Travel Money Online service offers consumers a wide choice of over 70 different currencies. Those orders placed before 3pm will be delivered on the next business day directly to any address in the UK.

The service offered by easyJet"s web portal comes as an added bonus to travellers since they are able to get foreign money with zero percent commission. Commenting on their association with easyJet, David Thomas, First Rate"s business development director, said their firm was very pleased to have established the service.

Despite Karsten Bentz, a senior Lufthansa executive, refusing to comment on rumours that the German airline is looking to purchase SAS, the Jyllands-Posten daily has cited him, as saying there had been many talks between the two.

He said, "After the German and the Italian markets, the Scandinavian market is the most important for Lufthansa. We want to take an active part in the consolidation that is taking place in the European airline industry, and that subject is often the focus of Lufthansa management meetings.”

The buoyant predictions by the airline come a day after the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported a 4.6% drop in air passenger traffic during November over the same month in 2007. The association also stated that markets for European carriers in North Americas and Asia had "declined." In fact, Giovanni Bisignani, IATA director general and CEO, had stated that the gloom would stretch forward into 2009 besides predicting "deep losses" by airlines.

However, Richard Tams, BA"s head of sales for the UK and Ireland, remarked, "It"s not all doom and gloom for travel in the current economic climate as destinations such as Dubai and the Caribbean Islands of St Kitts and St Lucia continue to experience growth and investment, so we anticipate greater numbers of customers wanting to travel there. South Africa will be popular thanks to the relative strength of the pound against the rand and the upcoming British Lions tour.”

A recent media report has revealed that British Airways is considering buying a stake in GoAir. In a recent article, The Economic Times has stated that BA is debating whether or not to take up a 25 per cent stake in the low-cost Indian carrier.

Citing sources close to the potential deal, the newspaper said that a meeting is scheduled to take place between the two airlines in London somewhere during next month.

Asked about the media speculation, BA declined to comment. However, GoAir said that it "does not have any agreement with any other foreign carrier at the moment".

The announcement of this free policy by Flybe is part of its effort to enhance the traveller"s confidence in the airline at a time financial difficulties.

Commenting on the strategic importance of this offer, Mike Rutter, Flybe"s chief commercial officer, said that this offer was the airline"s response to "unprecedented" economic times. In addition, the present measure has also taken into account the findings of recent surveys which reveal that financial safety has become one of the major concerns for travellers as the collapse of several airlines in the recent past had left thousands of passengers stranded at foreign airports besides leaving their pockets empty.

British Airways has confirmed orders for a fleet of 11 new generation fuel-efficient aircraft, which assure unrivalled levels of space and comfort on board. BA CityFlyer, the wholly owned subsidiary of BA is to take delivery of the first of its new Embraer aircraft, which will be operated exclusively from London City Airport starting from September 2009.

The airline has also placed firm orders for six Embraer 170 and five Embraer 190SR efficiency jets, labelled as E-jets, besides opting for three more. As per current list prices, the total worth of the investment would be US$376 million.

The airline said the new aircraft will replace the current fleet of 10 Avro RJ100 and two RJ85 aircraft operated by BA CityFlyer, adding that the key concern in ordering these new aircraft is that they are greener and more fuel efficient reporting lower carbon dioxide emissions. The Embraer 190SRs and Embraer 170s will serve on routes from London City Airport to Scotland, Ireland and Europe.

Lufthansa has initiated its bid for the ailing Austrian Airlines on Wednesday with the carrier"s board approving a plan to make it Europe"s biggest carrier.

The Frankfurt-based airline said it would be willing to pay around EUR377 million euros (USD$476 million) in a deal based on performance. The carrier conveyed its interest in Austrian in August, the pair have been holding exclusive talks on this deal since November.

The German carrier said it would pay an initial EUR366,000 to buy the 42 percent stake held by the Austrian government, assuring a further EUR162 million for it eventually, provided Austrian"s future performance and Lufthansa share price facilitated it.

British Airways has recently stated it did not view its proposed merger deals with Iberia and Qantas and a tie-up with American Airlines as alternatives adding that all these moves could happen if regulators approve.

In a statement made on Wednesday, BA"s group treasurer George Stinnes said, "We"d be very happy to consummate all these transactions. It"s certainly not an "either-or" situation.”

The airline said on Tuesday that it was examining a potential merger with Australian carrier Qantas Airways besides continuing its discussions regarding a possible merger with Spanish carrier Iberia.

Flybe, Europe"s largest regional airline has published its 2009 summer schedule, which features new services to Jersey. In addition, the airline has increased the frequency of its flights on many of its key routes.

Flybe"s summer schedule takes effect on 29th March, which sees new routes being introduced to Jersey from Inverness, Dundee and Manston in Kent. Apart from these additions, Flybe will also operate a greater number of flights from Birmingham, Doncaster/Sheffield, Cardiff, Exeter and Newcastle. The summer schedule of the carrier would run until 7th September.

Discussing the salient features of the summer schedule, Mike Rutter, Flybe"s chief commercial officer, observed that it would enable the airline to strengthen the network of its operations across the UK and Europe.

In a recent announcement, British Airways has announced that it would resume its flight services between Heathrow and Saudi Arabia with effect from 29th March next year.

Following the start of the service, the carrier will offer five flights a week from Terminal 5 to Saudi Arabian cities including Jeddah and Riyadh. The airline has stated that the tickets are already put on sale from Wednesday, 26th November.

