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Air France has announced a revamp of its regional services, operating under the branding Hop.

Officially branded HOP! the new carrier will integrate the Air France group’s three existing regional airlines under the one brand, namely Brit Air, Regional and Airlinair.

From March 31 Hop will operate 530 daily flights to 136 destinations in France and Europe using a fleet of 98 aircraft with between 48 and 100 seats. Fares will start at €55 one way.

Airport body scanners that produce graphic images of travelers’ bodies will be removed from checkpoints by June, the Transportation Security Administration says, ending what critics called “‘virtual strip searches.'”

Passengers will continue to pass through machines that display a generic outline of the human body, raising fewer privacy concerns.

The TSA move came after Rapiscan, the manufacturer of the 174 so-called “‘backscatter'” machines, acknowledged it could not meet a congressional-ordered deadline to install privacy software on the machines.

International Consolidated Airlines Group (known as IAG) may ask its Spanish airline Iberia to stay firm on a tough cost-cutting programme.

It is speculated that the group may be concerned by a new ”Plan B” presented by Iberia to its labour trade unions. The plan consists of reducing lay-offs from the initial 4,500 to 3,800.

When the initial restructuring plan was announced on November 9th, there was an initial deadline of January 31st. Although Iberia has stated that the deadline is not strict, an upcoming board meeting is expected to be the last before an official restructuring announcement.

Ryanair has sought to explain its controversial one carry-on bag rule, insisting it is necessary for safety reasons.

The move was prompted “‘false claims’” made by a number of “‘poorly briefed’” members in the European Parliament, Ryanair said.

Ryanair argues because it operates with very high load factors and because it encourages its passengers to travel with free of charge carry-on bags in order to avoid checked in bag fees, most passengers carry ten kilograms of luggage onto the plane.

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US safety regulators are nowhere near finishing an investigation into a battery fire on the Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner, a top official said on Thursday, raising the prospect of a prolonged grounding for the aircraft.

Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, made clear that investigators have found a series of “‘symptoms'” in the battery damaged in a January 7 fire in Boston, but not the underlying cause of the problem. She also said the agency would be looking at the design of the battery compartment area of the plane and whether the certification standards had been strong enough.

Ryanair has increased the number of seats passengers can reserve on its flights, in a further example of low-cost carriers adding premium services for customers willing to pay extra.

Ryanair’s move follows the decision by rival easyJet to roll out cabin-wide allocated seating across all flights – a change that has cost the company about £10m on IT systems but could significantly boost revenues.

The low-cost model pioneered by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou that rocked Europe’s traditional airlines is spreading across Africa. Tickets went on sale last week for the first flights on Fastjet, the latest brainchild of the Greek entrepreneur, which will start flying from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania at the end of the month for prices starting at 32,000 Tanzanian shillings (£13) – plus the inevitable baggage charges and taxes.

Africa is ripe for aviation investment, with huge distances between cities and poor road and rail infrastructure. However, a poor safety record has blighted African airlines, with many carriers barred from European airspace by safety regulators.

source: Guardian.co.uk

Ryanair customers who went to the trouble of using the airline’s own credit card to avoid paying a £6 admin fee will no longer have that benefit after the firm announced that all passengers will have to pay the charge. Anyone taking a Ryanair flight after 1 December will be required to pay the £6 a person fee for each single journey as part of the headline ticket price, irrespective of how they pay.

Until now, customers who took out a Ryanair Cash Passport Mastercard could avoid the credit card fee, which adds £48 to the cost of booking a return journey for a family of four.

Loss-making Iberia on Friday announced plans to axe 4,500 jobs to save Spain’s biggest airline from collapse and warned more cuts could follow against the backdrop of economic crisis in the Eurozone country.

To stem Iberia’s cash losses by mid-2013, the Spanish airline plans to slash its network capacity by 15 percent and downsize its fleet by 25 aircraft, including five long-haul jets.

Separately on Friday, IAG announced that the parent group’s net profits dropped 24 percent in the third quarter compared with the equivalent period last year, hit by losses at Iberia.

International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) is making a cash tender offer to buy 100 per cent of the share Vueling, the Spanish low-cost airline based in Barcelona.

IAG’s subsidiary Iberia owns 45.85% of Vueling’s shares currently and the Iberia board has agreed not to tender them in the offer. This means that Iberia would retain its shareholding in Vueling with IAG seeking to acquire the remaining 54.15%.

The offer will be €7.00 per ordinary share of Vueling with the total cost of acquiring 54.15% anticipated to be €113m. It will be funded using internal IAG resources.