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Spanish airlines are facing growing pressure on their domestic routes from the expansion of the country’s high-speed railway network, which the government says will be the world’s most extensive by 2010.

State-owned railway operator Renfe opened a bullet train service between Madrid and Malaga on the Mediterranean coast in December and between the Spanish capital and Barcelona, Spain’s second-largest city, two months later.

“‘We have the largest amount of high-speed rail under construction, with five times more than the next country, Japan, and in just two years we will have the most kilometres of high-speed in operation,'” Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa de la Vega said at the time.

source: AFP

Customer satisfaction with airlines in the United States has fallen to its lowest level since 2001, according to a survey published on Tuesday.

The University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index found that the airline industry scored a mere 62 on a 100-point scale for the first quarter of 2008.

Thousands of flight cancellations for safety checks have battered some airlines’ reputations with customers this year.

US Airways Group Inc and United Airlines, which have recently been in merger talks, received the lowest scores in the poll: 54 and 56, respectively.

Continental Airlines fell 10 percent to 62 in the poll, a score that matches its all-time low, and Northwest Airlines, which has agreed to be acquired by Delta Air Lines Inc, fell 7 percent to 57, its lowest score since 2001.

source: Reuters

iPhone is about to hit Singapore and the country’s airline announced iPod and iPhone connectivity on its newly reconfigured, all-Business Class Airbus A340-500 flights between New York and Singapore, and between Los Angeles and Singapore. According to the official release, passengers are able to enjoy their personal audio and video content from their iPod or iPhone on Singapore Airlines’ KrisWorld in-flight entertainment system. Each seat features a 15.4-inch wide LCD screen as well as active noise-cancellation headphones.

source: Intomobile

A plane of the Norwegian Air Shuttle low-cost airline whose crew reported a fire aboard safely landed at Prague’s Ruzyne airport and the fire has been extinguished, investigator Jiri Hosek, from Prague firefighter corps, told CTK.

Nobody of the crew and 131 passengers has been injured during the fire and the emergency landing.

source: Prague Daily Monitor

An Austin businessman was charged with disorderly conduct after he allegedly refused to stop using his mobile phone on a flight Monday from Austin to Dallas Love Field.

Dallas police met the plane after the pilot radioed ahead to the Love Field tower. They cited Joe David Jones, 50, president of an Austin-based environmental start-up company called Skyonic Corp., with the Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500.

The incident occurred as a Southwest flight from Austin began its descent into Dallas.

source: Dallas News

A New York man who says he was denied a seat on a five-hour jetBlue flight and was instead told to “‘hang out'” in the plane’s bathroom has sued the airline for $2 million, saying he suffered “‘extreme humiliation.'”

When Gokhan Mutlu arrived to check in for a jetBlue flight from San Diego to New York in February he was told the flight was full, according to the lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.

But Mutlu was allowed to board after a jetBlue flight attendant agreed to give up her seat and travel in an airline employee “‘jump seat.'” It was not clear in the lawsuit whether the flight attendant was working.

source: Reuters

Isle of Man airline EuroManx has ceased trading today, blaming rising fuel prices and falling passenger numbers.

The airline has become the latest airline casualty following the recent collapses of carriers Eos, Oasis, Nationwide and MAXJet.

Euromanx has provided services dedicated to the Isle of Man for the past five years.

source: Travelweekly.co.uk

One in three European airline and travel Web sites conceal the true cost of flights until consumers are close to booking, according to a report from the European Commission, which on Thursday is to threaten new measures against the industry if the abuses continue.The warning from the commission follows a survey that found that dozens of well-known travel operators, budget airlines and national carriers are probably in breach of European Union consumer protection law.

The survey, coordinated by the European commissioner for consumer protection, Meglena Kuneva, found that many Web sites present more than one type of irregularity. The biggest reported problem was misleading pricing, affecting 79 Web sites under investigation, while 67 sites gave consumers contract details in the wrong language or had optional services added on automatically unless a box was unchecked.

source: iht.com

From July, the airline will operate twice-weekly flights to Toronto departing on a Monday and Wednesday, with the weekly flight to Vancouver departing on a Thursday.

The summer programme has started offering a full scheduled service with fares from as low as £329 return including all taxes to Toronto and from just £429 return including all taxes to Vancouver.

Lori Burke, marketing manager of Zoom Airlines, said: “We are delighted to be doubling our frequency out of Cardiff to Toronto this summer. The increase year-on-year in passenger numbers since we first started operating from Cardiff in summer 2005, has been exceptional.

source: icnetwork.co.uk

A senior American Airlines executive said on Tuesday that London’s Heathrow was the worst airport used by the company in Europe.

Don Langford, head of customer services Europe for the airline, said its base at Terminal 3 had suffered from a lack of investment and was “‘a bit of a dump'”.

“‘I would have to say that Heathrow is in many ways the worst of all the airports that my company flies to in Europe,'” he told the BBC.

source: Reuters