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Aer Lingus is to launch a new low-cost service between London Gatwick and Dublin – taking on rival Ryanair.

The London Gatwick service will operate four times daily at times scheduled to suit both business and leisure travellers.

The schedule – which will include the first morning departure of any carrier from Dublin to London Gatwick – will complement Aer Lingus’ highly successful Dublin to London Heathrow service.

source: irishpost.co.uk

In a move that will be a boost to travelers benefitting from cheaper air fares and a headache to discount airlines like JetBlue Airways Corp. and Southwest Airlines Co. who are going to face more competition, newcomer Virgin America Inc. began selling tickets Thursday in preparation for starting service next month from San Francisco to Kennedy Airport.

San Francisco-based Virgin America, the low-fare airline partly owned by United Kingdom billionaire Richard Branson, said it plans to begin flying Aug. 8 from San Francisco to Kennedy, charging an introductory one-way fare of $139. Service to Las Vegas and Dulles Airport in suburban Virginia are to be added in the next two months, Virgin said.

Ryanair today announced 11 new routes from its bases in Barcelona, Bremen, Brussels, Dublin, London, Marseille and Milan. The airline also cancelled another 11 routes.

These 11 new routes bring the Ryanair network to 499 routes across 26 countries and mark the reinstatement of low fare flights between France and Morocco following the French Government’s refusal in December to proceed, as other European countries did, with the prompt application of the already agreed EU Morocco open-skies agreement.

source: finfacts.com

Aer Lingus, the Irish low-cost, low-fares airline today announced that it will commence scheduled services between Dublin and London Gatwick from the end of October 2007.

The London Gatwick service will operate four times daily at times scheduled to suit both business and leisure travellers. This schedule, which will include the first morning departure of any carrier from Dublin to London Gatwick, will complement Aer Lingus’ highly successful Dublin to London Heathrow service.

source: Easier

easyJet today announced plans to commence operations at Birmingham International Airport with the introduction of two new routes connecting Birmingham with Geneva and Grenoble.

As the second largest city in the UK, Birmingham has a huge catchment area and a demand for low-fare services and as a result the airline expects to carry 45,000 passengers on these two new routes within the first season of operation.

source: Easier

In the face of increasing competition from international airlines on the profitable India-US route, Air India will introduce direct non-stop flights between Mumbai and New York from August 1.

Two other non-stop flights – between New Delhi and New York and Bangalore and San Francisco – will be launched in February and mid-next year respectively.

The Mumbai-New York flight time will be around 14 hours.

source: chennaionline.com

American Airlines is to go head-to-head with Eos and MAXjet at Stansted on the transatlantic route to New York JFK. The airline announced today that it will launch daily services from the Essex airport from 29 October and will add a second daily service from March 2008.

The new services will be operated by two-class Boeing 767-300 aircraft with 221 seats, including 30 in business class. The airline has recently revamped its business class to include lie-flat seats and audio and video on demand.

source: Times Online

Belgian flag carrier Brussels Airlines is to introduce four more aircraft for its East African customers.

This is in a review of its operations in the region that will see the line take on competition from Nairobi and Entebbe.

In the realignment that takes effect from December 16, Entebbe will get two new direct flights to Europe per week while Rwanda and Burundi will get an additional service each.

source: NationMedia.com

Spanish low-cost airline clickair inaugurated its Malta-Barcelona route yesterday with the arrival of the airline’s first flight at Malta International Airport. The airline will operate the route on a twice-weekly basis until October, after which it will review its plans.

But, as Clickair chief executive officer Alex Cruz said yesterday, “‘Continuity is our goal and by design we wish to remain in all the markets we have entered.'”

Clickair, despite being just a little over one year old, is Barcelona’s biggest operator in terms of routes offered and is the biggest operator out of Seville in terms of both routes and passengers.

source: The Malta Independent

The German budget airline Germanwings starts flights between Dortmund and Istanbul last week. The company will also launch flights between Dortmund and Vienna, Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza and Faro. Germanwings already flies to Istanbul from Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Berlin. It will add Ankara, Ä°zmir, Antalya to its destinations later in the summer.

source: turkishdailynews.com.tr