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.

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."

As a result of economic slowdown and soaring oil prices, Air France KLM reported on Tuesday that its first-quarter net profit has more than halved. Notably, Air France-KLM is the biggest carrier on the globe in terms of revenue. The statement made by the firm on Tuesday said that the net profit for the first quarter fell by 59 percent to EUR168 million euros (USD$262 million).

Raymond James analyst Bruno de la Rochebrochart noted, "The results really look good and the outlook has been confirmed. Beyond the results, the fall in the price of oil is supporting the whole sector."

The airline recently confirmed that the results for the first quarter were perfectly in line with the objective of the company to achieve an operating income of EUR1 billion for the full year. The airline also said that despite the slow down of global economic growth and the rising of oil prices, the rate of passenger traffic increased by 3.7 percent offering a load factor of 80.3 percent for the airline.

As part of its extended seat sale offer, Air France is cutting its fares to several destinations across Europe and the Middle East. The present move by the airline follows the ticket price hikes across the industry, when a strategic cost cut over the ticket prices shall invariably attract prospective passengers. To avail this discount offer, passengers need to make their bookings before 5th August 2008 either through the online portal or using Air France's US-based 1-800 number. The date of flights can be scheduled anytime between 1st September and 29th October, which proves to be ideal for planning an autumn travel.

Most surprisingly, the lowest fares are made available in the most popular New York to Paris route. Provided the passenger can purchase a roundtrip ticket, the price of the ticket is only $314 each way. Also, those looking forward to travel between Philadelphia and Madrid can find the tickets of Air France priced from $353. Most notably, this trip involves making a connection in Paris.

Similar to several other discounted offers, there are a few restrictions that need to be complied with. For instance, booking under this scheme requires a stay-over on a Saturday night. Over and above, the return journey must be scheduled within one month from the date of departure. In addition, the tickets booked under this offer are not flexible in the sense that any changes required should involve an additional charge of $200, which does not include any addition to the price of the ticket.

A recent report published by Bloomberg states that the falling oil prices have given a boost to some of the major players in the airline industry namely Air France, Lufthansa and Ryanair. Especially in case of Ryanair, the carrier could see its shares close at 24 cents up when compared to the previous day of trading. This value actually represented a 7.6 percent increase. Notably, each of Ryanair's shares is valued at 3.39 euros. Air France showed a remarkable performance with its shares witnessing a jump by 96 cents, making a 6 percent increase over the figures noted earlier. Also, the shares value of Lufthansa rose by 4 percent today.

Reputed analysts like Andrew Fitchie, who represents Collin Stewart, has observed that if the oil price is on continuous decline, several numbers of airlines shall see the values of their share rise in the markets. The current price of oil stands at $128.25 for a barrel, showing a remarkable decrease from a record high price of $147.27, reached on July 11th, 2008. However, according to Fitchie, the world's largest carriers are still not out of the difficult situation yet. If an airline needs to simply break even or at least avoid getting into a loss, the oil prices need to settle down at around $120 per barrel, however, certainly not more than $125. It is rather doubtful whether this could happen in the immediate future. This is because several observers still predict that the oil prices shall further increase during this year.

Air France and the national rail operator SNCF have commenced discussions related to several transport projects in France. This also includes projects to improve and develop the airport and the train services that are operated by the airline.

While commenting on the talks, the directors of both the companies made a note that the talks are scheduled well in advance before the railway-deregulation hits the railway industry pronouncing its effect across Europe. Notably, railway de-regulation is likely to exert more pressure on the European airline companies.

Presently, the SNCF has been hiring out not less than ten trains per day to Air France for use on the route between Brussels and Charles de Gaulle Airport. Most notably, this route has been dedicated to use by the customers of airlines.

In a highly welcomed move, KLM has launched a trail run of a self-service luggage check-in system at its base in the Schiphol Airport of Amsterdam. As per this facility, those passengers flying with the airline can now drop off their luggage themselves, without the help of the terminal staff, if they happen to carry only one piece of luggage on hold. This move has been let to trail by the airport authority by way of easing the check-in process for the benefit of passengers.

