Indeed, according to The Budapest Business Journal “The low-cost Budapest-based airline company WizzAir recorded group-level losses of 9.5m in the business year ended in March 2009”.

SkyEurope’s remake?

According to the Czech online paper Napi Gazdaság, the company never managed to post profits over the five years of its operation, and has now accumulated losses of €78 million.

The article adds that“at the same time, WizzAir has spectacularly increased the number of its passengers.” Here I think this is not a very good indicator to understand Wizzair situation. Indeed, SkyEurope was also increasing its passenger traffic several months before its end.

More strange, Wizzair manager has always declared that his company is profitable. More information will come soon I think, for now this is quite surprising.

“This is a major breakthrough. For the first time the traveling public in the London area has the choice between a high cost traditional airline and a low-cost alternative. We look forward to bringing our unique blend of low fares with friendly service to a whole new market,” said Andy Harrison, easyJet’s chief executive.

The first sign is the decrease of domestic seats on sale for October: less than 21%, according to OAG, one of the most important aviation-data firms. And since this is not enough, companies intend to reduce much more flights this winter. Big airline carriers are canceling their less lucrative routes and pushing the ticket prices higher, hoping that they will crowd their planes, although the economy is still weak.

Another trend noticed in the airline industry is a slowly but surely shift to the low-cost practices. Major airlines, operating international flights used to carry more than 83% of the domestic passengers in 2001. Nowadays, the same airlines take 61% of the travelers, while the regional and the low-cost companies grew to 39%. These usually operate smaller planes and this means not just traffic jams in the main airports, but also uncomfortable seats, poor customer services, smaller bathrooms and bumpy flights.

The cuts are obvious: the nation’s biggest airlines – Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines reported a 26% shrunk of their domestic capacity, since 2000. By contrary, the most important budget airline, Southwest Airlines announced increases of 70% for the passenger traffic, since the beginning of the decade.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The new flights translate into 1,200 new seats every week serviced by Jetstar’s seventh A330-200, equipped with 265 seats in economy and 38 seats in premium. Apart from flights to Thailand, passengers will also benefit from increased frequency on the following routes:

• Sydney Bali increased from 4 times a week to daily flights
• Melbourne to Bali increased from 2 times a week to 3 times a week
• Sydney to Honolulu increased from 4 times a week to 5 times a week

JetStar CEO, Bruce Buchanan, said the changes offers the perfect opportunity to family that wish to travel on a budget during their summer holidays.

“We believe these new services will be met with strong demand from leisure travellers who want to get away over the Christmas and New Year holiday period on a low fares break. There”s a massive opportunity … to get a lot more capacity in those regions, and we know there”s a latent demand, because whenever we”ve gone into those markets and deployed Jetstar capacity, we”ve seen a strong uptake”

Thailand was the second most popular destination for Australians last summer, following Indonesia, with more than 378,000 visitors over the 12-month period.

Earlier, JetStar Asia, the airline’s Asian offshoot based in Singapore, announced that it will operate two daily flights, Singapore to Phuket, starting December 15th, offering over 6,200 seats to and from Phuket each week. Jetstar, a company owned by Qantas Airways Ltd, benefited from the rise of airtraffic in Asia, with one of the most recognized brand in the area. (via ANI)

Philip Meeson was doing a routine check at Manchester Airport when he noticed the 220 passengers waiting in line and became instantly irritated. He went to the front of the line and started screaming at his staff, occasionally adding some indecent four-letter words.

The CEO’s outburst was well-received by passengers, who applauded him, but left his check-in staff unimpressed and called the police.

“Police were called to the check-in area at Terminal One, following reports that a man was being abusive to staff. Officers attended and warned the man about his future conduct and behaviour under the Public Order Act” a Greater Manchester Police spokesperson told the Telegraph newspaper.

Meeson admitted he was unprofessional and quickly calmed down to avoid further action from the police.

Meeson “was not happy with the service the Jet2.com customers were getting,” according to a Jet2.com’s statement. He “took immediate action after seeing the length of the queue and requested that workers get it sorted immediately in his own passionate style!”

Jet2 also said they are still “friendly” and want to banish check-in queues. (via CNBC)

The charge will be effective from October 7th. The smallest fee to be paid is £10 for people booking their seats on European economy flights, while the priciest seats will cost £60 on long haul trips in business class. Those wanting a seat near the emergency exit will have to pay £50, while a seat on long-haul economy or short flights in business class is £20.

British Airways says this measure will give customers more control over their seating. British Airways currently allows customers to select their seat for free 24 hours prior to their flight. If customers want to book ahead of time, they can do it before 10 and 4 days before take-off.

“Customers frequently request specific seats, but in the past we’ve only been able to confirm them 24 hours in advance or on the day. We know people want to secure them in advance and have real control over their flying experience. This will allow them to do that,” said a BA spokesman.

With this new fee and probably others that will follow, BA tries recover after £401m loss last year. Earlier this year, BA decided to no longer offer free meals on short flights and cut luggage allowances. (via BBC)