European low cost airlines are getting pretty incestuous lately. First Germanwings started sharing flight bookings with Clickair, which then merged with Vueling. The news this week is that Germanwings is in serious talks to merge with TuiFly and Condor, two other German based LCCs.

But we'll have to wait on the legalities of it all: Condor tried to merge with Air Berlin last year but the German cartel office nixed the idea.

If you can sort all that out, you're doing well. We have a simpler suggestion: Just merge the lot of them and call it Cheap German Airlines.

Related Stories:
· Condor Joins TuiFly/Germanwings Tie-Up Talks [Reuters]
· Germanwings and Clickair Get Into Bed [Jaunted]
· Airline Mergers, Spanish Style [Jaunted]

[Photo: Andrei Dimofte]]]> amandak 2008-07-14T09:15:16-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/10/19/81945/118

A fairly new budget airline on the European radar is the smiley-faced TUIfly. Odd name, we know, but the TUI part comes from a German tour operator known as the Touristik Union International. In fact, the airline that's been operating as TUIfly since the start of the year came about from a cooperation between now-defunct LCCs Hapagfly and HLX.

The point is, TUIfly is actually the third biggest airline in Germany, so we wanted you to know about it. They fly from airports across Germany to largely Western European destinations across Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal, among others. Right now they have a bunch of flights being offered for around €20 (less than $30), taxes and charges included. With that smiley red logo we have a feeling we'd be happy on TUIfly, even if their name does sound more like some new insect than an airline.

Related Stories:
· TUIfly [Official Site]
· Germany Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Low Cost Carriers coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: wicho]]]> amandak 2007-10-19T09:30:01-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/