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A last-ditch attempt to find a buyer for crisis-stricken flag carrier Alitalia will be made today as Italy’s transport minister warned that the airline’s planes could be grounded within a week.Alitalia’s special administrator will put the national carrier up for sale, but buyers are thin on the ground.

Unions last week rejected a €1bn (£791m) rescue bid by the CAI consortium of Italian businesses because the plan involved the loss of 3,000 jobs and more stringent working conditions for remaining staff.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

British Airways has “indefinitely” cancelled all flights to the Pakistani capital Islamabad amid security concerns after the bombing of the Marriott hotel, the airline said Tuesday.BA issued a statement confirming the cancellation of its six weekly services to Islamabad, the only destination it flies to in Pakistan, a day after saying that it was only temporarily suspending flights.

“In light of the security situation in Pakistan, British Airways has cancelled its flights from Islamabad to Heathrow indefinitely,” a British Airways statement said.

source: AFP

Spanish low fares carrier clickair today announced a £40 flat fee, per sector fare to help XL Leisure Group and Futura passengers stranded in Spain – primarily in the Balearic and Canary Islands – get home.

The offer follows the cancellation of flights by the British tour operator and Spanish charter airline and also applies to European originating passengers looking to get back to Spain from the UK.

source: TravelWeekly

Deutsche Lufthansa, the second-largest European airline, agreed to buy 45 percent of SN Brussels Airlines for €65 million as the pace of consolidation in the industry accelerates.

Europe’s largest carriers are vying to buy smaller competitors to expand networks and cut costs amid slowing economic growth and surging fuel bills. Lufthansa has also been linked with bids for Austrian Airlines Group, Scandinavian carrier SAS Group and BMI of Britain. Air France-KLM is the largest European carrier.

source: IHT

Just weeks after American Airline started offering in-flight wireless internet, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants is urging the airline to add filters restricting passengers from browsing porn and other inappropriate sites. Many passengers and attendants have reportedly complained about the issue.

source: Wired

The holidays of more than quarter of a million people have been wrecked following the collapse of Britain’s third largest tour operator as the crisis engulfing the travel industry intensified.

XL’s failure, which grounded flights around the world, is the biggest to hit the industry in 17 years as soaring oil prices and a collapse in consumer confidence hit home.

More than two dozen carriers have now folded in less than a year, the victims of surging fuel costs and the credit crisis.

The airline has announced its intention to challenge Eurostar, whose monopoly comes to an end at the start of 2010, when new EU rail laws come into force.

Air France said: “‘It would seem logical to replace some air transport services with a rail transport solution so that we can continue to provide our customers with a global offer, meeting both their short-distance and intercontinental travel needs.'”

The carrier said its plans were in their early stages and that it had not yet worked out which routes it might run.

source: Sky News

Lufthansa is moving aggressively into the north Italian market to take advantage of the parlous state of Alitalia.

The heavily loss-making Italian airline was locked in talks with the government, trades unions and potential investors about the terms for a last-ditch rescue as its operations were hit again by cancellations and industrial action.

The German flag carrier said it was planning to base six Airbus A319 short-haul jets at Milan’s Malpensa airport to launch a network of direct point-to-point services between Milan and leading European cities.

source: FT.com

U.S. airlines carried fewer domestic passengers but more international travelers during the first half of this year.

The overall number of scheduled passengers fell by 1.5 million, or 0.4 percent, to 378.2 million compared to the first six months of 2007, the Transportation Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said.

BTS said U.S. airlines carried 1.1 percent fewer domestic passengers and 5.1 percent more international passengers during the first half of the year.

source: IHT

Low-cost airline Ryanair has been forced to cancel flights from its new Edinburgh base for the next six weeks because of strike action at Boeing.

Ryanair said the strike meant US aircraft manufacturers Boeing was unable to deliver two 737 planes it purchased to operate on the new routes.

source: BBC