While stating the rationale behind reinstating the route once again, a statement published on the BA website observed, "We are able to restart flights because the aviation market between the UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has recently been liberalised.

In a recent development, EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic are exploring the possibility of coming together in order to buy Gatwick airport. A report published in The Times stated that the two airlines have been holding discussions with financial backers over forming a consortium to propose a bid on the airport worth £2.5 billion. Provided their bid is successful, both the airlines have guaranteed to base a considerable number of their aircraft at Gatwick Airport. It is said that this move would significantly improve the revenue of the airport in future.  
 
At present, Easyjet and Virgin partly own the National Air Traffic Control Service (NATS) with five other airlines - bmi, British Airways, Monarch, MyTravel and Thompsonfly. It is most likely that some of them or all of these carriers would form part of the new consortium. When asked about the deal, a Virgin Atlantic spokesman neither confirmed nor denied the report.

He observed, "We have always been interested in bringing together a consortium to buy the airport. We are talking to lots of different parties at present and those talks continue."

BAA, the owner of the airport put up Gatwick for sale following the directives issued by the by the Competition Commission in September suggesting the break-up of the holdings by the operator. It is expected that next year the government will issue a ruling that would break the ownership of seven UK airports, which the commission claims to have created a monopoly in the region.

A recent report published by the BBC states that BMI"s chairman is keen to see a significant increase in the number of flights that are operated between Jersey and Heathrow. Recently Sir Michael Bishop was on the island to meet tourism and airport officials. During the meeting, he confirmed the strong commitment of the airline to Jersey. He said in a statement to BBC News that Jersey remained a very valuable part of the bmi network.

During March last year, BMI commenced a new service on the route. With the carrier operating daily services following the launch, it was told that the launch was the result of an undisclosed subsidy and a five-year contract awarded by the States. However, serious concerns were raised when the carrier announced that it had decided to suspend its morning commuter flight from the start of its winter schedule.

Though Sir Michael confirmed to the BBC that the Heathrow link had become highly popular, he too pointed out that it had not still reached its optimum capacity. Furthermore, he warned that people must carry on using it extensively for the link to continue.

In a recent move, GE Aviation and Iberia have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would see Iberia becoming the preferred regional fulfilment centre within the Europe, Africa and the Middle East region. This covers overhaul, maintenance and repair services of CFM56-5A engines.

As per this agreement, GE Aviation will enter into a contract with Iberia for MRO services on CFM56-5A engines that are operated by different customers in the region. On the other hand, Iberia will establish an OnPoint solution agreement with GE for the material & services to be deployed in the process of maintenance, overhaul and repair of the CFM56-5A engines.

Tom Gentile, vice president and general manager of GE Aviation"s Services organization said, "Iberia is a well established MRO provider. The MOU and subsequent OnPoint solution material agreement will allow CFM56-5A customers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East to have their engines repaired by Iberia and have access to the same high-quality OEM spare parts and repair offerings that GE Aviation can provide."

Manuel Lopez Aguilar, General Director of Iberia Maintenance & Engineering added, "The signature of this agreement represents for Iberia Maintenance a big step ahead in our strategy to be one of the top leaders of engine maintenance service providers. Being a member of the GE network demonstrates that you have attained the highest standards of quality, efficiency and customer support, and this is the commitment of Iberia to our customers and GE."

After a long delay, the much-awaited public offering of Poland's public carrier will take place in late 2009, with the airline restructuring itself to return to profitability. The chief executive confirmed this on Wednesday. Earlier during this month, LOT warned that the state-controlled airline was in dire need of restructuring in order to avoid an impending cash crunch amidst the soaring prices of fuel and mounting competition from no frills carriers, Ryanair for instance.

Commenting in this regard, the recently appointed CEO of LOT, Dariusz Nowak noted, "After the third quarter of 2009, if we find the level of restructuring as satisfactory, it will allow us to move to other strategic targets, including an IPO (initial public offering). I wouldn't see it before the end of the second quarter of 2009.”

He too noted that the new management would decide on this matter within a year to affirm if LOT is "floatable".

In a highly welcomed move, Virgin Atlantic and Cathay Pacific have decided to expand their capacity on their Hong Kong services that are departing from Heathrow. The present move by these airlines is in response to the significant demand created by the collapse of the no-frills carrier Oasis Hong Kong Airlines. The above said routes are said to be highly lucrative and the two airlines are now significantly increasing the number of seats on these routes.

Most notably, after the collapse of the Hong Kong airline in the month of April, the number of weekly flights operated between these two cities fell from 80 to 70, thereby significantly increasing the demand for the said route. According to the recent decision made by the airline, it is noted that the airline will add a second daily flight flying three times a week starting from 28th October. Eventually with effect from 4th December, the airline will extend its service to all days of the week. Now Virgin is adding a second daily flight operated three times a week from October 28, before extending the service to all days of the week with effect from 4th December.

Over and above, according to the announcement made by Cathay Pacific, it appears that the airline will replace the two Airbus A340-300s that are being currently deployed on the long-haul route, drafting in Boeing 747s. This move is expected to add 288 seats on the route every week.