According to the plans announced by the airline, this scheme will be on trial run for a period of six months. After this, the airline will take a decision as to whether it shall continue the facility or not depending on the outcome.

To be able to make use of this system, KLM passengers must first place their baggage inside an especially dedicated machine placed in Schiphol's Departure Hall 2. After this, they will be required to scan their boarding passes in addition to answering security questions through a self-service kiosk.

Following the lead by other airlines in the industry, Air-France-KLM has announced recently that it shall cut back on planned capacity increases. For instance, the airline will not offer more than 2% rise in the capacity of its carriers and the number of services operated, when compared to last year. The airline has not revealed the details of its original capacity increase plan. However, some analysts estimate that it was actually double than the current figures released.

In a statement, Air France has told that considering the record high prices of oil in the market, there is no other go than to cut back the planned capacity increase for the next year.

Though Air France has announced that it shall trim its growth plans to its present capacity, the development is said to be a bit more positive and encouraging than the dramatic shrinkage in the capacity of the carriers in the US. For instance, in the US, all the carriers have been forced to cut back on the capacity of their planes, flights and seats, even if they have not contemplated on these steps earlier. Most surprisingly, American Airlines has been forced to reduce the number of its seats and flights by 12 percent. On the other hand, the cut backs in the Europe is estimated to be far less than the case observed with the carriers in the US.

Air France KLM has recently announced that it will offer high-speed rail travel in addition to adjusting its winter seat capacity to manage the rising fuel costs. Notably, the airline is the biggest in the world in terms of revenues. Earlier this year, the carrier pulled out of a bid to release Italy's Alitalia. The airline is competing with the emerging transatlantic partnership between British Airways, American Airlines and Spain's Iberia.

In its one of its statements addressed to the media, the airline confirmed that it was seriously considering a high-speed rail alliance with Veolia, the French utility that operates several rail connections. However, Veolia is not very active with respect to high-speed travel, which is dominated by state-owned firms like SNCF, Deutsche Bahn, Thalys and Eurostar.

An Air France-KLM spokesman noted, "As part of the opening to competition of rail transport in 2010, Air France and Veolia are looking into the possibility of a partnership to create a new high-speed rail player on the European scene. We are reviewing the feasibility and possibility of such a project, but it is too early to discuss its terms."

Recently, the US Justice Department said that Air France-KLM and three other airlines have consented to pay fines amounting USD$504 million for settling US price-fixing charges involving huge shipments of consumer goods from electronics to medicines. Notably, the plea deal occurs as the latest among a number of cargo price-fixing settlements that has highly boosted the total fines from the US antitrust investigation to a record value of USD$1.27 billion.

As per the new agreement, Air France-KLM is required to pay USD$350 million. Interestingly, this is the second-largest criminal fine ever charged by the Justice Department's antitrust division. This was confirmed by the statement made by the government. Until the start of the price fixing investigation in May 2004, Air France and KLM functioned as separate companies after which they combined into a single company when they combined under a single holding company.

According to the Department of Justice, Cathay Pacific is to pay a USD$60 million fine while Scandinavian airline SAS is required to pay USD$52 million and Martinair USD$42 million.

Air France, the French flag-carrier, has said that congestion at London Heathrow airport is pointlessly pushing up carriers' fuel consumption and carbon emissions at present.

The carrier condemned air traffic control systems at London Heathrow as it pushed its own environmental record at an event in the French capital city of Paris yesterday. Many other things are coming against the congestion problems of Heathrow Airport, London, but it seems that there is no near-future solution for these problems.

The carrier's head of flight handling and infrastructure, Francoise Barrard, said that the carrier's reduced fuel consumption in 2006-07 through practices like decreasing taxiing time and shifting approach routes to Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports in the capital city. This resulted in 13,000 tonnes of fuel, but similar efforts at London Heathrow would be caught due to congestion.

The air travel industry is at fault for creating the belief that air travel is cheap and will pay the price for it, said the joint head of the world's biggest carrier, according to reports by the Independent.

Mr. Peter Hartman, the Chief Executive of the Dutch firm KLM, one-half of Air France-KLM, said that airline companies had been mistaken in permitting customers seduced by the coming of low cost airlines like Ryanair and easyJet to believe that the budget air travel would continue without an end.

