Scotland's largest independent carrier, Flyglobespan, yesterday achieved a customer milestone from Edinburgh Airport.

The low fares carrier has carried 1.5 million travellers through the hub since the company was started in the year 2002. This is great news for Flyglobespan as it shows that during the crunch times of fuel cost rise, the airlines continues to provide quality services to its customers.

Tom Dalrymple, the founder and chairman of Flyglobespan, said, "I am delighted to have reached this milestone.

Monarch Aircraft Engineering has inked maintenance contracts with Flyglobespan, Zoom Airline and Air Greenland. It has also uncovered its plans to set up a line maintenance facility in Kiev, according to the reports by Flight International. This deal could prove effective for many airlines as they would be able to get modern maintenance facility for their aircrafts.

Monarch has submitted an application for Ukrainian CAA permission to set up a line maintenance facility in the capital, Kiev, after a deal to offer line maintenance for Wizz Air's intended new Ukrainian domestic services.

Operating with a single A320 in the beginning, Wizz Air plans to expand the Kiev operation to support 6 flying machines by the year 2010. So, it is quite obvious that the airlines would need a good maintenance line from other companies.

Now, Scottish travellers can make their journey directly to the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, as Flyglobespan-the low-cost carrier-launched a new service to the historic city. This is good news for passengers who want to fly to Dubrovnik as lots of airlines are grounding their planes in the wake of steep rise in fuel prices. Now they will be able to enjoy direct flights to the city of Dubrovnik.

The budget airline will be operating a weekly service, on Wednesdays, to Dubrovnik from Edinburgh Airport, providing travellers from the Scottish capital with a link to one of the favourite resorts on the Adriatic Sea.

While commenting on the new service, the chief executive of Flyglobespan, Mr. Rick Green, said, "We are delighted to be operating yet another new route from Edinburgh".

Virgin Atlantic and Flyglobespan have turned out to be the latest carriers to hike their fuel surcharges on passenger services. Air travel companies all over the world are made to increase the costs due to rising oil prices. Airlines are facing severe pressure to reduce flights or to increase fair on almost all of them to avoid serious losses to the companies.

The two carriers said that they were left with no alternative but to increase the price, as the continuously rising prices of oil which touched an all time high level $135.09 a barrel on 22nd May.

Though oil prices have since dropped to the level of around $127 a barrel, prices hang about record highs. According to industry experts, airline companies have no choice but to pass the burden onto customers.

Flyglobespan, the Scottish low-fares carrier, will be examined for putting the safety of travellers in danger by permitting a 757 jet to take-off unlawfully from Liverpool Airport to America without of order instruments, reports the Times.

It will be the first ever criminal action against a British carrier in more than 10 years.

According to the reports, the transatlantic service is one of many accused safety violations being examined by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

flyglobespan, Scotland's low cost airline has recently released the first set of its three winter routes on sale. The most notable new addition to the programme of the airline is Hurghada in Egypt. Starting from 5th November, this brand new destination will receive flights once a week departing from Glasgow airport.

The prices for this service start from £119.99. The introduction of this new destination adds up to the present weekly services on Wednesdays between Edinburgh and Sharm El Sheikh, which was launched during last winter. This has been released for sale for winter 2008 with prices starting from £119.99.

In addition to the two new winter routes to Egypt, the airline has also commenced the sale of tickets on the route between Edinburgh to Madeira. Now passengers can book for this weekly service operated on every Monday for as low as £69.99.

Effective on travels in May and September, Flyglobespan offers discounted fares to Canada on certain specified flights. Notably, one-way tickets start at £125.99. The prices are inclusive of all taxes, surcharge and other charges. The highlights of the destinations include Toronto and Vancouver with departures from Glasgow, Manchester and London Gatwick airports.

For advance bookings, a deposit of £70 will be collected and the balance can be paid 70 days prior to departure. The fares quoted are meant for Premium Economy seats. Travels under this class features a luggage allowance of 25 kilograms in addition to in-flight entertainment as a compliment and a full meal.

Tickets for departure from Glasgow on 30th May to Toronto JC Munro are priced from£159.99. The price of tickets from Glasgow to Calgary on 10th May starts from £194.50 and on the same date, tickets to Vancouver from Glasgow are priced from £194.50.

Indications have been made by Flyglobespan, a subsidiary of The Globespan Group, that this year, it will not offer its services between Knock Airport and both New York and Boston. The low-cost carrier had served the two trans-Atlantic routes between the months of May and October on with a twice a week service, but now it is thinking other way.

Passengers of these routes would need to take care while planning their travel on this route with Flyglobespan, as the airlines is planning to discontinue the route-so, they would need to check with some other airlines.

Flyglobespan's Crawford Brankin told The Sunday Business Post that although the route was a success after it started they started their services last year, but due to the continuously rising oil prices, it becomes difficult to continue to serve the route.

Flyglobespan, the low fares carrier is running its largest ever discounted fare sale, on its services to more than twenty-five destinations. This would be good chance for holidaymakers to book their seats to different destinations offer by the airlines, as the winter season is kicking up.

All the quoted fare prices are for one-way tickets, and include all the taxes. The sale was launched on the 24th of December and the prices are based on the time of launch.

A selection of flights offered by the airline are:

From 1st December, travelers flying to Cyprus, Gran Canaria and Madeira with the Edinburgh-based low fares carrier, Flyglobespan, will be able to buy hot meals onboard. This is a very good feature provided by the airlines; however, it was available on certain number of flights earlier. But now, as its popularity has grown up, the airlines is offering the feature on more number of flights.

Passengers can pre-book the meals which will be available for a price starting from just £6 per individual per flight. They can also choose from various dishes including beef ragout and farmhouse chicken. The vegetarian option includes penne pasta in a tomato and basil sauce. So, it is sort of food-travel bonanza offered by the airlines to its passengers.

The option of hot meals on Flyglobespan's medium-haul flights comes after the successful start of a similar service on the carrier's services between Edinburgh and Sharm El Sheikh.

Start of a new service has been announced between Bristol International Airport and Toronto by Flyglobespan. The airline announced that it will operate its first flight in the following summer. Starting from 26th May, the new services will be operated on once in a week basis, on Mondays. The service will offer passengers a connection to the Hamilton Airport of Toronto. The tickets for the flights are starting from just £315.

Flyglobespan chairman, Tom Dalrymple, said, "We are delighted to be offering passengers from Bristol this flight to Toronto. We know the market in Canada very well and this knowledge, combined with our ability to offer great fares, gives us a great product that I think will be well-received by our customers".

Bosses at Bristol Airport hope that the new route will be very popular among passengers as they noticed that popularity of Canadian destinations is very high.

Iberia, the largest airline of Spain, is about to embark the no-frills subsidiary airline within two years.   A venture alike Ryanair and Easyjet, Iberia is set to present the anonymous budget entity, which will enable the British travelers to fly to Spain at a pocket-friendly budget. However, the flight-slots of the low cost airline have not yet been decided.  

In response to stiff competition from the budget airlines, Iberia has taken on this new venture. The airline is expected to pull almost 17 percent of the domestic routes of the rival counterparts. However, it is keen on bearing a minor stake of the whole budget, in order to avoid any unexpected circumstances. The largest saving bank of Spain has therefore, agreed to help Iberia in their new venture.

Iberia reckons to be the most popular and largest airline in Spain and has its network wings spread to seven UK airports. Its main base lies in Madrid Barajas international airport and Barcelona International airport. For 10 consecutive years, the airline has witnessed remarkable profit margin compared to its counterparts.