Recently, British Airways has raised a serious concern over the state of affairs at UK Airports while urging the Competition Commission and the UK authorities to devise a system that gives way for a thorough regulation of airports and airport operators. The insistence from BAA follows the recommendation of Competition Commission that BAA needs to leave any two of the three airports owned and operated by it because of falling performance and declining customer satisfaction. Notably, BAA presently owns and operates Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. When Ryanair is explicitly forcing the government to force BAA to give up two of these airports, British Airways has the notion that the goal of the government needs to be improving the condition of regulations at the airports rather than calling for a change of ownership. 

Among several suggestions forwarded by British Airlines, one of the potential suggestions to ensure better regulations at the airports is to introduce a licensing system that would put the owners of the airports in a position where they are more accountable to anything that goes wrong within their airport. In other words, if BAA is not able to meet the customer satisfaction in addition to satisfying the government authorities that would eventually give way for the authorities to impose a series of sanctions and any other appropriate punitive measures to penalize the operator. However, the principal factor in implementing the system is that the public authorities must be able to closely monitor the state of affairs at the airports and decide the appropriate action as and when necessary.

A recent survey has revealed that more than 10,000 customers have made use of the brand new SMS Flight Tracker service after it was introduced for the first time in June 2008. This particular mobile phone service delivers the flight information pertaining to Ryanair directly to UK and Irish mobiles. To obtain the necessary information in this regard, the mobile phone users just need to call or text the Flight Tracker numbers.

Those passengers awaiting a Ryanair flight can keep track of a given Ryanair flight arriving at or departing from the UK and Ireland for a price of £1.50 or €2. According to a spokesperson for the airline, this charge is in fact less than the cost for a 30-minute stay in most of the airport car parks. In addition, this service proves to be far more easy, useful and convenient.

Director of Commercial Revenue, Sinead Finn, noted, "We were always confident that the Ryanair SMS Flight Tracker service would be popular. We are delighted that so many people have used the service in its first month. Our SMS Flight Tracker service has already helped over 10,000 people minimise the time and expense of collecting family and friends from high cost airports like Dublin or Stansted where short term car parking is a complete rip off.”

Recently, bmibaby has commenced the sale of tickets for flights to a number of winter destinations offered by the airline. As part of the winter schedule, the low-cost carrier is offering seats to a range of interesting and highly popular holiday spots including Murcia and Alicante, with the charges starting from as little as £18.99 one way, with the price including all taxes and additional charges. Availing these attractive offers, passengers can travel from a number of UK airports, with the list including Manchester, Birmingham and East Midlands. The period of travel stretches between 26th October and 28th March 2009. There are only limited seats available during school holidays. Over and above, no cancellations are permitted when the seats are booked under this attractive discount offer. Also, all bookings made by a credit or debit card involve a handling fee of £3 and £2 respectively. Most interestingly, the airline is to announce more number of winter destinations in the near future.

With departures from Birmingham, charges for flights to Prague starts from £24.99; to Milan - Bergamo starts from £24.99; to Alicante, the prices start from £34.99; to Malaga, the charges start from £34.99; and to Nice, the charges are from £34.99.

With departures from Cardiff, flights to Belfast start from £18.99; to Edinburgh from £18.99; to Warsaw from £21.99; to Barcelona from £24.99 and to Faro from £39.99.

With effect on bookings made before 10 pm on 20th August, Virgin Atlantic has announced attractive discounts over economy class seats with the scheme applicable over a range of destinations in the US. The notable destinations in the discounted offer includes a wide range of top holiday spots including Orlando, Miami, New York and Chicago, with the prices fixed at as little as £349.

To avail this offer, the travels must be scheduled between 23rd August and 14th December. Most notably, the fares include all taxes, surcharges and additional charges. The seats are subject to availability and the availability is expected to be affected by school holidays and peak travel times. One of the conditions for availing this offer requires a minimum stay on one Saturday night with a maximum stay of not later than 12 months. Though the tickets booked under this offer cannot be cancelled, changes with regard to travel dates can be availed with a charge of £100 per ticket. Most interestingly, for travel on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, a weekend supplement is offered for travel in both directions on some routes.

Flights from Heathrow to New York (JFK) and Washington between 24th August and 31st August are priced from £369. Travel to Los Angeles between 1st November and 14th December is priced from £409, while flights between 24th August and 31st October to Miami start from £377.

The sources that are very close to the situation have stated on Monday that the merger talks between German charter airline Condor and TUIfly in addition to Lufthansa budget unit Germanwings have got significantly delayed.

The source that is very close to the issue noted that a merger of Lufthansa's Germanwings and Condor could be viewed as one of the highly potential options to the three-way merger. The source stated, "The culture would match, and it would make sense.”

When asked the details in this regard, TUI, TUIfly, Lufthansa and Germanwings all were not ready to make any comments in this regard. The reasons for their silence is however not quite clear.

A recent report published by the Sunday Times notes the statement made by Willie Walsh, the British Airways chief executive who has clearly vowed that the airline has firmly decided not to surrender the runway slots presently enjoyed by the airline at Heathrow. This move by the airline follows its proposal to initiate an alliance with American Airlines.

While addressing the personnel from the newspaper, Walsh said that BA would never be ready to give up any of the slots that have been obtained by paying a good sum. Notably, the prized slots have changed hands with the charge of GBP20 million pounds (USD$37.45 million) for a pair. Over and above, during the present state of things at the airport, the competition regulators are tipped to a heavy demand. The demand is so heavy that the two carriers need to forego up to not less than 10 slot pairs on an average day.