Mr. Hartman revealed to the Independent that while his company was protected against some of the effects of the continuously rising costs of fuel, he expected bloodshed in a different place in the sector as carriers struggle to take up a 90 per cent hike in kerosene prices over the course of past one year.

All the speculation and rumours that have been widely spread about the chances that Air France-KLM may still be interested in taking over Italian ailing carrier Alitalia after its unsuccessful attempt previously this year as the newly-elected Prime Minister now seem more willing to back such a deal, have been flatly rejected by Pierre-Cyril Spinetta. No wonder that such rumours were still hot-the story of Alitalia seems to be alive forever.

Mr. Spinetta spoke briefly at a conference previously today about this matter, rejecting it right away. Spinetta said that the Italian carrier talks showed a closed chapter and the one which the Franco-Dutch carrier was not likely to reopen.

However except this flat rejection, Spinetta did not go any further into this topic, telling media persons that he did not want to make detailed comments on this issue at this moment.

Air France-KLM, the Franco-Dutch carrier, is asking the aircraft manufacturer Airbus to make an even bigger model of its latest A-380 super jumbo-jet, which currently has the capacity to accommodate up to 555 travellers.

The chief executive of the carrier, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, said that a number of airline companies-including his own-would get on the opportunity to purchase even bigger long-haul flying machines, because it would allow these companies to save huge amounts on their operating costs.

According to the calculations of Spinetta, the extended version of the latest A-380 could accommodate up to 656 passengers rather than just 555 people.

Less than two months ago, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi strongly opposed Air France-KLM bids to buy the ailing Italian carrier Alitalia, but now, he seems willing to admit that the Franco-Dutch company may serve as a good associate for the Italian carrier after all-a new twist to the story of this airline.

According to a report by Reuters, the Italian Prime Minister raised the issue of the Italian carrier and promising French support in the privatization of the ailing carrier when he met with France's Nicolas Sarkozy this afternoon.

At a press conference, Mr. Berlusconi said, "Alitalia will need to find accords with international partners and … Air France could be a good solution".

In times when most airline companies are trying to cut costs and reduce traveller services, the French flag carrier Air France's announcement regarding the up gradations to its in-flight entertainment serves is really good news for customers.

Now, passengers travelling on Air France's long-haul services will not only be enjoying a wider choice of music, but they can be able to enjoy the carrier's offering alternatively on a monthly basis, offering a variety for them. What's more, passengers will also be enjoying some of the latest songs.

Travellers in all the cabins of Air France's long-haul flights can choose from 15 categories of music, which allows them to make a choice from a total of two-hundred CDs of music and an impressive 3,000 individual tracks per flight.

Air France has initiated mobile phone calls permissible to passengers boarding its flights. Though there is lack of enthusiasm among the first passengers for the quality of the service provided.

The reason is that onAir's service is accessible on a limited number of flights. There is a low-power base station on the plane which connects calls via satellite to serve the passengers. It means the calls obstruct the lag connected with satellite communications and the service is limited- at the moment only six can be made all together.

It is revealed in The New York Times that Air France passengers avail the facility to make calls, but many a time repeated efforts are needed to access and incoming calls failed to link altogether. One of the passengers speaks even when connected: 'It sounds like I'm talking to a small robot'.

In a highly welcomed move, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has decided to host its annual Food and Wine Festival in April and May. Notably, this year's theme is to be focused around South America. The much-awaited South American experience will continue to delight the visitors till 31st May. The top highlights of this festival are the meals specially made to recipes created by the renowned Brazilian chef Mara Salles, which will be ably supplemented by a select range of finest wines from Argentina and Chili.

On the intercontinental flights connecting Schiphol, São Paulo, Panama City, and Lima, food prepared exclusively in the South American style will be served to travelers in World Business Class (WBC) and Economy Class. To further supplement the South American experience, the World Business Class will make available the wonderful book "Taste South America" featuring local specials and valuable tips for visitors.  In addition, the Inflight Entertainment will also feature the theme offering compositions by South American artists besides new video features centred on Panama and Brazil. Over and above, the lounges of KLM at Schiphol will also echo the South American theme during this festival.

