In a statement made on Tuesday, EU"s competition watchdog said the European Commission has decided to extend its review of a bid by Lufthansa to take over smaller Belgian rival Brussels Airlines.

The Commission confirmed that the deadline for its review of the deal was extended to 26th January from 12th January, with the total worth of the deal estimated at EUR250 million euros (USD$337 million). The commission said the move followed its interest to examine commitments targeted at remedying the concerns that the transaction might be anti-competitive.

The announcement was part of a daily list of mergers presently under review by the Commission, which supervises competition in the 27-country European Union. However, it declined to give any further details.

CAA said with every consecutive week, applications made by aviation companies for destinations and flight numbers have been increasing which has helped achieve a rate of 108 return weekly flights by the time it was four weeks from the inception of the programme.

The terms of an accord signed by China and Taiwan in November permitted a maximum of 108 weekly charters on the basis of a framework that had been set up in July during when weekend non-stop charters were launched.

Before the ruling was issued, passengers were not able to claim any compensation on grounds of flights delays or cancellations attributed to "extreme circumstances." This was because there was no clear definition of such circumstances and a loophole enabled technical faults to be treated under this exemption.

However the judges have now ruled that faults "which come to light during maintenance of aircraft or on account of failure to carry out such maintenance do not constitute, in themselves, extraordinary circumstances." The court has added that problems ensuing from lack of maintenance should be regarded as "inherent in the normal exercise of an air carrier"s activity.

Commenting on the strategic importance of introducing flights on this new route, Mike Coombes, Air Southwest"s deputy chief executive, stated that Grenoble represented an excellent winter ski destination.

Talking about the benefits offered by this service to skiers in the region, he said, "Air Southwest is delighted that it can offer ski breaks for people from across the region right on their doorstep, without having to take a long road journey to fly from a distant airport. Our new flights direct from Plymouth and Newquay have been extremely well received and this new service further demonstrates Air Southwest"s commitment to Devon and Cornwall.”

The offer comes into effect on most of the carrier"s domestic flights excepting certain popular routes with the initiative applying to spouses of passengers who have purchased an Executive Class ticket on a domestic route.

Air India"s new Spouse Plus scheme would take effect on Wednesday 7th January. Under this offer, the carrier has also waived fuel surcharges. However, both the passengers must have to pay a passenger service fee and user development fee.

The airline has said that passengers will now be able to benefit from more comfortable seats and a better view from the windows, in addition to more space for baggage.

Commenting on the advantageous features of the new aircraft, Adria chairman Tadei Tufek said that the new aircraft was more economical since its fuel consumption was "significantly lower" than the limits permitted by international laws.

A recent report by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Association of British Travel Agents A recent report by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) indicates that 2009 will see more British people booking flights to Turkey, Egypt and Mexico.

FCO and ABTA"s 2009 Travel Trends Report says the number of bookings for flights to Egypt from the UK has increased by about 28 percent over the last 12 months. Also, visitors to Turkey has risen by 32 percent. The data reveals that an increasing number of Brits are choosing to travel to countries that don"t have the Euro, mainly on account of the poor exchange rate with the pound.

Commenting on the trend suggested by the data, Frances Tuke, from ABTA, said that travellers had turned "more adventurous" over the last few years, especially because non-eurozone countries offered good value for money options.

In a recent test flight, an Air New Zealand jumbo jet left Auckland with a 50-50 mix of jet fuel and oil from jatropha trees in one of its four engines. The two-hour test flight by Boeing 747 over the Hauraki Gulf revealed that the jatropha bio-fuel could be used in airplanes without making any modifications in the engines. The entire exercise forms part of the carrier"s plan to source 10% of its fuel from sustainable sources by 2013.

Air New Zealand"s chief pilot David Morgan, who was on the test flight said, "At an emotional level, it was an exciting day today. We achieved everything we wanted to achieve and it as a significant milestone for the aviation industry, doing the very first jatropha-fuelled flight. We"re thrilled."

New figures have revealed that the number of flight arrivals and departures at major UK airports has dropped by about 10 percent. The implication of this situation for the residents of Suffolk is a decrease in the number of noisy planes zooming overhead. However, campaigners claim that the decline noticed at present is temporary.

Forecasts state that traffic will rise once again in the spring, besides growing more rapidly over the coming years on account of expansion projects to be launched at both Heathrow and Stansted airports, in addition to a range of other regional airports.

