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A bomb threat, later proved to be a hoax, forced Danish-based low-cost carrier Sterling to evacuate passengers from a plane due to leave Amsterdam for Oslo, Norway, an airline spokeswoman said Wednesday. After a two-hour delay, the plane left Amsterdam at 11:27 a.m.

The threat was placed to the carrier’s call centre in Norway. The anonymous caller alleged that a person on the plane was going to blow up a device in mid-air.

source: The Raw Story

Southwest Airlines has announced it will add 33 nonstop flights involving 26 cities.

The list includes new nonstop service between: Baltimore-Washington and Pittsburgh; Cleveland and Orlando, Fla.; Dallas Love Field and Birmingham, Ala.; and between Reno/Lake Tahoe and San Diego.

Some of the new flights begin March 11. The rest will start by April 15.

The new partnership between the two carriers, which is expected to drive incremental revenue and new customers to both AirTran Airways and Frontier, consists of three key components which will allow customers to easily book tickets to over 80 destinations from one another’s sites.

source: Earthtimes.org

Advertising watchdog on Wednesday criticised Irish airline Ryanair for promoting millions of “zero fare” flights that actually cost passengers up to 21.70 pounds.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the low-cost airline should have made clear that people would have to pay taxes and other charges on all tickets.

It upheld a complaint from Ryanair’s rival Monarch Airlines and ordered the Dublin-based company to drop the TV commercials.

source: Reuters

Bmibaby announced last week that travelers can now fly from Birmingham International Airport to Glasgow and Faro as well as Murcia. There will be four flights a week to Murcia and three flights a week to Faro with reduced fares.

source: Costablancaleader.com

The number of passengers flying on Easyjet planes rose 7.3% in October from the month before to 2.935m.

The Luton-based firm said its load factor, which measures how many seats were filled on its planes, fell 2.4 percentage points to 83.2% in October.

source: Moneyweek.com

UK airline Flybe bought British Airways’ struggling regional unit on Friday as part of plans to double the size of the airline and cut costs ahead of a stockmarket flotation in two years.

Flybe, a regional carrier based in southwest England, said it had agreed to buy BA Connect, a loss-making unit of British Airways, which it would use to expand its network in Europe.

The airline declined to give details of the deal but British Airways said it had taken a GBP106 million (USD$201.5 million) impairment charge on the sale and would take a 15 percent stake in Flybe under the deal.

source: Airwise

Ireland’s Aer Lingus issued a forthright rejection on Friday of a takeover bid by low-cost rival Ryanair and urged its shareholders to snub the offer valuing it at 1.48 billion euros.

In a strongly worded letter to shareholders, Chairman John Sharman reiterated the company’s view that Ryanair’s offer undervalues Aer Lingus and said Europe’s biggest budget carrier lacked the know-how to deal with unionised staff.

source: Reuters

Europe’s largest budget airline Ryanair Holdings Plc said Wednesday it has forged a partnership with internet bingo group Jackpotjoy.com to enable its passengers to play bingo while booking their flights and hotels and finalizing car hire on its website.

The carrier said this will become a new revenue source and help create cash flow from areas other than selling tickets.

source: Earthtimes.org

Germanwings, the low-cost airline belonging to Germany’s Lufthansa group, is poised to expand further into central and eastern Europe, CEO Thomas Winkelmann said Wednesday. “‘The most important goal we now have is eastern Europe’,” said Winkelmann in a briefing to business reporters.

The region is key to expansion plans because of its strong growth and large number of people keen to travel following the lifting of old restrictions, he said.

source: therawstory