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Air India said that it plans to introduce its low-cost Air-India express service from Bahrain, beginning Jan.1, 2007.

The budget airline is to initially operate on the Bahrain-Mumbai route and expand to other sectors in India.

An airline official said that the fares for the service will be 20% less than the published fare, providing relief to a large number of low paid workers in the Gulf.

The airline also decided to phase out first and business class services on routes out of Bahrain once the Air-India Express service comes into operation, the official added.

Low-cost airline EasyJet is being investigated over allegations of infringing of French employment legislation, a source in the public prosecutor’s office said.

Tax and labour inspectors raided the Paris offices of easyJet to check for possible breaches of the law.

The operation ‘was aimed at establishing the judicial status of easyJet’s operating base in Orly,’ the site of Paris’s second international airport, ‘in relation to French labour laws,’ a transport inspection official said.

source: finanznachrichten.de

The flights of hundreds of thousands of passengers were placed in doubt, especially during the Christmas holiday period, after Spain’s government threatened to suspend the operating license of low-cost carrier Air Madrid for continuous departure delays.

The airline has come under fierce criticism in recent months for delays that have kept hundreds of passengers stuck at Madrid’s Barajas international airport for days.

A month ago, an Air Madrid flight from Madrid to Buenos Aires departed with a one-day delay. Police had to intervene when passengers protested at the airport’s terminal.

Air Madrid said on Wednesday that the company has sold some 300,000 tickets to passengers in the coming months.

source: Internacional Herald Tribune

JetBlue Airways Corp. said Tuesday it launched new daily nonstop service to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Boston for the winter season.

The service will operate through April 30 and is the low-cost carrier’s 22nd nonstop destination from Boston.

JetBlue has recently scaled back its growth plans as part of its goal to return to consistent profitability.

source: MSN

The new route sees Thomsonfly’s low-fare routes from the airport up to seven, with other destinations from Cardiff including Jersey, Faro in Portugal, and Alicante, Malaga, Ibiza and Palma in Spain.

“‘The introduction of flights between Cardiff and Barcelona is a very exciting milestone for both Cardiff and Thomsonfly, this is the first time a major new international route has been launched from Cardiff Airport with the support of the Welsh Assembly,'” said Guy Stephenson, Thomsonfly’s commercial director.

The airline says it plans to work closely with the airport and the Welsh Assembly to develop more routes in future.

source: travelbite.co.uk

GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, Brazil’s low-cost, low-fare airline, has announced that beginning January 1, 2007, commissions paid to travel agents on GOL ticket sales will be reduced to 7 percent for domestic flights and 6 percent for international flights.

The decision is part of the GOL’s overall cost reduction plan which is expected to reduce operating costs. The Company also expects annual cost savings of R$95-105 million in travel agency commissions in 2007. “‘Reducing our costs will allow the Company to offer even lower airfares and continue to popularize air transportation,'” says GOL’s Vice-president of Marketing and Services, Tarcisio Gargioni.

source: Yahoo! Finance

AirTran Airways reported today its November revenue passenger miles (RPMs), available seat miles (ASMs), and passengers enplaned all represent company records for the month.

AirTran Airways’ traffic, measured by revenue passenger miles (RPMs), grew by 15.4 percent, to over 1.1 billion RPMs, on an increase of 19.1 percent in capacity, based on available seat miles (ASMs). November’s load factor was 69.2 percent. The airline enplaned more than 1.6 million passengers in the month of November, a 14.5 percent increase from November 2005.

source: PR Newswire

JetBlue, a fast-growing airlines, said it is delaying deliveries of 32 new Embraer 190 jets it had been scheduled to receive from 2007 to 2010.The main reasons attributed to postpone the order are higher fuel prices and increasing competition.

source: The New Observer

Tiger Airways, Singapore’s low fare airline, has been named Centre of Asia-Pacific Aviation (CAPA) Low Cost Airline of the Year (2006). The airline was selected from amongst Low Cost Airlines (LCC) in Asia Pacific and the Middle East region to receive the CAPA Aviation Award for Excellence.

bmibaby has launched phase two of it’s exciting rapid expansion programme at Birmingham International Airport for Summer 2007. The expansion plan breaks down into three key initiatives: the introduction of four new routes to Barcelona, Lisbon, Marseille Provence and Rome (Fiumicino); a ramping up of frequencies on key Mediterranean routes; and an increase in frequencies on key domestic routes.

source: Easier