Tag: LCCs

View All Tags

/ / / / /

Who's the Biggest, Baddest (Airline) of Them All?

January 3, 2013 at 11:20 AM | by | Comments (0)

Well, it's not official-official, but at the rate the UAE carrier is going, 2013 will be the year that Delta will slide down to the 3rd spot in the list of the world's largest airlines. Now that 2012 is over, the stats have been released which now rank the carriers around the globe, plus some other interesting numbers. Here is the 2012 round-up of the new data coming out of the travel industry:

Top 5 Airlines: (measured in available seat kilometers)
1. United — 6,149,398,758 — No surprise after a merger with Continental.
2. Delta — 5,643,676,049 — Again, with help from the Northwest merger.
3. Emirates — 4,992,911,535 — Not too far behind with a 18% year over year growth
4. American — 4,800,884,481 — Just 4 years ago it was largest, now sliding down to 4th.
5. Southwest — 3,276,525,770 — The only LCC in the top five is quite the accomplishment.

more ›

/ / / / / /

The Best Travel Newcomer of 2012 is...

Where: Singapore
December 31, 2012 at 8:35 AM | by | Comments (0)

It's that time of the year again, the time when the year just plain ends. Alas, we can't just let 2012 go that easily, especially since travelers spent it both up in the air and up in arms over a crazy range of topics. Needless to say, we're ready for 2013, but first we're taking a brief look back at the best of 2012 with the Jaunted Travel Awards,—or as we fondly refer to them—The Jauntys.

This may have been the year of airline comings-and-goings, but with the goings come the...you get the idea.

This year, the award for the best newcomer goes to Scoot. The long-haul LCC caught our attention from its first announcement and kept that interest with aggressive and fun social media campaigns until they sped down the runway for the first time, from Singapore to Sydney.

more ›

/ / / / /

Ryanair Has the Perfect Job for People Who Hate Other People

December 21, 2012 at 3:51 PM | by | Comments (0)

Ryanair does not necessarily have the best PR and communications shop in the airline industry. The Irish LCC has been known to respond to negative press by throwing childish hissy fits, and its understanding of social media outreach involves insulting customers.

Part of the problem is that Ryanair PR is one of the hardest jobs in the world, since they've got to justify nonsense like instituting intentionally grating fees and selling heart attack-stricken victims soda. But it's hard not to suspect that another part of the problem is simple bad staffing. No one says the job is easy, but surely this stuff isn't helping. Right?

more ›

/ / / / / / / / / / / /

New Airline Alert: Air Canada Rouge, Flying to Cuba and Beyond in 2013

Where: Canada
December 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM | by | Comments (0)

Hey look! There's fun new airline stuff happening up in the Canada, too! Today, Air Canada makes the announcement that they're proceeding with the launch of a low-cost carrier little brother airline, to be called Air Canada rouge, a name decided through a Facebook contest. Yes, that "R" is lowercase, but we're going to uppercase it from here on out to save our sanity.

Beginning July 1, 2013, Air Canada Rouge will jet from Toronto to a variety of international destinations, some never before serviced by Air Canada itself. We're talking Venice, Edinburgh and Athens from $949 roundtrip, Cuba from $538 (roundtrip) and Jamaica, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic from $269 (one-way). These are the introductory, yay-we-will-fly-soon fares to get you all hot and bothered, and they're good for booking on aircanada.com and aircanadavacations.com until December 25, 2011.

more ›

/ / / / / /

Southwest's Strange Response to a Lawsuit over Spilled Tea

December 10, 2012 at 2:55 PM | by | Comments (0)

We have no idea how USA Today managed to spin a 1,300+ word article out of a woman suing Southwest for $800,000 because she got burned by a cup of hot water. 43 year old Angelica Keller was sitting in the front row of the airplane and so didn't have a drop-down tray. She was trying to make herself a cup of tea by dipping a tea bag into the cup of hot water she had just been served. Only instead of doing that, she spilled the water on herself and got 2nd degree-burns. Now she's suing the Texas LCC because that's the world we live in. The End, right?

The article goes on for dozens of paragraphs after that. At first we thought the explanation for the obsessive detail was something like 'travel journalism is just magical that way.' Then we realized that very little of the article is actually about travel. It's actually a history of debates over frivolous product liability lawsuits. You just stopped reading, didn't you?

Don't go. There's actually quite a bit of travel geekery to be had here.

more ›

/ / / / / / / / /

Finally Time for FastJet to Sell Tickets for First Africa Routes

Where: Tanzania
November 15, 2012 at 9:12 AM | by | Comments (0)

We’ve been watching the deal with FastJet for quite some time, as the start-up looks to bring the cheap low cost carrier model across Africa. The initial idea was proposed by Sir Stelios of Easyjet fame and, about a year after we heard of this new venture, it’s almost time for the carrier to finally hit the skies.