Willie Walsh observed, "There should be no slot remedy, I don't see how it could be justified.”

Earlier this week, the government of Austria has made an important announcement that it is prepared to sell its 43 percent stake in the Austrian Airlines, the flagship carrier of the nation. Just a couple of days following the announcement, it appears that there is a very serious contender wishing to purchase the said stakes of the company. The Reuters news agency has reported that Turkish Airlines is contemplating on a move to submit a bid for Austrian Airlines. The Turkish Company's chief executive, Temel Kotil pointed out that his carrier was highly interested in principle in the Austrian Airlines. However, he quickly added that so far no concrete decision has been arrived at whether the company would submit a bid in this regard.

With Austria setting 24th August as the deadline for any investor to submit their bid, Turkish Airlines is forced with the situation to make a decision in this regard rather quickly. According to media sources, Turkish Airlines appears to be one of a small group of foreign airlines that might be entertained to partner with Austrian Airlines. Over and above, Air France-KLM also appears as a possible contender. On top of any other airline, Lufthansa appears to be the first choice, which according to several Austrian politicians is a possible buyer of the shares owned by the state. Notably, the total value of the stakes held by the government in Austrian Airlines is about 157 million euros.

Preparing themselves for staging a protest, the flight attendants of the British Airways are opposing the decision by the carrier to limit the amount of bottled water available to the cabin crew. The situation has grown so worse that the flight attendants have taken this issue so seriously and are looking forward to stage a strike unless this rule introduced recently by the carrier is backed down. According to the new regulations put in place by BA, the flight attendants can make use of not more than 500ml of free bottled water following each of their shifts on long-haul flights.

Following the introduction of this rule, some of the employees of the airline quickly pointed out that since long, the airline has been recommending that the flight attendants drink about 1.5 litres of water during the hours following each of the long-haul flights to avoid dehydration. In fact this suggestion forms part of a written manual that has been handed over to the flight attendants as part of the airline's guidelines. Those supporting the airline on this cost-cutting issue introduced recently say that the flight attendants must simply drink tap water upon arrival. On the other hand, the employees argue that on several occasions, the tap water is not just in a drinkable condition according to the standards acceptable to the prescriptions made by the World Health Organization. Notably, this is the first time the carrier is limiting the usage of water by the flight attendants.

In a recent significant move, EasyJet has announced its decision to launch a brand new service that will connect Gatwick with the famous ski destination of Salzburg in Austria. The flights under this service will commence with effect from 13 December. Most notably, the launch of the service perfectly coincides with the skiing season when most skiers make their journey to the Alps well in time before the start of Christmas holidays.

For so long, winter sports enthusiasts have been eagerly looking for a direct connection between London and Austrian ski country. Most interestingly, the new service by easyJet takes the skiers to the heart of the skiing region. Under this new launch, easyJet will be offering its flights three times a week. The fares for this service start from £32.99 each way, with the charges including all taxes and other additional charges.

David Osborne, the general commercial manager of easyJet UK observed, "Salzburg is another exciting destination to add to easyJet's Gatwick network. We expect the route to be popular with passengers seeking both a city break away and a great ski destination for those looking to hit the slopes this winter. easyJet has more flights to the snow from Gatwick this winter than any other airline and Salzburg joins other popular ski destinations such as Geneva, Innsbruck, Lyon and Sofia.”

The recent moves in the industry suggest that very soon, the budget airline Jet2.com might commence operating low cost flights to Israel from Manchester and Leeds Bradford Airport within the next 12 months. Most notably, the airline is already into serious negotiations to secure the necessary permission to operate its flights into Israel for more than a year. Interestingly, the carrier has been recently approved a trademark for the name chosen for these services Jet2Israel.com. 

Commenting on the scenario, a travel industry expert observed, "It's no secret that with Israel celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and the city of Tel Aviv its 100th next year that airlines realise the value of offering more flights to Ben Gurion Airport. As well as inbound traffic to the country, there is also much interest from Israelis in having more choice to come to the UK, as it is a preferred European destination. It makes good business sense for more airlines to enter the UK to Israel route.”

On the other hand, it is also highly notable in the above said connection that during the last 12 months, the number of scheduled airlines operated to Israel has been nearly doubled with several moves like Thomsonfly and bmi joining El Al and BA in operating their carriers into the Jewish state. However, it is also important to note that Thomsonfly is the only airline that offers regional flights to connect Manchester and Luton airport while the three other three airlines operate their carriers only from Heathrow.

In a statement made on Wednesday, the loss-making Scandinavian airline SAS denied a report that it has planned to ask its staff to accept salary cuts of between 10 and 15 percent, though the airline is already into several measures pertaining to cost reduction from several angles. Earlier, Borsen, the Danish business daily reported on Wednesday that SAS has decided to persuade its staff to accept lower wages after the firm unveiling its second-quarter results on 14th August.

SAS spokeswoman Elisabeth Manzi noted, "We are not going to cut any salaries.” Borsen cited a source very close to the senior management when it reported that the airline that was half-owned by Sweden, Norway and Denmark was actually reacting to the pressures that are continuously haunting its business operations, levying a heavy pressure.

Citing a source close to senior management, Borsen said the airline, half-owned by Sweden, Norway and Denmark, was reacting to continued pressures in its business. The source also told the paper, "The management will ask for pay cuts, and 10 to 15 percent has been mentioned.” In fact, the report went to the extent of adding that the salary reductions would be across the board anytime.