Industry circles indicate that the current fall in air traffic is due to winter service reductions, in addition to attempts by airlines to deal with financial difficulties besides a significant decrease in the number of air passengers.

Media reports have indicated that most low-cost airliners have initiated a price war, as they cut fares to attract ever more precious passengers as the recession bites them hard. Ryanair has recently put a million seats on sale for just £15 each across its network as part of cutting down its winter ticket prices by up to 20 percent.

Ryanair"s offer followed that of bmi, which has cut prices on several flights operated to Europe and the Middle East. EasyJet is to announce its seat sale next week.

Last week, BA and Virgin initiated a fares battle by slashing their ticket prices by as much as 25 percent on some flights.

Aegean Airlines, the Greek carrier, announced its decision on Friday to cut ticket surcharges by up to 3 euros (USD$3.84) on its domestic and international flights in response to the falling price of oil.

Greece"s largest private carrier increased the surcharges in July at a time when oil prices reached USD$146. However, this week, the oil price touched USD$43, which was the lowest for the past four years.

In a statement, the firm said, "Due to the drop in oil prices, Aegean is reducing surcharges on domestic and international routes tickets by two and three euros respectively, starting from January.”

Leeds Bradford International Airport (LBIA) has recently announced about 20 percent reduction on long-stay car parking for customers who book online in advance.

The airport has recently re-launched its online pre-book car parking facility. By way of celebrating the launch, the airport offers its customers more parking options in addition to announcing attractive discounts in parking charges.

Commenting on the reduction, Tony Hallwood, LBIA commercial and aviation director, observed that the airport was keen to give something back to its customers by introducing a cut on its pre-booked car parking charges.

In a recent announcement, JetBlue Airways has announced that it will introduce two new international routes offering connections to Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport in south Florida.

The US-based airline will offer a daily flight service to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and Cancun in Mexico from May 2009. The service would be a non-stop one. However, the launch is subject to endorsement from the US government operating authority.

While describing the unique advantages of the proposed new routes, Marty St George, vice president of planning at JetBlue, observed, "We invite you to experience our low fares and lots of frills on our newest service between Fort Lauderdale and the Caribbean.”

The results of a new survey have revealed that good service, edible food and departures on time are some of the top concerns in a list of what business travellers in Asia were seeking from air travel. However, the whole travel experience was voted as less pleasant this year.

About half of the passengers surveyed by Finance Asia magazine"s 2008 business travel survey stated that business travel was rather less pleasant this year, with the number up from 48 percent in 2007.

The major number respondents travelled in either first or business class. However, with 60 percent of them stating that they were under the constraint of shrinking travel budgets, more than a third said they were squeezed into economy class too often.

In a recent statement, Weerasak Kohsurat, the country"s Tourism and Sports Minister, announced that tourism in Thailand has reported a significant growth of about 3.49 percent during the first three quarters of the year. Weerasak stressed that unlike several countries that reported a negative growth in tourism, so far Thailand only saw a positive trend during this year. He added that the results are more encouraging since they are reported at a time when Thailand was not spared by the credit crunch in addition to the anti-government demonstrations that had been dominating the news in the recent past.

Weerasak added that a number of countries including China, the UK and the US, voted Thailand as one of the most attractive tourism destinations in the world, even during the global economic downturn.

Weerasak also observed that the government would extend its support to the launch of a variety of campaigns intended to promote international tourist arrivals. One such highlight in a series of events is called the "Iron Chef Nationwide," which will be organized in the country to promote Thai food. According to the tourism official, the Thai government has sanctioned about 374 million baht for empowering the Tourism and Sports Ministry to undertake special developmental projects during next year.

Work on a £40 million refurbishment project is to be given a start shortly at Edinburgh Airport. The project would see an extension to the main departure lounge of the facility, which the airport said would enhance passenger comfort.

Scotland"s busiest airport has recently reported that it witnessed an 11.5 percent increase in international traffic this year. The airport has recently completed a multi-million pound project to resurface its runway, on budget well ahead of the schedule proposed earlier. The airport said that the resurfacing project involved workers laying about 25,000 tonnes of asphalt. The project commenced in April 2008 involving a total cost of £16 million.

Gordon Dewar, Edinburgh Airport"s managing director, has stated that the forthcoming investment in the departure lounge "augers well for the future".

New figures released recently state that the number of foreign visitors to Britain dropped during the peak summer season in addition to the amount of tourist spending. The number of foreign visitors came down by three percent, down to about 9.3 million, compared with the figures reported for the July - September period last year. In addition, overall visitor spending was down by two percent to £5.1 billion.

