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Despite most airlines banning voice calls, and polls showing passengers against the idea, customers onboard 20 Ryanair planes can now call somebody at 35,000ft.

The planes are mainly based in Dublin. But Ryanair says it will fit out all 170 of its aircraft over the next 18 months to allow all passengers to make and receive mobile calls and texts

A maximum of six people will be allowed to make calls at a time, however this may increase to 14.

The Dubai-based airline Emirates became the first airline to introduce an in-flight mobile phone service on a flight from Dubai to Casablanca, in March last year

source: Times Online

Global airline passenger traffic growth slowed in 2008 with North American demand falling in December by 4.3 per cent, the International Air Transport Association says.

Overall annual demand increased 1.6 per cent, down from 7.4 per cent recorded in 2007, IATA said Friday.

Capacity grew by 3.5 per cent, resulting in a full-year average load factor or percentage of filled seats of 75.9 per cent, down from 77.3 per cent a year earlier.

source: The Canadian Press

Japan Airlines will become the fourth airline in a year to use biofuel during a test flight tomorrow.

The hour-long Boeing 747-300 flight will be powered by 50 per cent traditional jet fuel while the other half came from a biofuel blend. Biofuel used in the latest flight at Tokyo airport was a mixture of camelina (a kind of flax), the flower jatropha and algae.

The world’s first test flight using biofuel was conducted by Britain’s Virgin Atlantic Airways last February.

source: dailymail.co.uk

Nordic Airways, a Stockholm-based airline that launched its first commercial flights between western Europe and Baghdad earlier this month, has had its operating license revoked due to financial troubles, a Swedish Transport Agency official said Saturday.

Agency spokesman Anders Lundblad said the license was pulled Friday after the Stockholm County Court rejected the company’s request for an extension to restructure itself.

Nordic Airways launched its Copenhagen-Baghdad route in the beginning of January with flights planned once a week between the Danish and Iraqi capitals.

source: Associated Press

A flight attendant is suing JetBlue Airways and Delta Air Lines, saying a male employee denied her a work-related flight because she wasn’t dressed provocatively enough.

The flight attendant, 37-year-old Karin Keegan of Pittsburgh, works for Delta. The airline has an agreement for JetBlue to ferry Delta flight attendants to job assignments on a standby basis.

Keegan’s lawsuit said a male JetBlue worker wouldn’t let her on a flight in October 2007 because she wasn’t dressed provocatively enough, then allowed other flight attendants with less seniority to board the plane.

JetBlue told the commission it is not liable because Keegan is not an employee. But federal law enables employees to sue over workplace harassment even when they are not directly employed by the alleged harasser.

source: USA Today

The air traffic control figures are the latest evidence of the damage that the credit crisis has done to the airline industry.

Planes have been grounded and routes cut as airlines struggle to cope with the fall in passenger numbers. Despite the evidence of a slowdown, the Department for Transport’s projections for future passenger figures show a steady increase.

The latest official projections showing passenger numbers rising from 241 million passengers per year in 2007 to 465m in 2030.

source: telegraph.co.uk

A new system for entry into the US comes into force next Monday, which will require travellers to submit electronically before their travel the information usually collected on green entry forms.

The Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) becomes mandatory next Monday (12 January) for travellers from countries which participate in the Visa Waiver Program, which includes the UK.

Once an application is accepted, the authorisation is valid for multiple visits during a period of two years or until the approval is revoked or your passport expires.

source: Business Travel World

Yoichi Shimamoto says United Airlines was negligent for allowing him to continue drinking to the point of inebriation during a flight from Osaka, Japan to San Francisco.

Shimamoto claims it was the multiple glasses of Burgundy, served at 20 minute intervals, which led him to strike his wife Ayisha, while the couple were walking through customs in December 2006.

In a lawsuit filed at the US District Court in Tampa, Florida, he claims the wine left him so drunk that “‘he could not manage himself'”.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

Argentina’s Senate gave final legislative approval to a government takeover of Spanish-owned Aerolineas Argentinas SA on Wednesday.

Supporters said the state will improve service by tackling constant flight cancellations and delays that have plagued the struggling flagship airline and its subsidiary Austral for years.

But the current owner, Madrid-based Grupo Marsans, has said in the past it might challenge the takeover before a World Bank arbitration body.

source: Associated Press

The ambitious consolidation strategy piloted by British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh started to unravel yesterday after merger talks with Australian rival Qantas were terminated.

Discussions to create a global airline based in London and Sydney have been under strain since they became public at the beginning of this month, with Qantas boss Alan Joyce warning of “‘significant hurdles'” to a deal.

Days earlier Walsh had extolled the virtues of creating a “truly global” airline, adding the simultaneous pursuit of deals with Spain’s Iberia and with American Airlines would not hamper progress.

source: Guardian.co.uk