news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

The airline industry has presented its vision for the future of check-in security, including hi-tech colour-coded scanning corridors.

Passengers will be able to keep their shoes on and their bags in their hand – toothpaste, nail clippers, laptops and all – as they pass through the “‘checkpoint of the future'”.

Under a mock-up checkpoint on display at the ‘Aviation Security World Conference’ in Amsterdam, passengers are guided into one of three corridors upon presenting their passports: blue for frequent travellers, purple for normal passengers and orange for those deemed to require enhanced vetting.

People do not have to empty their pockets, remove any of their clothing or subject themselves to pat-downs before walking through a 20-foot tunnel that scans metals, liquids, laptops and other potential dangers one by one.

source: Press Association

Italy has emerged as the most popular holiday country in the ‘Conde Nast Traveller Readers’ Travel Awards’.

A ceremony was held at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in central London on Wednesday night (August 31st) to crown the winners, with Italy taking top prize in the country category ahead of the US, Turkey, Thailand and France.

The Greek isles topped the section covering the most popular island destinations, while the Maldives, Bali, Barbados and Mauritius completed the top five.

source: travelbite.co.uk

Australian airline on Monday said it had offered discounts on future travel to some passengers after a man died on their 11-hour flight from Singapore to New Zealand.

The 31-year-old New Zealander, Robert Rippingale, had been watching a movie and eating his in-flight meal on the Jetstar flight to Auckland last week when his girlfriend Vanessa Preechakul noticed he seemed to be struggling.

A doctor and two nurses who were on board rushed to help the man, but were unable to save him and he was declared dead some 90 minutes into the flight.

source: straitstimes.com

The U.S. State Department on Friday broadened its travel warning on Mexico to include parts of five additional states, including a highway where suspected drug gangs shot two U.S. customs officials in February.

The warning advises US government personnel and American citizens to defer nonessential travel in certain parts of Jalisco, Nayarit, San Luis Potosi, Sonora and Zacatecas.

It outright bans US employees from traveling to Colotlan and Yahualica, two cities in the central-west state of Jalisco near the Zacatecas border due to increasing drug gang violence.

source: Reuters

By 2029, Boeing predicted the global fleet would expand some 64% to 30,900 aircraft from 18,890 today, a $3.6 trillion opportunity for the builders of passenger and cargo jetliners.

That’s up from the past year’s industry forecast of 29,000 at $3.2 trillion when global air traffic was projected to fall 4% for the year.

source: Market Watch

The airline went out of business in March with debts of £4.5m after a potential rescue deal fell through. Now, 92 members of staff agreed pay cuts amounting to a total of £746,000 to try to save the airline.

Highland Airways had operated flights in Scotland and Wales.

source: BBC News

Only a quarter of travel insurance policies offer cover if the policy holder is stranded because their airline has gone bust, according to a new study.

The research by Defaqto found 77% of travel insurance policies do not cover airline failure.

Even insurers that cover airline failure may only offer a refund for the missed flight, and not for other components of a holiday such as accommodation and pre-booked activities.

source: Finance Markets

A solar-powered plane is getting ready to hit the skies once again – this time, at night.

It will be the first ever manned night flight on a plane propelled exclusively by solar energy.

The aim of the project’s founders, Andre Borschberg and round-the-world balloonist Bertrand Piccard, is to show that a solar-powered craft is able to fly day and night – and eventually long-distance flights – without any fuel.

The ultimate aim is to push the frontier of renewable solar energy. In two years’ time, the plane will set off on its first manned transatlantic solar flight, followed in 2013 by an even more daring circumnavigation of the Earth.

source: BBC News

The Iraqi government has said it will close the state-owned Iraqi Airways after declaring it bankrupt.

Iraq’s transportation ministry told reporters the airline would be closed following a damaging dispute with Kuwait over war reparations. Kuwait Airways says the Iraqi flag carrier owes it about $1.2bn for aircraft and plane parts taken during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

All scheduled Iraqi Airways flights have been cancelled.

source: BBC News

Passengers can claim no more than about €1,100 from airlines that lose their baggage, regardless of the value of the contents, the European Court of Justice has confirmed.

In a case brought by a traveller who had claimed three times as much, the court this week ruled that air carriers’ liability for lost baggage is limited to the amounts set in the Montreal Convention, which was approved by the EU in 2001. This sets the maximum compensation at 1,000 special drawing rights for each passenger, equivalent to about €1,134 at current exchange rates.

source: Irish Times