news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Passengers could save ­hundreds of pounds by using private couriers to ship their luggage to their destination rather than paying baggage charges on budget airlines.

An investigation by Which? revealed the increasingly high costs of taking luggage in the hold could be cut by sending bags in advance rather than ­paying out to transport them on the plane.  The savings of using a courier are even greater, if  holidaymakers take sports equipment such as golf clubs, etc…

However, sending luggage by courier can take much longer than checking it in at the airport.

Scoot Airlines, a budget airline based in Singapore will start a no children zone on their air crafts.

The new product is called ‘ScootinSilence’ and takes up rows 21-25, located behind the ScootBiz cabin. All of the seats offer extended legroom of 35-inches – four more than economy – and are upholstered in yellow.

The cabin also has an age limit of 12 and over, a move which the airline hopes will create a quiet zone.

The price for a ScootinSilence seat is an additional S$18 (US$14) on top of the regular economy fare.

Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia has been named the world’s best low-cost airline by travelers around the world.

Both the regional and its long-haul subsidiary AirAsia X made the Skytrax World Airline Awards top 10 list this year in the category of best no-frills
airlines.

Here are the top 10 low-budget airlines for 2013:

1. AirAsia
2. Jetstar Airways
3. Virgin America
4. AirAsia X
5. Indigo
6. Norwegian
7. Jetstar Asia
8. easyJet
9. WestJet
10. Azul Airlines

At present, easyJet permits a bag with a volume of 63l, with no weight limit. When a high proportion of passengers take advantage of this, there is insufficient room in the overhead bins. This is particularly true on business flights and on routes such as domestic links in Italy.

Starting in the summer, a bag no bigger than 50x40x20cm (a volume of 40l) will be guaranteed to travel with its owner – because, if necessary, it can fit beneath the seat in front. Otherwise, the bag may be placed in the aircraft hold.

The passenger will not be asked to pay, but will have to wait at the carousel upon arrival.

The board of Spanish low-cost airline Vueling unanimously recommended shareholders accept an improved takeover offer of 9.25 euros per share from International Airline Group (IAG).

IAG, which already owns 45.85 percent of Vueling as well as British Airways and Spanish airline Iberia, last month raised its bid by almost one third after the Barcelona-based carrier rejected a previous offer.

Climate change will lead to bumpier flights caused by increased mid-air turbulence, according to an analysis by scientists of the impact of global warming on weather systems over the next four decades.

The increasing air turbulence results from the impact of climate change on the jet streams, the fast, mile-wide winds that whistle round the planet at the same altitude as airliners. The shifting of the jet stream over Europe has also been blamed for the UK’s wash-out summer in 2012 and frozen spring this year.

The study, which used the same turbulence models that air traffic controllers use every day, found that the frequency of turbulence on the many flights between Europe and North America will double by 2050 and its intensity increase by 10-40%.

source: Guardian.co.uk

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The desks will be replaced by bag-drop desks, for those fliers wishing to travel with checked luggage, from April 30.

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Passengers who forget to check in online will still be able to do so at the airport free of charge, but it is hoped the facility will only be used in “‘exceptional circumstances’.”

An easyJet spokesman said an unspecified “‘transition period’” would give passengers time to adapt to the new policy.

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The grease American’s love to cook their french fries and chicken wings in, is now being used to power flights across the Atlantic. The oil for the flight on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines comes from Louisiana and consists of waste oil left over from frying up spicey Cajun food.

The fuel is then brought to New York’s JFK Airport to drive the engines of the Boeing 777 aircraft for flights from the Big Apple to Amsterdam.

The eco-friendly jumbo jet is fueled by a blend of 25 percent cooking oil and 75 percent jet fuel. The flights will depart every week for the next six months.

A year after the failure of two low-cost airlines, Russia is preparing for the creation of a new budget carrier. This time around, the industry’s flagship, Aeroflot, will nurture the new discount airline.

According at Aeroflot, ticket prices for certain routes could be reduced by as much as 30 percent if the government takes a number of measures, such as allowing the sale of non-refundable tickets, introducing baggage fees, and hiring foreign pilots.

The airline will initially offer the fares on flights from Gatwick to Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Jersey, Tunis and Turin – will give its passengers “‘more choice’”, but they are likely to be viewed as an attempt to compete with low-cost airlines.

The announcement by BA – which axed free meals on some flights in 2009 in a bid to cut costs – follows KLM’s decision to begin charging customers who check in luggage on short-haul flights. KLM’s policy will be effective from April 22.

source: Telegraph.co.uk