In a significant move, the Transport ministry of Spain has announced its decision to carryout an investigation into the recent decision by Ryanair to cancel the ticket reservations of several thousands of travellers, who had booked their tickets via comparator, third-party websites. During this week, the Irish low-cost carrier declared that with effect from Monday, it would no longer consider the reservations made through the comparator sites. Over and above, the airline has also said that those passengers who booked through such companies might even find their tickets cancelled. Ryanair puts forth an argument that while booking under these sites, passengers are being exploited by many of these sites and that the move is actually meant to cause a serious administrative chaos for the portals in question as they insist to reimburse clients.

Most notably, one of the comparator sites that are most likely to be affected by the decision of Ryanair is eDreams, which is based in Spain. Earlier today, the firm told journalists that it is considering the move by Ryanair as an example of "irresponsibility and negligence”. In addition, the firm has also said that it would make it a point to react to this stand of Ryanair with some type of action. In addition, a Spanish consumer lobby group also appeared highly critical of the decision by the Irish carrier to unilaterally cancel seat reservations. It is most likely that their concern-along with that of eDreams has motivated the Spanish Ministry of Transport to investigate into the matter.

A recent report published by the Daily mail states that British Airways would take all necessary efforts to publicly defend its decision to merge with American Airlines with respect to its transatlantic flights. Most notably, British Airways faces a very sharp criticism from Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic. Richard Branson argues that a decision by the airline towards a merger would negatively impact passengers, thereby leaving the passengers. On the other hand, the merger between the British Airways and American Airlines must still receive the approval from regulators in the United States. Since BA is highly interested in making the case that a fusion will not have negative consequences for consumers, and that if the media reports are correct, the carrier is most likely to make this point tomorrow.

It is however most likely that the British Airways will argue in favour of the merger telling that a merger would invariably improve the connections for those passengers flying across the Atlantic before they avail the transfer to another flight in the US and also vice versa. The agreement would give way to both the airlines ensuring that their schedules are thoroughly coordinated in a highly effective manner enabling the passengers to collect more points under the frequent fliers programme. With both these airlines being members of the Oneworld alliance, passengers can easily earn and redeem points while flying with either of the carriers. On the other hand, British Airways is yet to answer the concerns of Branson.

Falling in line with several other carriers, bmi has also cancelled its flights to the Georgian capital Tbilisi following the attack of the airport by the Russian troops. Most notably, as per the present move, all the services of the airline stand cancelled until at least Monday, the 18th of August.

At the outset, Georgia and Russia have been engaged at war in the province of South Ossetia, located to the north of Tbilisi. The war signs started from as early as Friday. As part of the war, the Russian Aircraft bombed the airport and following this, all the flights operated in and out of the airport were eventually cancelled.

The carrier operates its services to this destination three times a week thereby connecting Heathrow and Tbilisi, with the services departing on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The return journey is scheduled on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. The airline noted that due to the cancellation of flights to this destination, those passengers who have purchased tickets for travel might re-book to Yerevan in the neighbouring Armenia or to Baku. As another alternative, the customers can also opt to retain their tickets to Tbilisi. The tickets will remain valid for travel up to four weeks from the original date of the scheduled journey.

In a recent statement, Air France-KLM has announced that the net income of the airline has decreased by 59 percent during the course of the second quarter. Notably, despite this fall in profits, the carrier has successfully managed to exceed the expectations when it came to profit estimates made by a good number of industry analysts. This news has successfully balanced the fall in the net income of the firm. 'The Age', one of the leading newspapers of Australia, it is said that Air France showed a remarkable performance with respect to selling business class seats on its flights in addition to managing to secure relatively favourable contracts for fuel. These moves have ably assisted the airline in managing the oil price rise when compared to some of its competitors. 

The second quarter income of the airline stood at €168 million, thereby exceeding the estimates by the analysts who assumed that the carrier will make only around €152 million. According to Jean-Cyril Spinetta, the chief executive of Air France-KLM, the most important factor that helped the carrier face this good fortune was the increase in passenger traffic by 3.7 percent, amidst a significant rise in demand for business class cabins in addition to increase in the number of passengers flying to destinations in Asia and America. Not following the trend set by most other airlines, Air France-KLM has decided to significantly increase its capacity for the fall season, especially marked by a 2 percent hike during the month of October.

According to the estimated figures released by Official Airline Guide (OAG website: www.oag.com), not less than 60 million fewer airline seats will be sold across the globe during the final quarter of 2008. The said condition foresees an overall seven percent reduction in the global aviation capacity. The company has noted that the soaring oil prices have compelled most of the airlines across the globe to cut back on the routes offered by them in addition to capacity cuts.

The report also noted that the situation is highly severe that the industry can witness it overtake the fallout noted during the September 11 attacks. During that time, the capacity fall was only five percent, which took about three years to recover.

Most notably, the areas that are worst-hit by this adverse condition in the domestic market of US are expected to absorb not less than one third of all the cuts estimated across the globe. Also, Asia is expected to feel the pinch of the situation with a fall in the capacity by about 13 percent.

On Thursday, Lufthansa scrapped not less than a fifth of its flights when the pilots at its CityLine regional airline walked out once again over a dispute regarding pay.