Bart Vos, KLM executive vice president - Inflight Services observed, "We are proud to be able to offer authentic Brazilian cuisine on board through our association with Mara Salles. Our annual food & wine festival enables us to present our passengers with a unique experience. We feel it is important to continue to surprise our customers on board."

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has said that it is going to add a range of new routes to its existing network from London Heathrow Airport for its summer schedule.

On Friday, the 14th of March, the Netherlands' flag carrier made an announcement that it is going to expand its route network of transatlantic services from London Heathrow in association with Northwest Airlines. There are lots of offers made by various airlines offering different routes and destinations across the world: it makes a bit of confusing state of affairs as they sometimes finds it bit difficult to choose the airlines they would like to travel with; however, KLM stands as the biggest airlines and with highest quality of travel and therefore this offer should not be wasted.

For out of London Heathrow network, Northwest Airlines will begin three new daily flights to Seattle (available at a price starting from just £1,140), Minneapolis (available at a price starting from just £892) and Detroit (available at a price starting from just £757).

Confirm your seat bookings by the 31st of January and enjoy discounted flights to the US and Europe. This summer, KLM is offering cut-priced seats on its flights to both the US and Europe from London airports.

All the cut-priced fares on offer are available for return flight bookings where outbound journeys must be made by 31st July, and a minimum of seven days' stay is required to avail the discounted fares.

The destinations which are offered in the discounted fare offer include:

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has decided to introduce a new Japanese meal service on its flights to and from Japan. Interestingly, Akira Oshima, the master chef of Hotel Okura Amsterdam is directly involved with the preparation of the recipes for the new meals to be served in both World Business Class and Economy Class. This is a different kind of offer made by the airlines and it is hoped that it will go well with the travellers.

Over and above, the renowned Japanese tableware manufacturer Noritake has manufactured a special chinaware range exclusively for KLM's World Business Class to accompany the new meals on all the Japanese routes. With all this, the travelers on KLM flights to and from Japan now have a choice to relish either Western or authentic Japanese cuisine.

Marc Lammens, the vice president KLM Marketing & Brand remarked, "Japanese passengers can also now be served by Japanese cabin crew and enjoy Japanese video and audio programs, as well as newspapers and magazines in Japanese. On the ground, both at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Tokyo and Osaka in Japan, Japanese passengers may be assured of the services of Japanese-speaking ground personnel."

Air France is offering a number of discounted seats on its short-haul and long-haul flights throughout the month of January, with travel options available from seven airports in the UK. If you would like to avail the benefits of this offer, you should book your seat by the 31st of January.

There is a plethora of offers made by Air France for its customers. Some of the options available on the carrier's long-haul flights with departures from London Heathrow are:"

Los Angeles at a price starting from just £333, Hong Kong at a price starting from just £409, Lagos at a price starting from just £454, Johannesburg at a price starting from just £461, Tokyo at a price starting from just £495, and Mahe/Seychelles at a price starting from just £569.

Air France, the French flag-carrier has turned out to be the first carrier to offer international travellers the facility of sending text messages and emails with the help of commonly used mobile phone technology.

On the 17th of December, the airline has started a six-month trial on a single plane on the Paris to Warsaw route. This would be trial and if it comes out to be successful, the airlines may have mobile phones on all the routes. Later, more air carriers can also adopt the technology.

The airline is using an Airbus A318 toffer its services on this route, which is fitted out with an onboard cell tower that enables the mobile phones to work through a satellite network without misleading the navigational equipment.

From Thursday, 20th December, Air France has started accepting reservations for its new services between the UK and the US.

The new services that will be started on 30th March, 2008 are: Manchester to New York JFK, Manchester to Atlanta, Heathrow to Los Angeles, Heathrow to New York JFK, Heathrow to Atlanta, Edinburgh to New York JFK, Gatwick to Cincinnati and Gatwick to New York JFK.

All these services will be offered daily, except Heathrow to New York service, which will be offered twice a day. All the services to Los Angeles will be offered by Air France, while the services to Cincinnati, New York and Atlanta will be offered by Delta Air Lines. So, passengers can plan their air carrier accordingly.

