Low Cost Airline News.

Air Berlin

Air Berlin, the rapidly growing German low-cost airline, is planning a share flotation to fund its network expansion. The carrier used last week's ITB travel show in Berlin to announce it is to list in Frankfurt. A date and more detail of how the float will work have yet to be confirmed, but the carrier, which serves a range of city and leisure destinations, said existing shareholders have put in $155 million and will remain investors. http://www.airberlin.com Mar 12, 2006

AirTran Airways 

AirTran Airways launched thrice-daily Chicago Midway-Newark service yesterday aboard 717s. Mar 9, 2006

AirTran Airways flew 930.5 million RPMs in February, up 25.9% over the year-ago month. Capacity rose 22.6% to 1.3 billion ASMs and load factor increased 1.8 points to 70%. All are February records. Mar 6, 2006

Easyjet

Easyjet has launched another 10 routes for the summer as it ups its presence in Bristol and increases its Edinburgh network. The airline has five new destinations from Bristol - Toulouse, Krakow, La Rochelle, Marseille and Rijeka in Croatia - starting in July at a minimum of three weekly flights. Edinburgh gets an Alicante flight from May 20, while Luton has new service to Bordeaux and Rimini in June, Gatwick is linked to Split in May and Paris Orly has an extra flight to Ajaccio on Corsica. http://www.easyjet.com Mar 12, 2006

Easyjet

EasyJet opened its 16th base at Milan Malpensa yesterday and said it expects to handle more than 1.2 million passengers there in the next 12 months flying three domestic and nine international routes. Three A319s will be based permanently at the airport, creating 100 pilot and cabin crew jobs and an additional 1,200 jobs in the Milan area, the carrier said. It already flies to Berlin, London Gatwick and Dortmund from Malpensa and also operates from Milan Linate serving Gatwick and Paris Orly. Italy is one of its fastest-growing markets and now accounts for 5% of its total network. In 2005, 2.5 million passengers flew easyJet to/in Italy, an 80% increase over 2004. This year it expects to carry more than 3.5 million. Launch of the Malpensa base will result in a 48% increase in its Italian capacity. New services starting today are daily flights to Paris CDG, Athens and Malaga. On March 27 it will start a daily to Madrid and a twice-daily to Naples and on April 21 it launches a four-times-weekly service to Olbia, a twice-daily to Palermo and a daily to Lisbon. A four-times-weekly flight to Ibiza will begin May 20. Mar 10, 2006

EasyJet announced yesterday the addition of 10 new routes and five new destinations: London Gatwick-Split four-times-weekly from May 2, London Luton-Bordeaux daily from June 29, Luton-Rimini four-times-weekly from June 29, Edinburgh-Alicante weekly from May 20, Bristol-Toulouse daily from July 21, Bristol-Krakow four-times-weekly from July 21, Bristol-La Rochelle four-times-weekly from July 21, Bristol-Marseille thrice-weekly from July 22, Bristol-Rijeka thrice-weekly from July 22 and Paris Orly-Ajaccio daily from July 14. Split, Ajaccio, Bordeaux, La Rochelle and Rimini are new easyJet markets. It will introduce a ninth A319 at its Bristol base to support the expansion, which will increase its throughput there by nearly 10% to almost 3 million passengers in the coming year. The Bristol operation now accounts for almost 10% of its total network, making it the airline's largest UK base outside London with close to 70 departures and 8,500 passengers each day. Separately, easyJet said it flew 2.37 million earned seats in February, a 9.4% increase on the year-ago period. Load factor fell 2.2 points to 83.7%.

Mar 8, 2006

JetBlue Airways 

JetBlue Airways will launch thrice-daily Long Beach-Sacramento service from May 3 and daily flights from Burbank to Orlando and Las Vegas from June 30. It will add a second daily New York JFK-Sacramento flight for the summer season beginning June 1. Mar 10, 2006

JetBlue Airways flew 1.68 billion RPMs in February, a 25.3% increase over the year-ago month. Capacity climbed 25.1% to 2.02 billion ASMs and load factor fell 0.1 point to 83.4%. Mar 7, 2006

Phuket Air 

Phuket Air shareholders scrapped the airline and applied for a fresh license for a new carrier called Suvarnabhumi Airlines, according The Nation newspaper. The new airline will fly from Bangkok to Ranong, Buri Ram, Chiang Mai and Phuket with two 737s. Shareholders also filed to launch a second carrier called Holiday Airlines, which will operate to Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo using three 747s. Phuket Air had a troubled past, with technical problems grounding aircraft around the world. Mar 8, 2006