Amidst the said circumstances, Lufthansa had no other go than canceling about 360 of its 2,000 daily services, which greatly disrupted the travel for thousands of passengers. Most notably, travelers within Germany were even encouraged to switch to transport via trains.

Notably, the Pilots at CityLine that operates around 400 flights every day and brings in passengers into Lufthansa's Frankfurt and Munich hubs for its long-haul routes commenced a strike stretching for 36 hours on Wednesday, with effect from midnight local time.

In a recent statement, Stefan Lauer, the executive board member of Lufthansa observed that the airline is highly keen to hold serious talks with the Austrian regarding a stake in Austrian Airlines. On the other hand, Lufthansa is also very keen on watching the Italian market, especially in the developments regarding the ailing national carrier, Alitalia. This week, Austrian government leaders noted that they were keen in selling some stake in Austrian Airlines, but would prefer to keep enough to see that the Austrian core shareholders and the government together retain about 25 percent stake.

Lauer said, "Austrian Airlines is an important partner for us. If the Austrian government comes to us and talks to us, we are of course interested in an intensive dialogue.”

At present, Austria owns around 43 percent of the airline, which is worth some EUR145 million euros (USD$225 million) as per current prices, through the government holding company OeIAG. In addition, a group of Austrian banks and insurers hold about 7 percent. The airline's own stake is about 3 percent. The remaining 43 percent is left for free float.

Last month, the European and domestic passenger traffic at the Lufthansa airport slipped by 0.6 percent, that clearly reversed the growth observed during the previous months with strikes forcing the carrier to cut its flights.

However, Lufthansa posted a 6.2 percent increase in the overall traffic during the month of July, able helped by the 17 percent growth at the Swiss unit of the carrier, that was fully consolidated since July 2007. The load factor eased 0.9 percentage points to 82.9 percent.

Most notably, Lufthansa was badly hit by strikes by the ground staff and cabin crew during the last week of July in addition to walkouts demonstrated by the regional pilots earlier during this month in a series of disputes over pay.

In a significant move, Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Airlines appears to have sent a letter to both Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his Democratic rival, Barack Obama regarding the pitfalls involved in the proposed merger between British Airways and American Airlines.

However, according to the argument made by Branson, it appears that a fusion of British Airways and American Airlines would lead to the decline of competition in the transatlantic market, thereby negatively impacting the travellers both from the UK and the US. Over and above, a press report observes that according to the belief by Branson, the ticket prices are bound to increase significantly for passengers in addition to the possibilities for considerable redundancies in both Britain and the US.  

It appears that the American regulators will be examining a proposal in the near future that would find British Airways and American Airlines enter into close cooperation with respect to transatlantic routes. The essential aspects of the new deal would be a crucial revenue sharing structure that will be achieved between the two airlines. According to the indication given by the British Airways, a formal proposal is expected to be completed in less than a week, following which the same will be forwarded to the regulators for approval. While such moves are under progress, it appears that British Airways is into making separate negotiations with Spain's Iberia, in a bid aimed at a merger with this airline as well.

Having already known to provide some of the cheapest airfares in the whole of Europe for its customers, Ryanair has decided to cut its rates further more in a move to encourage the passengers who are hesitant to purchase tickets amidst the airline industry facing the crisis of economic slowdown. Thought the present decision of the airline is expected to result in a remarkable loss to the firm at about £5 on each seat, the airline is bent upon going about a price reduction for tickets. As part of this strategy, the carrier has also decided to cut its lowest prices by up to 50 percent, though there cannot be any profit made on these seats.

In addition, yet another move by the company has announced up to one million seats for just £5, which includes all taxes and surcharges. Most notably, since the airline duty per passenger constantly stands at £10, it is sure that Ryanair will lose money on sale of these seats. However, the CEO of the airline Michael O'Leary pointed out that the ultimate goal of the company is to ensure that not less than 80 percent of the airline's seats are filled on all the flights offered by the firm. Ryanair's reduced offer will continue to be in force till all these seats are filled. On the other hand, once the target is achieved, proportionately the usual rates will be resumed on the flights. Analysts believe that the main intention behind this move is to create a difficult environment for its competitors forcing them to leave the business.

In a highly welcomed move today, easyJet announced a brand new route offering a connection between Gatwick and Salzburg in Austria. Notably, the new route that is scheduled to offer flights from 13th December is just in time for the next Ski season. This has come as a welcome initiative to please the involved skiers looking forward to an easy trip to the famous sky site. Under this new service, the airline will offer flights three times a week. The fares start from £32.99 one way including all taxes and charges.

Most notably, with its launch, the brand new route takes up the total number of easyJet flights operated from Gatwick to 50 for this winter. Over and above, the airline expects that more than 16,000 passengers will be travelling on the new service on its highly anticipated launch. One of the important reasons to anticipate the significant demand in this route is that the service is offered in time for the ski season.

easyJet UK General Manager Commercial, David Osborne, remarked, "Salzburg is another exciting destination to add to easyJet's Gatwick network. We expect the route to be popular with passengers seeking both a city break away or a great ski destination for those looking to hit the slopes this winter. easyJet has more flights to the snow from Gatwick this winter than any other airline and Salzburg joins other popular ski destinations such as Geneva, Innsbruck, Lyon and Sofia.'