The figures reveal that for the first nine months of 2008, the country could not attract foreign visitors, says VisitBritain, the national tourism organisation. During the period, about 24.9 million overseas visitors travelled to Britain. There was no growth in the number of arrivals when compared to the same period in 2007. However, the total visitor-spend for the period was £12.5 billion, up by four per cent.

During the first nine months of the year, visitors from North America came down by nine percent down to 3.2 million. Analysts attribute this to the tough economic scenario in the US in addition to low consumer confidence and the rising cost of air travel. Until early summer months, the weakness of the dollar was a factor. However, Britain has not yet seen the benefits from the strengthening of the dollar against the pound, observes Visit Britain.

An all-inclusive holiday operator based in Jamaica has warned that there would not be enough services to cater to the demands for the Caribbean and South America next summer.

SuperClubs has stated that some exclusive destinations including Panama and the Bahamas need more aircraft capacity to balance the "explosion" in demand for resort accommodation, a report by TTG Live said.

Paul Pennicook, the president of international lifestyles for SuperClubs has expressed his fears that there would not be enough flights from the UK next year.

A leading travel expert says that airline passengers in the UK are increasingly resorting to booking flights online since they claim that the levels of mobile phone customer service needs to improve.

Industry sources have quoted Gerry Samuels, founder and executive director at Mobile Travel Technologies, who made a remark that UK travellers still considered their mobiles primarily as a search device while organising their trip abroad.

While addressing delegates at a conference, Gerry Samuels said, "If you look at Japan, which is accepted as being a few years ahead of us, in 2006 it reached a tipping point where there are more people accessing the internet through mobiles than PCs."

While confirming a newspaper report, a spokesman of the company said Airbus has suspended its plans to increase the production of its passenger jets. The move by the plane maker follows the global financial crisis.

The firm usually manufactures about 36 single-aisle aircraft in addition to 10 wide-body A330/A340 aircraft a month. By 2010, the company wanted to boost this up to 40 and 11 respectively to keep pace with record order backlogs. Amidst the widespread credit squeeze and high fuel prices, increasing number of its airline customers are cancelling orders. This scenario has created a serious doubt whether the production rate must be maintained as per the present. Addressing the Wall Street journal, John Leahy, the Airbus sales chief, said the company had been forced to re-examine its production plans under deteriorating financial situation across the globe.

The spokesman said, "We are leaving production where it is for the time being until market conditions improve. But we still have very strong demand, and we are confident that these aircraft are needed."

Industry analysts said on Thursday that the Chinese airline is set to end up with a heavy loss in 2008 amidst the country"s slowing domestic economy and the severe economic recession across the globe. During recent days, Air China, the flagship carrier and Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines have been warning that they are most likely to post losses for three quarters of the year due to high fuel costs and weak economy.

A senior executive with China Eastern said, "Traffic did not pick up after the Olympics as we had previously expected. The situation improved a bit during the weeklong national holiday in October but the outlook is still murky, given the faltering global economy. There is little doubt that the whole industry will make losses now that the flag carrier has also issued a profit warning."

Since mid-July, there has been a sharp decline in the appreciation of the yuan, which is said to be one of the principal reasons for a drop in earnings during second half of the year. During the first half, rise of Chinese currency enabled top three airlines of China to book a combined foreign exchange gain of CNY6.41 billion yuan (USD$938.5 million).

Recently, the company responsible for scanning luggage at Stansted Airport has withdrawn the contract. The move follows a series of strikes over pay rises during the recent past. In an announcement, Gate Aviation Services has stated its decision to end the baggage-screening contract on 10th October. The firm has however added that the 34 staff of the company would be able to keep their jobs if a new contractor assuming the responsibility.

About thirty-four GMB union members employed with Gate triggered off a strike action during summer after rejecting the 2% increase over the pay offer announced by the company. A spokesman for Gate noted at that time that the strike was called by disappointed staff who wanted "to reject the company"s improved pay offer of 2% and a further 2.2% in January 2009".

A spokesperson for the company stated further that the workers would keep their jobs under the rules of continuation of employment even if Gate Aviation terminated the contract after a given period of notice since it was "untenable". It appears that a new contractor will assume the responsibility of scanning luggage after 10th October when Gate Aviation Services has decided to withdraw. Welcoming this development, the GMB has stated that it looked forward to work with the new contractor to settle the row. The employees feel that the present arrangement would provide a positive way out of the issue.

