news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Pilots at United Airlines lost on Thursday in their bid to postpone the integration of flight operations with Continental Airlines, an essential step to completing the 2010 merger of the two carriers.

The pilots’ argument that the training shortfall would endanger the public was “‘too speculative'” to justify pushing back the deadline, the U.S. District Judge said in an eight-page ruling.

United bought Continental last year in a $3.17 billion all-stock deal to form United Continental Holdings Inc, the world’s largest airline company. The two airlines continue to operate separately while they integrate operations.

source: Reuters

Although airfares have been on the rise for the last year or so, there is good news for holiday travelers:

Several of the nation’s largest airlines have dramatically reduced the number of dates on which they will impose a peak-travel surcharge. The fees, which range from $20 to $40, are typically added to one-way fares for flights on such popular travel dates as the day before ‘Thanksgiving’.

source: Los Angeles Times

American Airlines announced that it’s stepping up its in-flight dining program with new menu items created by cheffy-chefs Richard Sandoval and Marcus Samuelsson.

Chef Sandoval’s items are more entree-ish, and they’ll be served on premium-class seats on flights between the U.S. and Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Chef Samuelsson’s “‘New American Table menu'” items are more sandwichy, and will be available for purchase in the Main Cabin/Coach section on domestic flights more than two hours long.

source: pegasusnews.com

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and WestJet operated their first code share flights on September 26, 2011. The code share agreement between the two airlines will allow KLM to market and distribute WestJet operated flights under KLM flight numbers. This will enhance the travel possibilities for our customers, giving them access to 30 domestic Canadian routes.

source: traveldailynews.com

British Airways (BA) would be the most likely buyer of the Irish government’s 25 percent stake in Aer Lingus, the Irish airline’s largest shareholder Ryanair said on Thursday.

BA, which formed the International Airlines Group when it merged with Spain’s Iberia last year, has not expressed interest in buying the Aer Lingus stake, which the Irish government is considering selling.

source: Reuters

Aer Lingus has rejected calls by Ryanair, its largest shareholder, for the Irish flag-carrier to pay a special dividend.

Colm Barrington, Aer Lingus chairman, has told Ryanair that the carrier’s board is sticking by its view of May’s annual meeting that a dividend should be considered once a “‘more durable’” economic recovery is apparent.

Aer Lingus and Ryanair have been locked in a fractious relationship since Europe’s largest low-cost airline by revenue launched the first of two failed takeover bids in 2006. Both bids faltered after objections by the Irish government and European competition authorities.

source: FT.com

British Airways spent ­£20million on a new promotion campaign… only to realise a TV advert contained a shot of a rival Virgin Atlantic plane.

Embarrassed bosses ordered an ­emergency edit of the 90-second ad – which uses state-of-the-art computer-generated images to plot the airline’s history – after a member of staff spotted the blunder just a day before its official launch.

One shot, centred around ­the company motto ‘To Fly. To Serve’, shows a row of three British Airways Boeing 747s docked at a terminal. But the nearest displays the ­serial code G-VGAL – the marking of a Virgin Atlantic aircraft based in Manchester.

source: mirror.co.uk

State-owned carrier Emirates Airline is not yet seeing a downturn in business and bookings for the next few months are at high levels, even as other airlines warn stuttering economies are affecting sales.

“‘As yet, fingers crossed, we have not seen any diminution of demand,'” President Tim Clark told this week.

Lufthansa last week warned on profits and said it would offer fewer seats on its planes this winter than previously expected.

source: Reuters

United Airlines is shaping up as the next major U.S. battleground for Boeing and Airbus to sell narrowbody airplanes, as the world’s biggest airline mulls an order sources say could reach 200 planes.

Discussions are still at the early stages. But industry sources familiar with preliminary soundings expect United to place an order to refresh its fleet late this year or early next year.

United and Boeing have a shared history, both being founded by William Boeing. United Air Lines and Boeing Airplane Company were both subsidiaries of United Aircraft and Transport Company before it was broken up in 1934. Airbus overtook Boeing as the world’s largest jetliner-maker in 2003.

source: Reuters

Fearing an economic downturn, Germany’s flagship airline Lufthansa is cutting flights and capacity, the company announced on Thursday.

“‘We are removing part of the anticipated additional capacity out of planning, in that we are reducing frequency, cutting some connections, and using smaller airplanes,’” Chairman Carsten Spohr told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

It was crucial in these times to take make such decisions early rather than flying through the crisis with empty planes, he added.

source: The Local