Cheap Airline Tickets / Airline News

Think your commute is bad? Try Wichita to New York, Vancouver, B.C., to Dallas or Panama to Miami.

For pilots and flight attendants, those commutes are not just routine but long-standing matters of choice, supported by two of the perks that make working for an airline special: They can hitch a ride on almost any airline with an empty seat, and they usually have to work only 15 to 18 days a month, making it easy for them to live anywhere they want.

But nowadays, they find it hard to get home because planes are so full. “Sometimes it takes me two days,” said Jason Miller, 36, an Airbus 320 captain for JetBlue Airways. (more…)

Air Canada is imposing stricter new weight limits on passengers’ carry-on luggage.

Like every carrier, Air Canada is battling to pare costs as the price of jet fuel has skyrocketed in recent months. In an effort to lighten each plane’s load, the airline has tried measures ranging from dumping empty wine bottles in the middle of a round trip and, in one high profile experiment, even stripped paint off the fuselage of one plane.

With the busy summer flying season now at hand, the ACE Aviation Ltd. unit has shifted its gaze to the check-in counter.
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GERMANY’S biggest airline is blocking a British plan to make passengers pay for the environmental damage caused by their flights.

Lufthansa has rejected proposals put forward by British Airways for an emissions-trading scheme, under which airlines would buy permits to cover their production of carbon dioxide.

Britain strongly supports the scheme and, with the backing of France and the Scandinavian countries, hopes to introduce it within Europe by 2008.

The scheme would add up to £6 to the cost of an airline ticket, depending on the length of the flight and the market price of permits. The European Commission is studying the idea and is expected to produce firm proposals in September. (more…)

A worried Ulsterwoman last night told how she was able to carry a razor-sharp knife onto a packed Aer Lingus holiday jet.

Shocked Sally McManus, who uses the knife for work, only discovered the deadly blade in her hand-luggage once she had arrived at her hotel in Croatia.

Sally (42), who was travelling with her partner Johnny for a week’s holiday, hit out at Dublin Airport’s security scanners for not spotting the knife. (more…)

Airports of Thailand Plc said today that five budget airlines have agreed to participate in tests of the overall systems at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi international airport on July 29, before its official opening about two months later, a senior official said Saturday.

Somchai Sawasdipol, director of Suvarnabhumi airport, said five low-cost airlines had agreed to join tests of the check-in system at both arrival and departure lounges. He indicated that his agency was also contacting Thai Airways International to participate in the test as well. (more…)

HONOLULU — New airline Go! began a schedule of interisland flights on Friday as an airfare war rages between the newcomer and its competitors.

Chris Barth and his family flew in one of Go!’s first flights from Maui on Friday morning. He said that it was an enjoyable trip because the price was right.

“Three-hundred dollars. The four of us got over here; normally it would cost us about $850 or $900. So, it’s great,” Barth said.
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(UPI Top Stories Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has confirmed an employee’s laptop computer containing personnel information was lost on a commercial flight.

Agency spokesman Terry Lemons said an unidentified employee was flying to a job fair last month and checked the laptop as luggage on an unidentified airline. (more…)

London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair, avoiding criticism for using Queen Elizabeth II’s planes, returned with his family from a vacation in Italy on a budget airline’s scheduled flight, newspapers said on Monday.

The Blairs flew from Rome-Ciampino to London-Stansted airport aboard Ryanair Flight FR 3009 with tickets costing £49 a head, The Daily Telegraph reported. (more…)

Tunis, Tunisia, 06/05 - The new West African airline company, whose creation was announced in Dakar in 2005 will be operational in 2007, according to Gervais Djondo, chairman of the board of directors of SPCAR (society for the Promotion of a regional air transport company).

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Asia’s biggest airline Japan Airlines (JAL) is preparing to check-in to the global oneworld alliance of carriers, of which Qantas is a member, helping to boost the network’s market share and revenue.

JAL will join the alliance early next year in the first extension of the eight-airline partnership in more than five years, with Hungarian airline Malev and Royal Jordanian Airlines set to follow. (more…)