news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA on Tuesday announced an agreement to buy Finnair PLC’s subsidiary FlyNordic, a budget airline based in Stockholm, Sweden.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, will be settled with shares and options. Finnair will receive about 5 percent of Norwegian’s shares with the option to increase its stake to 10 percent at 115 kroner (US$19.1, euro14.4) per share through 2008.

“‘This acquisition will strengthen our position in the Nordic region as well as in the European market,'” Norwegian chief executive Bjorn Kjos said in a statement.

source: Forbes

British Airways is in negotiations with private equity about a potential €5bn (£3.39bn) takeover offer for Iberia but has ruled out making a solo bid for the Spanish flag-carrier.

It is understood that Apax Partners is one of three private equity houses in talks with BA and is negotiating to bring Spain’s Gestair on board. In an announcement to the Stock Exchange yesterday, BA said it was considering how to use its 10 per cent stake holding in Iberia after US private equity house Texas Pacific Group (TPG) made an indicative offer of €3.60 a share for the carrier last month. This valued the Spanish airline, whose shares have doubled in the past six months on the expectation of further consolidation in the sector, at €3.4bn.

source: independent.co.uk

Jazeera Airways, the Middle East’s first private airline, Monday officially launched its non-stop flights between Kochi and Dubai. The airlines would operate its flights between the two cities thwice a week.

Though Jazeera has been operating flights from Kochi to Dubai from March 25, the official launch took place Monday.

source: monstersandcritics.com

Virgin Atlantic Airways today launched daily services between London Heathrow and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Chicago, which becomes Virgin Atlantic’s 27th destination worldwide, will be the airline’s tenth US gateway. Chicago is a key destination in its own right as well as a hub for the Mid West.

source: v-flyer

No-frills airline easyJet has said it welcomes the European Commission’s decision to limit the abuse of anti-competitive Public Service Obligation (PSO) routes in Italy.

The decision follows official complaints by easyJet and other airlines against an Italian decree that was imposed last year to create monopolies on the 16 most important routes between mainland Italy and Sardinia.

source: Forbes

British Airways (BA) is considering forming a consortium to launch a takeover bid for Iberia, the Spanish flag-carrier in which it has a 10 per cent stake.

The British airline said this morning that it had held talks with a string of private equity companies over the possible creation of a bidding vehicle.

source: Times online

Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes had net revenues of 1.041 billion Brazilian reais (US$ 499.2 million) in the first quarter of this year. The value represents an increase of 21% over the same period last year, 863 million reais (US$ 424 million at current exchange rates for comparison purposes). The company registered net profit of 117 million reais (US$ 57.6 million) in the first three months of the year.

source: ANBA

European Union regulators delayed by a year a size limit on airline passengers’ carry-on bags, bowing to industry demands for more time to enact the anti- terrorism measure and for a reexamination of its necessity.

The European Commission said it was convinced by airlines and airports that they would be unable to meet the original deadline of May 6, 2007, for enforcing the limit, which will be 56 centimeters by 45 centimeters by 25 centimeters (22 X 18 X 10 inches). The commission said travelers would be inconvenienced by any uneven application of the rules.

source: Bloomberg.com

Southwest Airlines Co., the low- fare carrier famed for no-frills service, may add wireless Internet connections to its planes to attract more business fliers.

Southwest will seek proposals within a few weeks to outfit several jets to serve as prototypes, Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said today in an interview. With such a system, passengers would have Internet access in flight, e-mail and “‘potentially delivery of entertainment services,'” Kelly said.

“‘We are very seriously exploring that,'” Kelly said. “‘We’d be acutely interested in the cost of doing that. It would be a very exciting development if we could make that work.'” Southwest is studying the idea as part of a broader review of ways to generate revenue apart from ticket sales. The Dallas- based airline offers only peanuts and other snacks and drinks on its flights so it can stay profitable at lower fares.

source: Denver Post

A new airline is taking to the skies over Saudi Arabia after being set up by Mango Aviation Partners, a UK based advisory business which specialises in the start-up of low fare airlines. Mango was awarded the contract to set up Sama by HRH Prince Bandar bin Khalid al Faisal, founder and chairman of the newly launched airline.

Mango was founded in 2004 by former senior executives of Go and Easyjet, and has worked on low fare airline start-ups all over the world.

source: pressdispensary.co.uk