The aggressive new policy taken by Ryanair to combat the intermediary websites offering to book its flights might result in over 1000 passengers a day finding the cancellation of their flights. Notably, with effect from Monday, the 11th of August, Ryanair is to initiate the cancellation of bookings that have been made through the so called screen scrappers. This cancellation will include those that have been already made. If the booking has the address of the passengers, the airline will arrange to inform the concerned passengers via email. 

Notably, screen scrapers are those websites that make cost comparisons between different airlines, which can also be used for booking tickets. According to a data given by Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, it appears that not less than 1000 bookings are made with Ryanair through these websites everyday. He observed, "We are free to cancel a booking. We want to cause as much chaos for the screen scrapers as possible.”

When the Ryanair CEO was asked about the fate of the people who have booked through these sites, Mr O'Leary said, "They won't be flying.” According to him, the passengers are 'getting stiffed' on these sites, with most of these sites usually charging more than what is actually quoted on Ryanair.com.

Recently, Japan Airlines has announced its decision to cut around five of its international routes. This present move by the airline comes forth as part of the airline's efforts to offset the soaring fuel bills, as per the report published in the business daily Nikkei. Recently, the national carrier suspended certain popular services including its London Heathrow to Kansai service in addition to not less than 12 domestic routes. Over and above, it is expected that the carrier might reduce several other frequencies.

Amidst these moves by Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, its principal rival too has announced its decision recently confirming that it has decided to scrap not less than ten routes. Most notably, this list also includes two international routes offered by the airline.

Like several other airlines, both the airlines have primarily blamed the rising oil prices for this serious set back in the industry. In fact, a spokesperson for JAL stated in no undeniable terms, "We are reviewing flights due to surging fuel prices."

In a significant move on Wednesday, Ferrovial, the Spanish construction and airport company won the support of bondholder for a key step in a complex refinancing of more than GBP10 billion pounds (USD$19.5 billion) of debt on Wednesday. The firm also said that it is highly hopeful of sewing up the deal during this month. Notably, the company has been trying very hard for more than a year to renegotiate the debt linked to BAA, which was bought earlier by the firm in July 2006. However, this move was hampered by the liquidity crisis that struck the major part of the globe.

In a statement made on Wednesday, Ferrovial observed, "The outcome represents a significant step in the re-financing process. A London-based BAA bondholder agreed. It's removed the greatest uncertainty. The refinancing is largely done and dusted. Holders voted to accept BAA's proposal to move existing bonds into a new financial structure, backed by income from London airports Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted and the Heathrow Express train service."

He too added, "There are loose ends to be tied up, including the arrangement of banking facilities for the airports group which are not regulated by Britain's aviation watchdog, such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Southampton."

A recent statistics published by the Visit USA Association has revealed that during this year, Britain has been seeing a record number of visitors from Britain.

The Telegraph has reported that based on the figures noted through May, there was not less than 11 percent rise in the number of UK visitors to America, when compared to the number recorded during the same time last year.

The article in the newspaper suggests that the increase was mainly on account of the conversion rate of pound to dollar that has become highly favourable now. In addition, the Brits appear to take a great advantage of the good vales presently available in accommodation and shopping.

In a highly strategic move, British Airways has announced the details of a multi-million pound marketing campaign. Most notably, the principal aim of this campaign is to boosting the image of Terminal 5. Most notably, T5 was the subject of severe media derision during the recent past on account of the chaotic opening of the terminal during last March, when about 15,000 pieces of luggage were reportedly missing and several hundreds of flights were cancelled.

Though the situation has considerably got reversed and the media is presently witnessing more positive reports from several circles, the facility still appears to retain a dubious image, which BA is bent upon reversing at any cost mainly with the help of the present advertising campaign. The campaign will stretch over 38 days and will be mainly centered on the no-nonsense slogan 'Terminal 5 is working'. The campaign will be rolled out across a broad range of mediums including print, radio and billboard, in addition to popular online platforms.

The campaign will feature an up-to-date statistics that project the efficiency in the terminal, in addition to lifting its customer experience image by projecting a passenger-eye perspective of this ultra-modern gateway.

LOT, the national carrier of Poland warned on Tuesday that it will have to undergo a restructure to avoid a possible cash crunch, at a time when a USD$133 million operating loss has been forecasted. This situation has significantly clouded the path of the airline towards privatization. In addition to the soaring oil prices, the additional factors that challenged the airline were the wage increases and the headwinds suffered by the airline from its highly struggling no-frills arm.

Most notably, LOT has seen about five chief executives during the last five years under changing governments, which had clearly come as a hurdle in taking tough decisions that was absolutely necessary to shed its legacy of a state-owned carrier while dexterous rivals such as Ryanair moved in.

Konrad Tyrajski, the Chief Financial Officer observed during a news conference, "A significant rise in fixed and fuel costs are forcing us to revise our forecasts. Everything indicates that the coming months will be no better. We don't have the time to wait for restructuring because otherwise in the near future our company may have troubles maintaining liquidity."

In a significant move to rescue the Alitalia, arrangements have been made to inject about EUR1 billion euros from private investors. Il Giornale has reported this on Wednesday without citing any sources.

Notably, the paper is owned by the brother of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The paper has said that the investors are actively taking part in the rescue plan designed for the airline. Intesa Sanpaolo, is the government-appointed adviser for drafting this plan.

Il Giornale noted that the highlight of the plan is to seek to raise Alitalia's 40 percent share of the domestic market, by way of taking in 22 percent share of Air One, a smaller domestic rival.