Triton Travel Group has recently revealed that during the aftermath of the collapse of XL Leisure Group, there has been an "unprededented" surge in the number of applications to join their Atol protection scheme. The firm stated that during last week alone, the company accepted not less than 300 calls and enrolled 60 additional members to the scheme.

It is said that the surge of this popularity is on account of the fact that people who make their bookings with firms protected by Atol are guaranteed compensation in the event of an airline or travel operator collapsing.

The collapse of XL in September left more than 80,000 British holidaymakers stranded in about 40 destinations across the world. In addition, not less than 200,000 forward bookings became void.

In a highly welcomed move, Blue Islands has declared its decision to introduce new ski routes from Southampton Airport. As per the announcement, it appears that the carrier, based in the Channel Islands, will start offering its flights to Zurich and Geneva from 26th October. The airline has stated that the two flights introduced in this route will be operated six days in a week between Sunday and Friday. It is said that the carrier will deploy a 31-seat Dornier 328 aircraft.

In a statement made regarding this route, Derek Coates, the chairman of Blue Islands, observed that the new routes would connect to Switzerland through Jersey.

He too stated that the airline had perceived the increasing demand in this route based on the analysis of market trends, wherein last year alone not less than 360,000 people flew to Switzerland through an airport other than Southampton. He added that the airline was positive the new route would prove  popular and highly profitable for the airline.

In a recent statement, China Airlines announced that its new Kaohsiung-Manila services will start on 1st October 2008. The airline has decided to offer a daily services on this route. As part of this new launch, Flight CI 637 will depart from Kaohsiung at 09:05, and will arrive in Manila at 10:45. The return flight CI 638 has been scheduled to take off at 11:45 and will arrive in Kaohsiung at 13:25. It is important to note that the new schedule offers more frequencies and added convenience for passengers travelling from southern Taiwan.

The airline is to deploy an Embraer E190 jet in this route. Notably, China Airlines has leased this aircraft from its subsidiary, Mandarin Airlines. Most notably, the said aircraft has been configured into two classes. There are 8 seats in the Premium Economy Class and 88 seats in the Economy Class. It is further interesting to note that the E190 jets are high-tech, medium-range jet airliners manufactured in Brazil, which Mandarin Airlines began to introduce into its fleet in June 2007.

At the outset, the present move by the airline forms part of the new round of capacity redeployment attempted by the CAL group in the said region. Also, it is very important to note that CAL is continuously enhancing the range and portfolio of its products and services as part of its commitment to serve more number of passengers in the southern Taiwan region.

Through a recent statement, the Civil Aviation Authority has joined hands with the group that has been demanding that BAA should sell off about three of the seven airports owned by the firm.

At the outset, it is to be noted that several airlines have backed the preliminary report issued by the Competition Commission, which concluded that the Spanish-owned regulator is enjoying an unhealthy monopoly on airports located across the southeast region of England.

In response to the report, BAA has recently said that it was keenly looking for a buyer for Gatwick Airport. However, it has not given any heed to the calls by the commission directing the airport owner to sell off another London airport in addition to one in Scotland.

The largest airport owner in Britain, BAA has said that it would rather consider taking legal action against the Competition Commission of UK, challenging the "substantive errors" made by the watchdog group in its recent report suggesting a break-up of BAA"s business holdings.

On the other hand, the Manchester Airport Group, one of the prospective buyers of the Gatwick Airport owned by BAA is seriously trying to push the move forward by enjoining the competition commission to designate an exclusive trustee for independently supervising the sale of this property.

BAA, which is owned by Ferrovial, the Spanish firm, has strongly criticised the report published by the commission, which has said that there was a severe lack of competition across all seven of the operator"s airports, which had drastically reduced their performance. Eventually, the monopoly watchdog group has suggested to the government that BAA should be compelled to sell off three of its airports, including two in London and one in Scotland.

In a prediction made on Thursday, an industry analyst has noted that the parent company of Air Canada is well poised to buy back the 25 percent of the country"s biggest airline for a sum of CAD$215 million (USD$209 million).

Remaining significantly down for more than 12 months on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the shares of Air Canada have recently surged by more than 15 percent or 65 Canadian cents to CAD$4.85. 

According to Jacques Kavafian, the Research Capital analyst, it appears that ACE Aviation will pay about CAD$8.50 a share for the stake, which is nearly double the closing price recorded on Wednesday.

In a statement made on Wednesday, the civil aviation secretary noted that India is not presently considering the sale of stakes in Air India, the state-run carrier and the helicopter services provider Pawan Hans Helicopters.