Ryanair

Ryanair is reducing its Cork-Liverpool service from seven flights per week to four following recent cost increases at Cork Airport, which according to the LCC will raise its costs there by more than [euro]30,000 ($35,849) per year. Among the fee increases is a 300% hike in rental rates for check-in and ticket desks, Ryanair said. It will start a new thrice-weekly Kerry-Liverpool service "as a much cheaper alternative to Cork." Mar 9, 2006

The manufacturers also must weigh the contrasting demands of airlines such as Ryanair for the ultimate no-frills platform with typical 1-hr. sectors against those like Qantas that want business class amenities, or ANA, which wants its 737s to fly 5,500 nm. Mar 8, 2006

Ryanair took delivery of its 100th 737-800. It now has an all 737-800 fleet with an average age of two years. It said its $7.5 billion program to replace its dash 200s with dash 800s has resulted in a 50% reduction in CO2 emissions per seat, a 45% reduction in fuel burn per seat and a 45% reduction in noise emissions. Over the next six years it will take delivery of an additional 139 737-800s, bringing the total fleet to 239 aircraft. Mar 8, 2006

Ryanair flew 2.6 million passengers in February, an improvement of 22%. Load factor declined 1 point compared to February 2005 to 78%. Mar 6, 2006

Silk Air

Silk Air, Singapore Airlines' regional subsidiary, is planning to issue an RFP next month for replacements for its fleet of 12 A320s. The RFP almost certainly will include 70/90-seat regional jets. According to sources at the carrier, while the A320 is the incumbent fleet type, the 737-800 and dash 900ER will be evaluated. Silk Air selected the A320 in 1998 to replace its fleet of 737-300s. Mar 8, 2006

Southwest Airlines 

Fuel prices may slow airlines' expansion. Higher fuel costs will curtail airline expansion and push fares higher in coming months, airline executives say. Southwest Airlines, which has expanded over the past few years, will slow its growth rate to 8% in 2006, CEO Gary Kelly said. Crude prices have averaged $60 per barrel since summer, up from $41 a barrel in 2004, according to Air Transport Association statistics. Mar 10, 2006

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines is known for its fun and jovial climate. Flight attendants regularly tell jokes during flights. And its employees -- from the executive suite on down -- routinely dress in outlandish costumes for Halloween and Mardi Gras. The airline's unique workplace has even resulted in its own reality show on the A&E network. But the airline's jocular style may have gone too far. A federal appellate judge ruled last week that the city of Albuquerque and its police department can be sued for a practical joke played on a new Southwest employee at the New Mexico city's airport in 2002. The judge further ruled that Southwest is not liable for damages but that the plaintiff may be eligible for workers' compensation payments. Mar 9, 2006

Southwest Airlines reported a 17.3% increase in February RPMs to 4.69 billion. Traffic climbed 8.5% to 6.85 billion ASMs, lifting load factor 5.2 points to 68.5%. Mar 6, 2006

Tiger Airways

Tiger Airways will double its service to Manila Diosdado Macapagal (fomerly Clark) Airport from one to two flights daily effective April 26. The Singapore LCC has increased capacity on the route nearly fivefold in the past year since starting with three weekly flights in April 2005. Mar 10, 2006

Volare Airlines

European Commission authorized a [euro]25 million ($29.9 million) six-month guarantee from the Italian government to ailing Volare Airlines. "This short-term aid is intended to rescue the firm from bankruptcy and allow it to take steps to continue operating," the EC said, noting that Volare will be able to use the guarantee to obtain credit for that amount from banks. The airline, part of Volare Group, went into extraordinary administration on Nov. 30, 2004, and recommenced flights June 2005 from Milan Linate to Naples, Brindisi, Bari, Catania and Palermo. Its extraordinary administrator launched a sale process that has become the subject of a series of legal cases. The LCC initially was awarded to Alitalia following a bidding process, but Air One contested the legality of Alitalia's participation, arguing it was using restructuring aid to finance the acquisition. An initial decision favored Alitalia, and earlier this week a court in Milan backed a decision made by a court in Busto Arsizio to reject Air One's appeal, according to La Stampa. Another ruling is expected from Rome's main court in the coming days. Mar 9, 2006