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Budget airline Ryanair has been rapped over an advert headlined “Robbed by lastminute.com?”.

The airline used a picture of a burglar dragging a bag of money with “online agent” written on his top.

Its advert accused online agents of ripping off customers and overcharging them by “100% or more”.

It drew an angry complaint from lastminute.com which has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The watchdog has told Ryanair not to re-use it “in its current form”.

Ryanair had provided no evidence that lastminute.com overcharged customers, the ASA said.

It added: “We concluded that the claim in conjunction with the image of a robber misleadingly and unfairly discredited Lastminute’s business.”

Lastminute also objected to the advert’s claims that online agents: “Don’t provide correct terms and conditions” and “Don’t notify schedule changes”.

The ASA upheld both of these complaints, saying they were misleading.

In response, Ryanair said Lastminute was not authorised to sell its flights and that the firm inflated its prices without its consent.

Last week’s investigation into airline customer service prompted a flurry of responses. Here is a selection.

Last week Telegraph Travel tested how travellers are treated by our leading airlines. In examining the response times of the airlines’ customer service departments to some simple questions, we found that it was often not the no-frills carriers that failed our tests.

Thomsonfly and Flybe were the best performers, while charter and scheduled airlines often performed badly - XL Airways, for example, has still failed to answer our emails after more than four weeks, while on three occasions we were unable even to get through on the phone to British Airways.

When we asked readers whether they felt they had been getting a fair deal from airlines, we were inundated with responses.

Original Article

Zambia Skyways, a local airline company, is to launch direct flights to London and Dubai in partnership with Air Zimbabwe effective from Dec. 1 following an investment of 4 million U.S. dollars, local newspaper Zambia Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

Zambia Skyways would wet lease aircraft from Air Zimbabwe, which has two B767s, three B737s and three MA60s in operation, the paper cited the company’s managing director Suleman Patel as saying.

A wet lease is a leasing arrangement whereby a company agrees to provide an aircraft and at least one pilot.

Zambia Skyways would also serve the Lubumbashi route to the Democratic Republic of Congo with five flights every week and daily flights between Lusaka and Harare, capital of Zimbabwe.

The London route is pegged at 800 dollars for return flight while the Dubai route would cost 500 dollars for return flight.

Currently, the British Airways is the only operator of the London route in Zambia.

Original Article

BY KEITH BENMAN
kbenman@nwitimes.com
219.933.3326

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Monday, November 27, 2006 12:34 AM CST

SkyValue USA will be flying into Gary with high hopes of soaring where previous airlines have stalled.

It won’t be easy, according to air industry observers and local travel agents.

“I think the problem they will have is they are going after the greater Chicago market, which I would throw Gary into, so they’re competing with the bigger airlines out of Midway and O’Hare,” said Roger King, senior analyst for transportation with CreditSights, a provider of independent credit research.

SkyValue flights from Gary/Chicago International Airport to five leisure destinations, including Las Vegas and Orlando, start Dec. 15. (more…)

Michael John Allgood, the young man shot by police at McCarran Airport on Tuesday remains on life support.

Police say Allgood took a young child hostage and ran through an airport security checkpoint. Three Metro officers shot at Allgood. They say he was trying to get police to kill him.

Allgood has a history of mental illness.

After police shot Michael Allgood and he finally let go of the child, an airline reached out and offered support to the boy’s family after the frightening incident. (more…)

(UPI Top Stories Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The U.S. aviation security agency reportedly wants the airline ban on lighters lifted because screeners are spending too much time looking for them.

Kip Hawley, head of the Transportation Security Administration, was quoted as telling USA Today the ban on passengers carrying lighters aboard airplanes does not add to security any more.

Hawley told the newspaper requiring screeners to confiscate lighters at checkpoints is a distraction from the serious nature of finding (bomb) components. (more…)

Xiamen Airlines became the first carrier to cancel a firm order for Boeing’s 787 aircraft, said Flight International, citing an unnamed person close to the airplane maker.

The Chinese airline canceled three 787 orders as part of a review, which may include switching the 787s for six 737-800s, the London-based trade publication said on its Web site. (more…)

Brazilian airline Varig suspended 27 flights on Friday, the country’s airport management company Infraero said.

Varig, which is on the edge of bankruptcy, suspended 27 flights, 13 of them from Rio de Janeiro.

As well as that, Brasilia airport sealed one of its runways for 90 minutes after a Varig aircraft lost a part of its landing gear, after the plane had already landed safely. (more…)

The award, presented at the Middle East Contact Centre World Forum 2006 (CCW 2006) in Dubai, comes soon after Gulf Air winning the coveted Skytrax ‘best onboard catering’ award, for the third time in a row.

Ruth Birkin - front and centre - with a handful of the 190 Omani strong workforce in the Gulf Air Call Centre team in Knowledge Oasis - Muscat

“We are delighted at the recognition,” says Gulf Air President and Chief Executive James Hogan.

“Customers these days are demanding a more positive customer experience, not just service. It needs tremendous amount of dedication, persistence and people skills to deliver that experience especially when managing a centre that handles more than 125,000 calls a month on an average and employs more than 190 staff members, 90 per cent of whom are Omani nationals.” (more…)

Flavour and presentation, once sacrificed in the name of convenience, will be surrendered no more thanks to quick-freeze technology and onboard processing ovens. Trans-Canada Airlines is abandoning the old style of serving pre-cooked food preserved in warming ovens. Instead, travelers will be served frozen meals reheated minutes before consumption. It’s just like a fine meal prepared at home. “I defy you to tell the difference,” challenges a TCA stewardess in this CBC Radio interview.