Earlier in the month of December, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had noted that Air India had planned to sell not less than 15 percent of its equity through an initial public offering in a move to raise funds required for its further expansion.

However due to the present turmoil in the local and international share markets, investors are losing their appetite for new issues. This condition has forced not less than 10 Indian firms to significantly delay or shelve their IPOs that value about USD$4 billion during this year. Notably, this outlook seems to remain constantly downbeat for the rest of this year.

July 2008 turned out to be a record-breaking month for Monarch. Celebrating this overwhelming success story, the airline has confirmed that it has transported over 460,000 passengers on scheduled flights in July 2008. This figure is notably 5 percent up over the figures noted during the same time last year. In addition, the carrier has also said that this number is the highest that the carrier has seen in any single month. A close analysis of the scenario reveals the fact that the record numbers have been made possible by the new launches made by the carrier during the recent months. Notably, this list comprises the service launched by the airline from the hubs of Manchester and Gatwick to Larnaca (Cyprus) and from Gatwick to Menorca.

During the month of July 2008, the scheduled services of Monarch carried not less than 459,914 passengers. Notably, this figure is about 5.09 percent up by the figures obtained during the same time last year. For this month, the load factor for the airline was 86.15 percent, which is up by 2.67 percentage points over the figures obtained last year. Interestingly, the Internet sales percentage of Monarch was 89 percent. Considering both scheduled services and charter services put together, Monarch carried a total number of 826,815 passengers during the month of July. The said achievement by the airline has been greatly appreciated by the industry circles during a time when several other major airlines are struggling for their survival amidst soaring oil prices and economic crunch.

With effect over bookings made by Monday, the 25th of August, Sterling is offering attractive savings of up to 50 per cent on over 900,000 seats to Scandinavia. Introduced on 18th August, the deal covers flights from the UK operated to destinations including Norway, Denmark and Sweden. To avail these offers, the travels must be scheduled between 18th August 2008 and 28th March 2009, with the Norwegian routes made available only until 25th October.

The tickets are made available from www.sterling.com. The airline notifies the passengers that early booking is needed to avoid disappointments as the forthcoming school holidays and other peak holidays are bound to significantly affect the availability of seats.

While commenting on the offers presently made available by the airline, Carole Arnaud-Battandier, the international marketing manager at Sterling Airlines, strongly believed that this new travel offer would certainly have a broader appeal among the passengers since the present offers greatly outshine any other offer that was announced in the route so far.

For the third consecutive month in July, the passenger traffic volume of Air China significantly fell low. Most notably, the reason cited for this drop is the strict airport safety checks implemented by the airport in face of the Beijing Olympic Games.

In a recent statement, the airline has also observed that there was an alarming jump of 58.05 percent jump year-on-year in its average jet fuel purchase. Air China has handled around 2.98 million passengers during the month of July, which is significantly down by about 6.8 percent from the figures recorded last year. Over and above, the passenger volume on the international routes fell by 19.4 percent numbering around 435,900. On the other hand, the volume on its domestic services was down by 3.5 percent numbering around 2.48 million, as stated by the airline.

It is important to note that the deadly earthquake that struck the southwest of China during May, eventually led to the cancellation of most of the conferences and other important events. In fact, this fact was also told as one of the principal reasons for the weak passenger traffic during the past three months. The earthquake at large appears to have broken the steady growth of the industry in addition to drastically affecting the economic boom of China. Industry experts strongly believe that the data pertaining to air traffic is most likely to pick up significantly in the month of September when the airport checks will become normal following the Olympics.

While reporting the net profit for the second quarter, Malaysia Airlines, the state controlled airline has reported a sharp drop of 64.6 percent drop. The airline has stated that the drop follows on account of surging fuel prices that have wrecked havoc in the industry on the whole.

During last year alone, MAS has transported not less than 14 million passengers earning a MYR39.98 million ringgit (USD$12 million) in the second quarter that ended with 30th June. On the other hand, the airline has made a net profit of MYR112.85 million during the same period last year.

Interestingly, MAS has launched a "flexi employment programme" during this month, which is aimed at bringing down the costs during the time when the global airline industry is highly troubled with the pinch due to alarmingly soaring fuel prices.

When the military personnel check-in their duffel bags stuffed with their heavy combat gear, several US airlines have decided to offer an attractive opportunity to check their baggage without any additional charges. This particular move by the airlines to offer exceptions for the members of the armed forces follow a criticism by the groups of veterans and politicians that the extra fee charged are a financial burden to the military personnel.

