news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

German carrier Lufthansa is ending the trial use of a biofuel mix for its planes because it has used up stocks of certified biofuel and no other reliable supplies are available.

The trial, which ran on flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg, will end January 12 on a flight from Frankfurt to Washington.

“‘Lufthansa will only continue the practical trial if we are able to secure the volume of sustainable, certified raw materials required in order to maintain routine operations,'” project manager Joachim Buse said on Monday.

The race to cut carbon dioxide emissions has heated up with the introduction this month of the European Union emissions trading scheme under which airlines must pay for the CO2 they emit.

source: Reuters

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) said passenger traffic rose 7.2 percent last year as a surge in growth at British Airways made up for almost static demand at its Madrid-based Iberia division.

Traffic increased 10.6 percent at BA, while Iberia posted a gain of 0.1 percent, IAG said today in a statement. The U.K. unit accounted for almost 70 percent of total traffic, a measure of the number of passengers carried times the distance flown.

British Airways increased capacity 9.8 percent during the 12 months, with Iberia adding only 1.2 percent more seats.

source: Bloomberg.com

German carrier Deutsche Lufthansa plans to hire temporary staff as flight attendants for routes to and from Berlin’s new airport to cut costs.

A spokesman for Lufthansa told Reuters on Wednesday about 200 flight attendants will be employed by a Lufthansa-owned temp agency rather than by the airline itself.

While entry-level salaries will be on a par with those at Lufthansa — 1,700 euros ($2,200) gross salary per month plus benefits — contracts will end after two years. The temporary crew can then apply for a new job with Lufthansa.

source: Reuters

Virgin Atlantic has been honoured with the ‘Best International Airline award’ in the ninth annual Readers’ Choice Awards.

Organised by leading industry publication Travel Weekly, the awards identify the best service across a number of categories.

Delta Airlines came top in the American carrier category, while Singapore Airlines was hailed the best for providing business and first class services.

source: travel.aol.co.uk

Dnata, the holidays and baggage handling arm of Emirates Airline, has bought control of one of the biggest online travel agents in Britain.

The deal struck at the end of last month for an undisclosed sum is the latest in a buying spree of travel firms by Dnata asit seeks to strengthen its position in the lucrative online travel market.

The acquisition of Travel Republic also has the potential to channel more UK traffic through the Dubai company.

source: thenational.ae

Swiss International Air Lines has carried a record number of passengers this year, surpassing the 15-million mark.

Swiss was created after the collapse of the national carrier Swissair ten years ago under a mountain of debts. After getting off to a rocky start, the fledgling airline was bought out by the Lufthansa group in 2005.

Under the wing of Lufthansa, Swiss has not only survived the financial crisis and boom in oil prices but has become one of the most commercially successful airlines.

source: swissinfo.ch

Emirates, one of the world’s fastest-growing international airlines, is celebrating the New Year by offering exceptional discounts on airfares to more than 100 cities, when booking from now until January 9, 2012.

Customers can save up to 25 per cent off all published First Class, Business Class and Economy Class fares departing between 22 January and 30 June 2012, when travelling round-trip to any destination on Emirates’ extensive global network.

Renowned for its excellence in service and innovation, both on board and on the ground, Emirates holds an array of prestigious awards, including Air Transport World’s 2011 “‘Airline of the Year'” award and the Skytrax World Airline Award for “‘World’s Best Airline Inflight Entertainment,'” for the seventh year in a row.

A class-action lawsuit filed earlier this month in the US District Court in Miami by California consumer attorney John Mattes, Florida attorney David Tucker, and two other law firms, claims that Delta is only reimbursing passengers for a fraction of what they’re entitled to by law.

Passengers are allowed to claim up to $3,300 in reasonable expenses for their lost or delayed bags, according to federal regulations. Delta airlines, however, told passengers last year that they were only responsible to repay customers $25 a day for lost or delayed baggage, and up to $125 total. The airline was fined $100,000 by the US Department of Transportation for those claims.

About 130,000 bags were “‘mishandled'” by domestic airlines in October alone, according to the most recent DOT data. Delta reported mishandling about 16,000 bags that month and a total of about 328,000 for all of 2010. Over 2 million claims of mishandled bags were filed by passengers in 2010.

Spanish airline Iberia has cancelled more than a third of its flights due to a strike by pilots fearing job losses when company planes are diverted for use by Iberia’s planned new budget carrier.

Iberia said it scrapped 118 domestic and international flights on Thursday but found seats on other Iberia flights or with other carriers for all the 10,000 travellers affected by the one-day strike.

It was the second such holiday-season walkout by the pilots.

source: Press Association

Deutsche Lufthansa will launch a new advertising campaign aimed at filling more seats with holidaymakers as companies spend less on business trips.

Germany’s biggest airline said last week  it has named Hamburg-based Kolle Rebbe to help it build an image of more than just a solid business carrier.

“‘We already have many routes to popular holiday destinations in our schedule and want to emphasise this more strongly in our communication in the future,'” a spokesman for Lufthansa said.

Legacy carriers such as Lufthansa traditionally make a large chunk of their profits through sales of business class tickets.

source: Reuters.com