So far British Airways enjoyed only a dull summer season with its traffic figures falling considerably lower than normal on several routes. According to a report published in the London Times, the load factor in the carriers of British Airways reported an average of 75.8 percent during July, though the peak summer season is normally expected to represent the time of growth with the flights flying full for most airlines. It is said that the load factor for this year's July was about 5.4 percent lower than the figures obtained during the same period last year. This change however appears to attest the arguments put forth by increasing number of industry analysts that Brits and the travelers across the globe in general are presently trying to nix the expensive holidays abroad on account of higher airfares and concerns regarding the health of the economy.

According to the estimation of the experts, a 75 percent load factor might be usual during the slower seasons of fall or spring. However, this is remarkably lower for the peak summer month, when usually several Brits set out on holidays than any other time in a year.

On the other hand, despite the discouraging results for the summer, Iberia-BA's Spanish partner appears to be still interested in the UK's flag carrier. Most notably, Iberia had already bought a 2.99 percent stake in British Airways, but the airline said that it would now go into investing an additional £2 million in shares, so as to ensure that the airline is able to emerge as an even more important stockholder.

Amidst several uncertainties and challenges hovering over the issue of rescuing Alitalia from doom, the government of Austria is trying its best to see that the airline continues to remain the national carrier of the country. In this regard, the government seems to be highly particular in limiting the percentage of held by foreign investors. In a statement made today, the government confirmed that it will try its best to invite a domestic investor in addition to assuring its stand against privatising the airline until the right individual or organisation comes forward to purchase the maximum share of the company. Till this announcement came recently, most analysts had the notion that the government is bent upon selling the airlines at the nearest possibility and that finally Lufthansa-Germany's flag carrier-might end up with purchasing a major stake.

However, according to the new scenario, even if the new approach succeeds in solving the faction existing within the government, the condition has made the selling of the airline a bit more difficult. According to the present development, the government means to control around 25 percent stake of the company along with aligned local investors, even after privatising 43 percent of the shares owned by the state. Amidst this situation, several foreign bidders like Lufthansa for instance might learn that with a quarter of the stakes, the government and Austrian interests will have a considerable leverage so as to block certain vital decisions regarding operations.

Several reports published in the media give a hint that British Airways is very close to complete the signing of a merger deal with American Airlines, the oneworld alliance partner of the carrier. It is said that an announcement in this regard can be expected in less than two weeks. British Airways has tried to merge in the past. However, the efforts of the carrier proved futile often because the firm did not obtain the clearance from the concerned authorities. However, the airline seems to be highly determined this time due to the fact that it is getting extremely difficult of our all the carriers to manage the issue of rising fuel costs and a decrease in the demand due to fall in the number of passengers.

Besides the merger plans with the American Airlines, British Airlines is also keen on a possible merger with Iberia, the flagship carrier of Spain. Most notably, both Iberia and American Airlines are members in the oneworld alliance. This fact presupposes that even before the merger, British Airways is enjoying a code-share agreement with these carriers in addition to enabling the passengers of all these airlines to redeem their frequent fliers points for reward on all their flights.

Addressing the journalists, Willie Walsh, British Airways' chief executive, noted that he would seek to proceed with both mergers in the earliest possibility. Several unofficial reports observe that after the merger, both American Airlines and British Airways would operate as a single entity in terms of transatlantic flights.

In a recent statement made by the airline, Iberia has strongly blamed the soaring costs of fuel and the weakening of demand for a significant and sharp drop in its earnings. Most notably, the airline has lost €32.2m (£25.5m; $50.2m) during the first half of the year. This is a clear contrast from the situation where the operating profits of the company were valued at €69m just a year ago. The news has come at a time when the airline is at the verge of deciding over a possible merger with British Airways. Also, Iberia has come forward to increase its stake in BA.

Iberia has recently reported that the fuel costs for the airline have gone up by 38% to €732m. It has also stated that the introduction of a brand new Madrid-Barcelona high-speed rail link and the surplus capacity in the Spanish domestic market highly affecting the number of passengers. The soaring prices of fuel has contributed to a 4.1% rise in the operating costs at Iberia, thereby offsetting a marginal increase in revenues, up 0.1%, working out to €2.6 billion. Notably, the airline has already implemented a cut back on its internal flights in addition to contemplating on further capacity cuts later in this year.

On the other hand, Ferando Conte, the Spanish airline's chairman noted that Iberia has planned to purchase more shares in merger partner BA during the forthcoming months. Also, the airline stated last week that it had a 2.99% direct stake in BA, besides a plan to increase the holding to 9.99% before the two airlines merge.

In a surprising move yesterday, the ratings of Ryanair, easyJet and British Airway were all cut by investment banks. This is a result of the efforts of the aviation industry to sustain the slow economic growth.

Credit Suisse analysts have significantly lowered their recommendation on easyJet from 'outperform' to 'neutral'. In addition, the rating for Ryanair has been dropped from 'neutral' to 'underperform.' Also, Exane BNP Paribas has lowered its recommendation on BA from 'neutral' to 'underperform'. Over and above, the analysts have considerably lowered their share-price estimates over the stock of each of the airlines.

Credit Suisse London-based analysts including Gerald Khoo wrote observed, "It has become increasingly clear that the current consumer downturn is likely to be a prolonged one. The trading environment this winter is going to be a lot tougher than we had previously anticipated."