Earlier on Friday, airlines including AirTran, Delta, and Northwest together had reported that they had decided to waive all or at least the majority of their baggage charges for all active U.S. military personnel, while they undertake official travel. In addition, earlier during this week, American, Horizon, and Southwest triggered the movement to significantly bring down or even eliminate fees by waiving charges for active service members when they were checking a third bag.

On the other hand, several carriers that are forced at present to face the struggles due to high fuel costs during this year have still put baggage fees in place to help them manage the operating costs. In fact, some military personnel have reported that they had to pay even up to $300 for overweight duffel bags containing body armor and combat equipment, which are absolute necessity for the service members for their active duty.

Wizz Air will completely find itself out of the Coventry Airport when it withdraws its final route from the base with effect from next month. Most notably, the low cost carrier will cease to operate any more flights to the hub once it stops the thrice-weekly service offered to the Polish City of Katowice on 15th September. This move will severe all links that the carrier holds with the said airport.

The departure by the airline follows the move when the airline cancelled its flights operated between Coventry and Gdansk in the month of May, which was launched just two months earlier to the move. Quite interestingly, when the Katowice connection rose up to the sky on its maiden journey on its launch during this summer, it was praised as marking a significant and new wave of expansion for the airport.

However, the passenger numbers in the route proved to be very low making it extremely difficult to see the link profitable. The condition thoroughly disproved the earlier assumption that this connection would receive the strong support from the Coventry's rich Polish population.

It has been widely reported that Jet.com is into launching a wide range of brand new services to Israel. It is claimed that the present move by the airline follows its decision to mark the 60th anniversary of founding of the Jewish State.

It appears that the low cost carrier is most likely to introduce several new connections to link Manchester and Leeds Bradford airports. With these launches, it is expected that the carrier will emerge as the second leading one to offer its services to Israel from a regional base located in UK. Notably, the rival no-frills airline Thomsonfly is already operating flights to the country from Manchester and London Luton. In addition, several other carriers offer connections from London Heathrow Airport.

Addressing the personnel at SomethingJewish.com, an insider into the travel industry observed that more and more airlines are now becoming aware of the wonderful value of offering their services to the [Tel Aviv] Ben Gurion Airport.

In a significant move, La Guardia Airport's Central Terminal has entered into a partnership agreement with the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. The move by the terminal is part of the airport's plan to celebrate the history of aviation during the National Aviation Week, with the event scheduled to extend between 18th August and 22nd August. Most interestingly, as part of the exhibition, an exhibit is to be unveiled on 20th August that will feature the exact replicas of fighter planes.

Interestingly, the other memorabilia that will be kept on display at the Central Terminal's Food & Shops departures level till 10th November. Over and above, it is equally interesting to note that the passengers will be able to personally experience interactive educational displays and exhibits to know the depth of the history of the most popular aircraft carrier.

In addition to this, the customers will also have the rare opportunity to take part in the Intrepid Museum's "Art in Motion" programme where they will be able to paint an exclusively crafted and special large model airplane.

Through a recent decision, Malev Hungarian Airlines has decided to withdraw five of the largest Boeing 737 airplanes from its fleet. The move by the airline follows on account of the firm continuing to struggle to turn a profit. The carrier recently made a statement in which it says that "further cost-cutting measures” and "group lay-offs” were a must under the present circumstances. In fact, the removal of five B-737 planes comes forth coinciding with yet another decision by the airline to stop flying the Boeing 767, which Malev had earlier deployed on its long-haul routes to the United States and Canada. More over, with the suspension of routes to New York and Toronto, during this autumn, there will not be any other need for wide-bodied planes. Instead, Malev will primarily focus on short-haul European destinations, in addition to a handful of cities in the northern Africa and the Middle East. The Hungarian airline was quick to respond saying that the withdrawal of five B-737 planes was just a temporary measure.

On the other hand, the major lay-offs that have been announced by Malev will permanently re-shape the national airline of Hungary. In addition, the carrier has also decided recently to lay-off about 21.6 percent of the airline's staff, which numbers into around 250 employees who will find themselves out of their jobs in the near future. The major volume of the work force that is let go comprises pilots and flight attendants. Notably, the redundancies announced at present follow the dismissal of about 6 percent of the company's staff during last year.