A code-share agreement has been signed by Air France with Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air. With this agreement, Air France passengers will be able to fly to 18 fresh destinations in the Western United States and Alaska on flights operated by these two carriers under the code of Air France.

The new destinations on offer are: Fairbanks (Alaska), Anchorage (Alaska), Juneau (Alaska), Ketchikan (Alaska), Boise (Idaho), Bozeman (Montana), Kalispell (Montana), Missoula (Montana), Medford (Oregon), Portland (Oregon), Redmond (Oregon), Eugene (Oregon), Pasco (Washington), Pullman (Washington), Spokane (Washington), Bellingham (Washington), Reno (Nevada) and Sacramento (California).

Horizon Air or Alaska Airlines will offer services to these destinations with flight schedules that offers easy and quick links with Air France transatlantic flights between Paris-CDG and Seattle.

KLM is presenting a number of last-minute cheap tickets to Africa from various airports in the UK. 

The airline is offering the following flights:

From Aberdeen to: Johannesburg from just £610.20 (departure between December 25 and December 31 and between July 11 and December 7, 2008); Cairo from £401.30 (departure between December 13 to March 31, 2008); and Nairobi from £459.20 (departure between December 25 and July 10, 2008).

Northwest Airlines along with its joint venture partner KLM declared the previous day that they have got an approval from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to function three US routes from Heathrow Airport from the coming spring. A nonstop daily service between Heathrow and Detroit Metro, Minneapolis / St. Paul and Seattle-Tacoma airports will be conducted by Northwest. This is a great news for passengers going to US from Heathrow Airport.

The Heathrow - Minneapolis / St. Paul flights will commence on March 30, whereas Detroit services will begin on May 1 and Seattle on June 1. Functioning from Terminal 4, it seems that KLM is offering the slots and infrastructure at Heathrow and Northwest will conduct the flights, and the profits on the new routes will be distributed among the two airlines.

Passengers flying from Heathrow will get links to more than 250 destinations around the US through Northwest's hubs. The president and chief executive of Northwest, Doug Steenland, comments: 'Our Detroit and Minneapolis/St Paul hubs are the most efficient and uncongested connecting airports in the US and, together with our Seattle gateway, will link Heathrow to every point in America'.

Air France KLM has revealed that from the 30th of March, it will start daily service between Heathrow Airport and Los Angeles. The airline will use a Boeing 777 to operate the new service. A code-sharing agreement with Delta Air Lines will also be started by the carrier on the same day on twelve of the US carriers services between the US and the UK/Ireland.

In the wake of the Open Skies agreement, the carrier will also start a code share on a dozen of Delta routes between the UK/Ireland and the US. These route include services from Manchester to Atlanta and New York JFK; Gatwick to New York JFK and Cincinnati; Edinburgh to New York JFK and Gatwick to Atlanta.

Furthermore, the code-sharing agreement will operate on Delta's fresh twice daily flight between Heathrow and New York JFK that will be starting in the month of March by using slots of Air France at the London Airport. It will also be there on flights to New York JFK and Atlanta from Dublin, as well as the service from Shannon to New York JFK that are awaiting approval by the government.

Following Air France, KLM has now expanded its check-in service with the use of mobile phones. With effect from 4th September, travelers flying alone to Amsterdam from any of the European KLM destinations and vice versa can check in just by using their mobile phone--this will certainly revolutionize the concept of check-in among European destinations.

The above said service is designed for those mobile phones that have Internet access and is optimized for high-resolution mobile phone screens. Once you enter your e-ticket or booking code in addition to your flight number, your details will be displayed on the screen. There you can check in the assigned seat and also make changes if you wish. Then you can choose to get a free text message with all the check-in details as a handy reference. You can then collect your boarding pass from the he check-in machines at the airport.

From September, KLM will also provide the option of subscribing to a text message service through 'My booking' at Klm.com. Giving a direct access to mobile check-in, this personalized service will save a great deal of your time. As you can check-in for your flight anytime and anywhere, the entire process is made easier.

'Manage My Booking' services at Klm.com has made the complete range of your travel arrangements so easy from the point of booking your tickets to the time the flight takes off. It would be a unique concept whereby you would be able to manage lot of your travel arrangements from the website itself.

