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A merger between Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Northwest (NWA) or United (UAUA) would greatly extend the reach of the resulting airline, giving it influence over service and fares in more major U.S. business markets than any of them has today.

A Delta-United deal would be an industry game-changer, giving the combined carrier heft in eight of the USA’s 12 biggest business markets, according to a USA TODAY analysis of schedule data from OAGback Aviation Solutions. The analysis combines the current shares of each carrier in the big markets, establishing a rough estimate of the share the combined carrier might control.

None of the airlines has publicly confirmed merger talks, but outsiders last week, including U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., confirmed Delta-Northwest merger talks and the possibility that Delta-United talks could heat up.

source: USA Today

A former United Airlines flight attendant who narrowly missed being on one of the hijacked jets that crashed into the World Trade Center has settled a federal lawsuit that accused the airline of wrongfully firing her after she was unable to work because of posttraumatic stress disorder.

Deborah Jackson of Plaistow, N.H., had worked for United Airlines out of Logan International Airport for 17 years when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks occurred, according to the suit. She reached a settlement with the airline under terms that were not disclosed in papers filed yesterday in US District Court in Boston.

source: Boston.com

Tiger Airways Singapore, flight TR717 from Perth to Singapore, was postponed on Saturday night after the captain became concerned about his crew working overtime.

Because of its low-cost, the airline has no stand-by crew at destinations other than Melbourne and Singapore.

Matt Hobbs, spokesman for the airline’s sister company Tiger Airways Australia, said he didn’t expect overtime issues would be a problem for Adelaide passengers to Melbourne.

“‘They (international crew) can work for 10 hours straight so I don’t think they will go out of hours in Adelaide because it’s a 50-minute flight.”’

Angry passengers were informed of the flight cancellation at 10.30pm, three hours after its scheduled departure, and were told to go home and return the following day or stay at the airport.

source: News.com.au

Business-class-only airline Eos has experienced a strong recovery in bookings after the holiday season, its chief executive said as he defended a business model that has been questioned since the collapse of rival MAXjet.

Jack Williams told Reuters on Tuesday the airline’s four planes were 70 percent full last week and he expected the trend to continue into late January.

“‘For us, the holiday period was pretty seasonal, but we’ve seen a pretty good bounce-back since the New Year,'” he added. U.S. private equity-owned Eos operates at the top end of the transatlantic business class market, serving clients in the major financial institutions, while MAXjet was at the budget end of business class.

source: Guardian

The first of a series of regular passenger flight to Antarctica took place on Friday, establishing the first regular service between Australia and the white continent.

A blue ice runway was built at a cost of $41 million, although there is no indication of how long it will last or how it was decided this would be cost effective. The wire service says this feat of engineering will bring scientists and other Australian Antarctic Division staff – but not tourists – to Antarctica on a weekly basis in the warmer months between October and March.

source: Nature

EasyJet will this week launch a credit card with loyalty perks just in time for the post-Christmas rush to book holidays.

The card, which charges interest at 16.9% on purchases – just above the average rate of about 15% – offers one free easyJet flight worth up to £40 including taxes if at least £250 is spent on the card in the first three months.

Also in the first three months it will offer 10% back on easyJet flights and purchases such as hotels and car hire made when booking the flight.

source: This is Money

American Airlines has been named Best International Airline for 2007 by readers of Travel Weekly in its annual Readers Choice Awards competition.

Travel Weekly announced the award at a recent ceremony and will publish the results in its Jan. 21 issue. American was chosen from a list of five finalists that also included British Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. About 5,000 Travel Weekly readers, which include travel agents and marketing executives, voted to select the finalists in this year’s polling and those readers were then asked to vote for the nominees in 51 categories.

source: CNN.com

Passengers flying from UK airports face chaos and confusion at check-in desks with the introduction of complex new rules on hand-baggage allowance.

The Department of Transport is allowing two items of hand luggage to be carried through 22 UK airports, including Glasgow, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Heathrow, London City, Manchester, Newcastle, Plymouth, Southampton, Southend and Stansted.

But other airports have not yet been given permission to accept more than one bag, including Gatwick, Luton, Leeds Bradford and Liverpool.

Some airlines will continue to restrict passengers to one item of hand luggage, even at airports which have permission to carry more.

source: Times On Line

Low-budget airline Jazeera Airlines said yesterday it would debut on the Kuwaiti stock market on January 14, more than six months later than initially planned.

The company won Kuwaiti approval for the listing, Jazeera said. It had initially planned to list its shares in the second quarter, but had to wait for final approval.

Jazeera shareholders approved in September 2006 a plan to double the airline’s capital to 20 million dinars ($73.23m) by selling stock to existing shareholders.

source:  Gulf Daily News

Europe’s environment chiefs have, as predicted, delivered a politically charged salvo to the world’s airlines over plans to wrap international flights into the European Union emissions trading scheme (EU ETS).

The compromise deal hammered out between the EU’s 27 member states on 20 December at the Council of Ministers represents the collective state-level response to the European Commission’s original proposal to impose a cap on aviation’s CO2 emissions in the same way other energy-intensive industries are already treated.

source: flightglobal.com