In a significant move, Brussels Airlines and Jet Airways of India have jointly announced that they would expand a joint deal on larger number of routes. Most notably these two airlines have already been cooperating with each other as part of a code-sharing agreement. The new agreement shall see the two airlines entering into a code-share agreement on the Brussels to Bangkok route. Those passengers desiring to fly in between these cities need to keep in mind that they will require to catch an onward connection at Delhi to the capital city of Thai. However, the new arrangement between Brussels Airlines and Jet Airways make the catching of this connection highly convenient, as the code-share flight from Brussels will arrive in Delhi exactly in time for the passengers to avail the transfer to the Delhi to Bangkok service.

Most notably, Jet Airways has deployed Boeing B-737 and Airbus A-330 planes to offer connections in the Delhi to Bangkok route and now as a result of the code-sharing agreement, each of these flights will carry the "SN” Brussels Airlines code.

Brussels Airlines proudly maintains the legacy passed on to it by its two predecessors, SN Brussels Airlines and Sabena, the former national carrier of Belgium. Presently, the new airline concentrates on Europe and Africa. With respect to short-haul flights, Brussels Airlines provides a choice between no-frills class and premium economy service. Most interestingly, the airline provides full service in all cabins on its long-haul routes.

A £10 million project has got underway at the Aberdeen Airport to upgrade the facilities and feel at the airport. On its completion, the refurbishments shall offer a highly appealing first-class welcome to the passengers visiting the airport. On international arrivals, phase one of the work consists of creating a heated walkway, which is due to be completed before the start of the next year. The said work will also include stands for aircraft parking, which will cost around £3 million. The work shall offer to house the latest generation of quieter and cleaner aircraft. 

Most interestingly, the subsequent phases of the said project will see the extension of the international arrival hall. Further improvements and enhancements are also in line to segments like passport control, and baggage reclaim in addition to being aimed at considerably reducing the congestion in the terminal.

Kevin Brown, Aberdeen Airport's managing director observed, "We need to provide excellent facilities with improved capacity to cater for the additional numbers of passengers flying to our city. The international arrivals project will further encourage international tourists to visit this part of the world which has so much to offer.”

In a recent and significant move, Flyglobespan has introduced a brand new direct service connecting Aberdeen with the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, as per the reports published in some media and journals.

Most notably, the low cost carrier has decided to begin the summer route with effect from next summer. Once introduced, the service is scheduled to fly every Saturday all through the peak holiday season from the end of June to the middle of August. According to a statement made by the Chief executive Rick Green, the airline already operates its services to the island from Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports. He too highly hoped that the new service would prove to be equally successful like the earlier services.

While insisting that Ibiza holds appeal for wide variety of holidaymakers, Green observed that he expected the new route would be in high demand among clubbers and families. Kevin Brown, the managing director of Aberdeen Airport also voiced his support for this new route, who praised that the no frills airline had decided to expand its network significantly despite the difficulties haunting the industry from several directions.

A study conducted recently has revealed a stunning fact that most part of the travelling public is still under the confusion as to what items they can pack in their hand luggage for air travel. At the outset, the alleged 2006 transatlantic terror plot had forced the security chiefs to tighten the restrictions on the items that can be carried in the flights. In addition, carrying of liquids has been strictly regulated through all the commercial airports located across England.

Even as two years have passed after the restrictions having been put in place, a recent research conducted by Expedia has revealed that over fifty percent of the passengers have confessed their ignorance regarding what they can and cannot carry in their bags. Notably, eight among ten air travelers confessed that they were asked to handover their personal possessions when the rules were found to be broken. Over and above, not less than ten percent of travellers found their alcohol bags confiscated. According to a spokesperson for the Newcastle Airport, such items confiscated prove to be highly valuable quite often for passengers, which cause a significant degree of stress for the passengers who are affected in addition to causing delays.

The spokesperson noted, "The most commonly confiscated items are bottles of pop, water, suntan lotion, perfume, shampoo and toothpaste. But items of a much higher monetary value are also being found in hand luggage, including wine and spirits, and even a bottle of vintage champagne worth £175.”

Recently, a travel industry expert noted that passengers can still land on some attractive cheap flight offers, despite the fare rises announced by several carriers to offset their alarmingly rising operating costs. 

Tom Hall, the travel editor for Lonely Planet, has noted that to find the best deals for flights, passengers must make it a point to book as early as possible. He noted, "Early bookers will always score the best deals when it comes to cheap flights.”

