news about cheap fares and airlines from travel search engine Trabber

Thanks to new technology, customers travelling with Sir Richard Branson’s firm will be able to call, text and email on their way to holiday destinations in the US, the Caribbean, Dubai, Australia and Africa.

The service – which will be up and running once a special system is installed to support the phones – will be provided on all of Virgin‘s flights from Gatwick.

It is the first time calls have been allowed on outbound journeys from a major British airport.

source: Mirror.co.uk

Etihad, the fast-growing Middle Eastern airline, has approached the Irish government to buy its 25 per cent stake in flag-carrier Aer Lingus, people with knowledge of the move said.

The approach comes after the debt-laden Irish sovereign said in September it would sell its stake in the national carrier. Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s transport minister, said that he would not sell it for less than €1 per share, which would value the stake at €132.4m ($183m) and the airline at €529.6m.

source: FT.com

Airline ticket websites which contain “‘pre-ticked boxes’” that force customers to specifically opt out of paying for extra services will be banned across Europe, under newly ratified laws.
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The new rules will make it illegal for companies to require consumers to “‘untick’” unwanted services such as travel insurance or car rental when shopping online.

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Consumers groups welcomed the changes to the ‘Consumer Rights Directive’, which EU officials said would strengthen consumer rights on shopping websites.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

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The move, which takes ‘‘no frills travel” to a whole new level, could see 200 passengers vying to share one facility – forcing them either to wait in very long queues or cross their legs and pray.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said he wants to replace the toilets with extra passenger seats in order to offer cheaper air fares.

He is pressing Boeing to ‘’re-certify” Ryanair’s aircraft to enable six extra seats to be installed, particularly for short-haul flights.

The airline flies only one type of aircraft type, the Boeing 737-800. It has 189 seats on each plane, the maximum allowed under current rules.

source: dailymail.co.uk

Reports from Singapore suggest flag-carrier Singapore Airlines will launch its highly anticipated low-cost carrier in April next year.

The carrier will be called Scoot Airlines and will wow guests with in-flight wi-fi as well as a host of other attractions.

The new airline will start off with just one Boeing 777-200 before increasing its fleet to four aircraft within three months.

source: breakingtravelnews.com

Virgin Atlantic plans to start using a low-carbon jet fuel derived from waste gases released during industrial steel production on certain commercial flights by 2014.

The technology, developed with energy firm LanzaTech, will capture waste gases from industrial production, then ferment and chemically convert them using technology by the company Swedish BioFuels for use as jet fuel.

In two to three years, Virgin plans to use the new fuel on its routes from Shanghai and Delhi to London Heathrow.

source: Reuters

More than a third of passengers travel without travel insurance, risking huge medical bills if they have an accident or become ill abroad.

This was revealed in a survey of 4,000 passengers by low cost airline Ryanair which also shows 82 per cent with insurance did not know if their policy offered ski, business travel or sports (golf) cover.

Ninety per cent of those who travelled without insurance were unaware that medical repatriation flights within Europe could cost them more than €18,000, and substantially more from other parts of the world, should they become seriously ill when abroad.

source: euroweeklynews.com

Low-fare airline easyJet will  announce that it is opening two new bases in Nice and Toulouse – a pre-emptive strike against Air France.

The move is an attempt to steal the thunder from the Gallic flag-carrier, which has recently unveiled its own plans to operate a low-cost model from new regional bases.

Air France opened a new base in Marseille on October 2 but is stuck in negotiations with the unions over other bases, including in Nice and Toulouse.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

The airline industry has presented its vision for the future of check-in security, including hi-tech colour-coded scanning corridors.

Passengers will be able to keep their shoes on and their bags in their hand – toothpaste, nail clippers, laptops and all – as they pass through the “‘checkpoint of the future'”.

Under a mock-up checkpoint on display at the ‘Aviation Security World Conference’ in Amsterdam, passengers are guided into one of three corridors upon presenting their passports: blue for frequent travellers, purple for normal passengers and orange for those deemed to require enhanced vetting.

People do not have to empty their pockets, remove any of their clothing or subject themselves to pat-downs before walking through a 20-foot tunnel that scans metals, liquids, laptops and other potential dangers one by one.

source: Press Association

The board of Spanish airline Iberia is planning to establish a low cost airline to help improve the carrier’s profitability, however their plans could lead to industrial action.

Iberia who is owned by International Airlines Group (IAG) has plans to establish a budget carrier to take on short and medium-haul flights, the Financial Report reported.

The carrier’s performance is also being threatened by intense competition from Europe’s leading low cost airlines Ryanair and EasyJet.

source: etravelblackboard.com