'Manage My Booking' facility offers you a highly clear and handy picture of your reservation. To get into this section, you can just go to 'My Booking' and enter your name along with booking code. This will display the summary of your booking including the changes or delays in your flight itinerary.

The aspects that you can manage through this facility are change or cancellation of reservation, quick access to Internet check-in, conveying your meal preference, adding your Flying Blue Number, forward your reservation information to someone's email address, take a printout of your reservation details, rent a car or boor a hotel and browsing the related information pages.

Discounted fares offer of Air France is ending on 30th November, 2007. Don't miss the opportunity and book your flight now!

Quoted prices are for return flights from London Heathrow, and include taxes and charges. Travel before 15th December, 2007 and between 1st January, 2008 and 31st March, 2008.

The airline offers flights from Heathrow to: Atlanta at a price starting from just £378, Boston at a price starting from just £358, Chicago at a price starting from just £383, Detroit at a price starting from just £383 and Houston at a price starting from just £385.

KLM, the Dutch carrier is offering cheaper flights to Dubai from a number of airports in the UK. Book your flight now and grab the opportunity to avail the offer!

Book your flight to Dubai from Aberdeen at a price starting from just £352.70, Birmingham at a price starting from just £319.70, Bristol at a price starting from just £355.70, Cardiff at a price starting from just £355.60, Durham Tees Valley at a price starting from just £352.50, Edinburgh at a price starting from just £319.50, Glasgow at a price starting from just £317.70 and Humberside at a price starting from just £352.20.

You can also travel to Dubai from: Leeds Bradford at a price starting from just £394.20, London at a price starting from just £322.90, Manchester at a price starting from just £338 and, Newcastle at a price starting from just £321.90 and Norwich at a price starting from just £358.40.

The clientele of Air France KLM, the world's leading airline group in terms of revenue, will enjoy the Flying Blue, the joint frequent flyer program (FFP). The customers will get the chance to reclaim miles on the Qantas domestic network. Members will be given the advantage of a return economy class ticket within Australia for just 25,000 miles.

A bonus miles promotion will be given to the members flying on Air France or KLM from Australia to Europe, along with this they will earn around 30,000 miles per round trip, which is equal to a free ticket. The current bonus miles promotion is effective till March 2008. So, the offers are really going to be rewarding for the passengers.

Flying Blue is Europe's dominating FFP, with 11,200,000 AIR FRANCE and KLM members. It is providing the highest membership levels and the fastest growth rate in membership. Flying Blue members of Australia can also acquire and reclaim their miles on Air Calin, Malaysian Airlines, Japan Airlines, SkyTeam airline partners and many more!

In a very interesting move, KLM and Mondial Assistance have decided to sign a global agreement to sell travel insurance via KLM.com. The initiative is expected to pour in more ancillary revenue to the firm besides enhancing the attraction of KLM.com to the travellers.

The insurance can be either purchased separately or availed as a part of the flight booking process.

KLM's e-Marketing Manager, Marcel Kuijn remarked, "The solution offered by Mondial Assistance allows our customers worldwide to book travel-insurance on KLM.com, something they have been clearly requesting. By integrating insurance in our flight booking process we are able to provide a relevant product in a convenient way. This will make KLM.com an even more attractive place to do business with KLM. Moreover, travel insurance is an important source of ancillary revenues."

Europe's biggest carrier, Air France-KLM Group SA, today called off about 30 per cent of its services from French airports due of a strike by the flight attendants.

Marina Tymen, a spokeswoman for Air France , said, "We are able to maintain about 70 percent of our flights".

She further said that disruptions are more affecting at airports in Paris , which are used for similar services as hubs.

A joint venture agreement has been signed by the American airline Delta and Air France to claim incomes and costs on their transatlantic networks, including from Heathrow Airport.

The two carriers planned the relationship in the wake of the Open Skies deal. The open skies agreement has liberalised air travel between the US and Europe.

The initial stage of the joint venture will witness the development of a flight service from Heathrow to Los Angeles which will be operated by Air France; one flight from Heathrow to Atlanta which will be operated by Delta and two flights from Heathrow to New York JFK which will be operated by Delta, These routes will be phased in from April 2008. Overall, the airlines are looking to serve their wide range of travellers.

