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Budget airline Ryanair reported record profits Monday as its recession-resistant business model continued to attract passengers from higher-fare carriers amid Europe’s debt crisis.

The Dublin-based airline said its net profit for the fiscal year ending March 31 rose nearly 50 percent to €560.4 million ($715 million), the highest figure ever for the 27-year-old airline.

Ryanair ” known for its brash boss and its in-your-face advertising style ” did offer a typically cautious outlook. It forecast that passenger numbers in the current fiscal year would rise a further 5 percent to 79 million, chiefly in the peak April-September period, but rising fuel costs were likely to weaken profits to an annual net figure of between €400 million and €440 million.

source: Associated Press

Rio de Janeiro has overtaken Sydney as the world’s most expensive major city for a hotel stay.

The average cost of a night in the Brazilian city during the first three months of 2012 was £192.88, nearly 50 per cent more expensive than during the same period last year.

The research attributes the sharp rise to Brazil’s strong economy and improved infrastructure ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. It added that this year’s Rio Carnival also attracted a record number of visitors.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

Starting today, Air Berlin will connect the German capital Berlin with the American city of Los Angeles on the west coast of the United States. The summer schedule features 3 weekly flights with an Airbus 330-200 from Berlin towards Hollywood. The inaugural flight was celebrated this morning in Terminal B at Berlin-Tegel.

source: rustourismnews.com

The opening of Berlin’s new airport will be delayed by up to three months due to fire safety problems, dealing an embarrassing blow to the German capital’s flagship project less than a month before its planned launch.

Nearly a quarter of a century after the Berlin Wall came down and 13 years after the government moved back to Berlin as the unified capital, Germany is still struggling to open an international airport to replace two from its Cold War past.

Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, which will also be known as Willy Brandt Airport after West Germany’s Cold War chancellor, had been scheduled to open on June 3. But the airport’s operator said the move from the city’s Tegel airport was suspended with immediate effect.

source: Reuters.com

Virgin Atlantic has become the first airline in Britain to offer in-flight mobile phone calls, texts and web access in the air.

The service will initially be available on Virgin’s new Airbus A330 planes flying from London to New York but will be available on 17 planes on at least 10 routes by the end of the year.

In-flight mobile access will be provided by AeroMobile, which is part-owned by Panasonic. Virgin will charge passengers approximately the same as normal roaming charges.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

International Airlines Group, the parent group of British Airways, claims to have secured around 330 jobs after announcing a buyer for bmi Regional, the Aberdeen-based subsidiary of the airline it recently acquired.

IAG said it has signed a binding agreement to sell bmi Regional to a Scottish consortium, Sector Aviation Holdings, for £8m. The sale includes all bmi Regional’s fixed assets and long-term liabilities, including owned and operating lease aircraft. Bmi Regional operates scheduled services from seven English and Scottish airports as well as a handful of northern European destinations.

source: Guardian.co.uk

In hindsight, filling an 804-ft.-long, 15-story-tall airship with a highly flammable gas might not have been the safest way to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

But in the 1930s, hydrogen-filled dirigibles, first developed by the Germans, were the fastest way to travel between America and Europe.

The airship era came to an abrupt and fiery end May 6, 1937, with the sudden explosion of the LZ 129 Hindenburg as it attempted to dock at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in southern New Jersey with 97 people aboard.

Thirty-six people died ” 13 passengers, 22 crew members and one person working on the ground.

source: nydailynews.com

Most travel agencies in China have suspended tours to the Philippines amidst escalating tension in the South China Sea, Chinese state media said.

The agencies would also ”’adopt precautionary measures to ensure safety of their clients'” now in the Philippines’, Xinhua news agency said.

The two countries have been locked in a stand-off in disputed waters at the Scarborough Shoal since 8 April.

source: bbc.co.uk

Airline group Air France-KLM has reported a loss for the first three months of the year, following higher fuel costs and a drop in cargo traffic.

Its first-quarter net loss was 368m euros ($483m;£299m), almost the same as a year before, although revenue rose 6% to 5.6bn euros.

Higher workforce costs because of a 2011 pay rise also affected profits.

source: bbc.co.uk

All Germanwings flights between Germany and Austria will in future also bear an Austrian OS flight number. The airlines’ codesharing is part of their strategy to further connect the services offered by both brands in order to create added benefits to the clients of both airlines.

source: traveldailynews.com