 yuan (US $116), including taxes,'”. The case underscores the difficulty facing Chinese low-cost airlines, which are trying to model themselves on carriers such as Ireland’s Ryanair in bringing cheap no-frills travel to the world’s most populous nation.

source: USA today

Spain suspended the flying license of Air Madrid airline Saturday, hours after the troubled carrier announced it was halting operations, leaving thousands of passengers stranded in Spain and abroad.

The Civil Aviation authority rejected Air Madrid’s proposals to resolve problems with repeated flight delays and security issues.

“‘This decision has been taken with total independence of the absolutely irresponsible and unilateral behavior of the company,'” a Civil Aviation statement said.

The two-year-old carrier, which mainly flies between Spain and Latin America, announced Friday that it was suspending operations.

source: Columbian.com