As a result of a new joint venture between Delta Air Lines and Air France, travellers are set to get more options when travelling from Heathrow Airport to America. The options provided by the joint venture of the two major airlines would mean that the passengers have more choices to choose from while visiting America and taking the flights from Heathrow Airport.

According to reports, after the Open Skies agreement between the US and the EU, the two carriers are expected to come out with their first ever transatlantic flight services from Heathrow this week. This is surely a welcome news for Britishers, and also for businessmen who have frequent business visits in the States.

The two airlines have requested the nod from the US government to slice gains and coordinate fares as well as flight schedules on the routes from London to the US, an agreement that could also include KLM and Northwest Airlines.

In collaboration with Northwest Airlines, KLM has come out with an expansion plan on the North Atlantic route network operating a brand new non-stop service between Amsterdam and Portland, Oregon. The passengers using the services of KLM would be happy to have this news, as the Amsterdam is a very popular destination and any addition of flights to this city is always a welcome news for them.

Commencing its operations on March 30, 2008, the new non-stop services of Northwest will employ Airbus A330-200 aircraft to fly between Portland and the Pacific Northwest to cities throughout Europe through Northwest/KLM's Amsterdam hub. Portland-Amsterdam service of Northwest will also offer highly convenient connections for travellers flying beyond Portland through partner airlines Horizon Air and Alaska Airlines.

The new services to Portland are the result of KLM/Northwest Airlines' commitment to extend its services to the North American Market. Served through the combined KLM - Northwest Airlines Joint Venture, Portland happens be the twentieth destination in North America via Schiphol. Quite interestingly, this joint venture operates about 257 flights in a week between North America and Europe.

In summer next year, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will introduce direct flights between Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Panama City Tocumen Airport. Panama City will be the airline's sixty-second intercontinental destination.

From30th March, 2008 KLM will fly 3 weekly non-stop flights between Amsterdam and Panama City.

KLM's new flight will offer 294 seats; 270 in Economy Class and 24 in World Business Class.

Officials from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport announced on Thursday that a new carrier will be flying into the airport in the near future. The new airline will offer the region's first direct link to Amsterdam.

Starting from March, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will start its operation from DFW making the airport its 12th destination in North America. This is a welcome news for travellers who have used the services of KLM before, and would like to use it again for the route of Amsterdam.

With an Airbus A-330 with the capacity of carrying 251 passengers, KLM will provide North Texans a daily flight direct into Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

KLM, part of Air France-KLM, the largest European airline group, has selected Europe's leading online hotel reservations' company, Booking.com as its strategic partner for the distribution of hotels, giving holidaymakers an opportunity to choose from nearly 35,000 hotels in more than 9,000 destinations across the world listed on www.klm.com.

KLM's E-marketing Manager, Marcel Kuijn, said, "Millions of passengers can now benefit from a wide selection of hotels, ranging from basic budget properties through to five star luxury hotels in and around KLM's destinations, at great prices".

Kuijn added, "KLM is constantly looking for new ways to meet our customers' needs and our partnership with Booking.com enables us to take the next step towards providing a complete travel service on klm.com".

On Tuesday, French flag airline Air France, KLM of the Netherlands and Swiss announced that they would raise the prices of tickets due to rising fuel prices. The airlines would be the next one in line after Lufthansa increased the surcharge on its fuel consumption.

Both Air France and KLM, which are connected, made announcements separately that the ticket price would be raised by €1 on each leg of round-trip short and medium haul flights and by €5 on each leg of round-trip long-distance flights due to rising prices of fuel.

In a statement, Air France stated that the increase in fuel surcharges had been taken because of an increased level of oil costs. It also said that the increase in fuel surcharge would be taken back after the cost of oil stabilises durably below $75,.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is now offering the ease of e-tickets to its customers flying to any of the 124 destinations served by the company. In addition, the e-tickets issued by KLM can also be used when flying with 72 interline associates.