Hall observed that bargain hunters need to make an early start and should remain constantly on watch ensuring that they constantly "keep their eyes peeled for special deals.” He too noted that the passengers must be aware of the factors that give way to cost increases in flight tickets.

With some important segments of the airport personnel including baggage handlers staging a walkout on Monday, the activities at the Brussels International Airport came to a standstill according to a statement made by the officials of the airport. Most of the flights flying both in and out of the Brussels Airport had to experience a significant delay due to this, with the flights either diverted to other airports or standing cancelled on Monday. Indicating that the Brussels Airlines alone managed to withstand the strike without cancellations, a spokesman for the airport said, "Very few flights are leaving.”

Shortly after the beginning of the walkout, several flights scheduled around that time were actually diverted to Amsterdam, Charleroi and Liege airports. The spokesperson too added that the passengers leaving by the flights scheduled throughout the day were transported to other airports. However, the spokesperson could not give the number of flights that were affected by the event. In addition, several passengers who landed at the airport could not claim their bags. Similarly other passengers who had checked in for flights could not reclaim their checked bags.

Notably, the workers belonging to Aviapartner and Flightcare union went on strike from late Sunday, protesting against the working conditions available at the airport. While addressing the press people, the representative of the union Rik Vermeersch stated that the employers had an "anti-social policy.” With the negotiations underway between the representatives of the union and the management, the outcome is still to be known.

Following the footsteps of a long line of airlines across the globe, Cathay Pacific comes as the latest airline to issue a warning regarding the rising ticket prices in response to the alarming increase of the fuel prices. Announcing the fare hike that has been predicted by the airline, the airline has also blamed the restrictions brought about by the government on maximum fuel surcharges for its HK$633 million (£42 million) first-half loss.

The airline has put forth the argument that the above said measure - implemented by Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department - will not be able to do anything to protect the flying public from higher costs. If this is done, the carriers will still have to manage the issue and therefore, they will simply raise the fees elsewhere, ultimately making the passengers suffer for a mistake that is not theirs.

As he spoke to reporters, Cathay chairman Christopher Pratt told that the business model of the carrier has been highly challenged by the soaring oil prices, which remarkably topped $140 during last month.

According to a claim made by an industry watchdog group, passengers are not protected adequately against the financial losses suffered by the airlines as a result of airline bankruptcies. Most alarmingly, several high-profile airlines are going down the drain during the last several months. Amidst this background, the Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee (Atipac) has highly stressed that something more needs to be done to protect the interests of the passengers.

Notably, the advocacy group is into advising the Civil Aviation Authority. For example, the group has singled out the financial failure of business class carriers like Eos, MAXjet and Silverjet. The annual report of the group was published recently, which noted that the present upheaval and instability in the air travel industry go into say that necessary measures must be ensured to make it possible for passengers to claim for the "irredeemable” airfares.

Often most passengers book directly with an airline and in this regard, John Cox, the chairman of Atipac has expressed his "significant concern” regarding the lack of protection for passengers.

During the course of Christmas Holidays, it is estimated that airlines across the globe will offer 60 million fewer seats, which amounts to about a seven percent cut in capacity. The prediction comes forth from industry experts, amidst the gloomy economy prevailing across the world and the phenomenal rise of oil prices forcing service cuts.

In addition, the same experts are also predicting that the cuts for 2009 will be even deeper that will represent an extended cutback in the airline industry clearly reversing the remarkable expansion noticed during the past few years. As per the projections made so far, the airlines will be offering about 59.7 million fewer seats between October and December when compared to the same three-month period during last year, as predicted by OAG, the flight information specialist.

Notably, the majority of the carriers across the UK have confirmed their capacity cuts. Notably, major players like British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair are reducing services on their winter schedules.

In a recent warning issued by the airline, Qantas Airways has told the officials at Los Angeles International Airport that it will have to move its US west coast destination for A380 service to San Francisco's International Airport if the airline is forced to make use of the remote stands for the arriving super-jumbo that necessitates the transporting of passengers to the terminal by busses rather than a direct access via connected jet-ways.

Notably, the Australian carrier issues the warning at the time when the carrier is preparing to launch its A380 service to offer a connection between Melbourne and Los Angeles during late October. Interestingly, the super-jumbo passenger jet has been exclusively designed for airports like LAX featuring capacity constraints. Qantas is incidentally the largest international airline operating from the airport offering around 40 scheduled flights.

Los Angeles proves to be one of the most popular destinations for tourists from Australia. However, the airport at Los Angels has a bad reputation for long arrival queues, unfriendly staff and poor facilities.