Passengers with an e-ticket have to show their identity document at the time of checking in for a flight, as the e-ticket information is automatically recorded in the airline's computer systems upon reservation,

In the replacement of paper travel tickets with e-tickets, KLM leads the international aviation industry. Currently, the KLM e-tickets account for nearly 89 per cent of all KLM tickets.

Air France will drive a new programme by the end of this year that will make use of biometric information encrypted on a baby card to allow travellers to get boarding passes from a booth in the terminal and will grant access to a boarding portal.

Smartboarding Personal Card is one of a number of latest technologies that the carrier is developing for the improvement of its entire passenger processing scheme.

Talking to ATWOnline, Michel Teychene, Deputy VP-Marketing said, "All people are aiming for more autonomy. If Air France can provide this autonomy, it creates a loyalty to the brand."

With the beginning of 2002, KLM was forced to discontinue the favour among Amsterdam and Muscat, due to the market conditions that roused after the criminal attacks of September 2001. But now, the air carrier is all set to provide a new service to this Gulf country from the European city of Amsterdam in Netherlands.

In the field of business and easy traveling, Muscat has just elaborated itself into the markets of Gulf territory. Though being the biggest market in the area which is not being assisted by the KLM and Air France web jointly.

Flight KL459 will leave Amsterdam for Muscat through Kuwait on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday mornings. The flight which will come back, KL460, will reach Amsterdam through Kuwait the next morning. 

More than 200 passengers leaving after St. Maarten got stranded in Aruba. The airline confirmed that the travelers stranded were boarded for Netherlands on Friday.

The pilot made the airplane numbered an MD-11, stop in Aruba. An engine problem was discovered there while examining during the control.

KLM spokesperson Bart Koster told Dutch World radio in an interview that it was impossible to fix the problem immediately. There was no other alternative to book passengers on another flight to the Netherlands, as all flights were already booked to capacity.

An agreement has recently been signed to purchase 20 new regional airliners between the Paris-France based Air France/KLM groups, a press release reveals.  Service to more cities around the Europe will be offered by both the airlines.

Regional division of France has been permitted to operate four EMB-190'S including ten other orders for KLM Cityhopper and the EMB-190 jet. There is an option in the agreement to purchase another twenty jets, some for both of the EMB-190 and the EMB-170. It will cost one billion US dollars if all options taken.  

"To be selected by these world-class airlines will further enhance the competitive positioning of our E-Jets. We have two main reasons to celebrate today's deal: one is the confidence reinstated by our distinguished and loyal customers, Regional/Air France and the other is the welcoming of an important new member into the quickly-expanding E-Jets operators family, KLM cityhopper", Embraer's Executive Vice President Mauro Ken said at the press conference.

Franco-Dutch airline, Air France-KLM is open to contacts with ailing Italian airline Alitalia, if the Italian government is looking for latest bids for the national carrier on changed terms, a senior executive for the world's biggest airline by revenue said on Thursday.

In a conference call with analysts, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, Chief Operating Officer of the airlines also revealed that his company might be interested to take over Spanish carrier Iberia.

Chairman of the airline, Jean-Cyril Spinetta had earlier said that his company did not think going after Italian national carrier, Alitalia.

World's biggest carrier by revenues, Air France-KLM made a one per cent increase in the operating profit for the first-quarter of the current fiscal. But the airline's gain is below market expectations, as the currency forces and cargo weakness cut down the profit gain on the passenger routes.

The carrier revealed on Thursday that in the first three months ending June 30, the operating earnings touched €415 million, on revenues that increased to €5.945 billion-grew by 2.5 per cent. The airline's charts) show that it was on the right track to realise its annual financial objectives.

In early trading, airline's shares saw a fall of 4 per cent.

The chief airline to provide self-service check-in to the arrivals at KL International Airport (KLIA) is the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. It is exercising the SITA-installed Common-Use Self-Service (CUSS) booths that are presently in process.

In the arrangement of improving its IT system, in business with SITA, KLIA has counted CUSS as an element of its proposal. In the previous year, 24.1 million visitors were guided by KLIA, and it is assumed that 40% of the visitors making use of the airport will finally check-in by making use of SITA's AirportConnect CUSS booths.

For Malaysia Airlines and Cathay Pacific, the CUSS check-in applications are pending to be established on booths before the year ends.