As part of their plan to get up in the air as quickly as possible, FastJet kind of gobbled up another regional airline—Fly540—as this gave them some easy access to rights to fly to spots like Angola, Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania. With that kind of paperwork in place it was time to pick a spot to start, and it sounds like they’re going to begin with Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The head honcho over at FastJet is eager to expand to more countries, but it sounds like his carrier plans to stay firmly planted in Africa.

more ›

/ / / / / / / / / /

Norwegian Air Shuttle's Cheap 787 Tickets Finally Hit the Web

Where: Norway
November 9, 2012 at 9:43 AM | by | Comments (0)

We’ve been following the possibility of cheap 787 flights over to Europe for quite some time, and it looks like that might actually be happening sooner rather than later. Norwegian Air Shuttle has been running the numbers and counting their airplanes, and now they have some details and information to reveal.

The carrier is still on schedule to launch some flights between New York City and Oslo as soon as May of 2013, and they’re even ready to start taking reservations for these new routes. Their booking engine went live yesterday and, with the promise of roughly €250 for roundtrip flights, it quickly crashed. The site is back up now and there are still cheap flights to be had if you’re flexible, but the crazy deals may be a little hard to find.

more ›

/ / / / / /

Cheap Flights Mean Cheap Eats with Ryanair's New Onboard Menu

Where: Europe
November 5, 2012 at 2:44 PM | by | Comments (0)

Our favorite European LCC we love to hate has revamped one area where they score a few extra bucks in the air. Ryanair is now flying with an upgraded in-flight menu, meaning you may not need to "fast-food up" in the airport before boarding, thus ending the Scent of McDonald's in the cabin.

Should you choose to dine on the refreshed menu, named The Getaway Cafe, you'll find it isn't your typical snack box selection. Finally, something more than a short-stack of Pringles! The menu is chock full of "hot" and kitchen-prepared food, including ham & cheese croissant sandwiches, fresh pastries, chicken nuggets and hot soups—because there are no blankets on-board.

more ›

/ / / / / / / / / /

There's Plans Afoot for a 787-Only Airline

Where: Norway
October 15, 2012 at 9:44 AM | by | Comments (0)

Just about a year ago we heard about Norwegian Air Shuttle and their plans for cheap flights between spots like Oslo and New York City. The airline has a whole bunch of 787s on order to get that flying done, and they'll likely be the cheapest transatlantic travel aboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. However, it might technically be a separate airline carrying you across the Atlantic.

It looks like the carrier is creating sort of a subsidiary to be responsible for some of the longer flights. The new venture will be known as Norwegian Long Haul, but we’re not totally sure if that’s what they’ll be plastering along side of the fuselage. The new carrier—that’s not really a new carrier—will have a different operating certificate, but apparently might retain the usual branding.

more ›

/ / / / / / / /

Play 'The Name Game' and Help Air Canada Name a New Airline

Where: Canada
October 12, 2012 at 10:22 AM | by | Comments (0)

If you’ve already packed it in at the workplace today, then you definitely have plenty of availability to spend some time on an airline contest. Air Canada needs your help—and they’ll award you handsomely—as the carrier is looking for a little assistance when it comes to naming their new spinoff low cost carrier.

We’ve mentioned that Air Canada was thinking about getting into the cheapo carrier business, and now it looks like it’s going to happen sooner rather than later. However, they definitely need a name before they can start selling tickets, so that’s where you come into the picture.

All you need to do is head over to their Facebook page and throw your idea to the masses. Everyone who enters—even those with awful suggestions—will be able to score a chance at one of three Air Canada Vacations gift certificates valued at $1,500.

more ›

/ / / / / / / /

Spirit Airlines is Kinda Torn Over Their Own New $100 Fee

October 3, 2012 at 4:25 PM | by | Comment (1)

We've been trying to figure out the best way to cover this news, about how Spirit Airlines is going to start charging passengers $100 each when they pay for check-in luggage at the gate. Originally we were just going to post the word "douchebags" as a link to the story, because brevity is the soul of wit and because it's fucking true.

But then we would have missed the chance to talk about the gratingly obnoxious press release that the airline issued to announce the new fee. Want to guess what they titled it?

more ›

/ / / / / / / /

JFK Airport Breaks Ground on Yet Another Terminal

Where: JFK International Airport [map], New York City, NY, United States
October 1, 2012 at 5:29 PM | by | Comments (0)

It's been an entire year since the demolition of the old I.M. Pei-designed Terminal 6 at New York's JFK Airport. Not only was it the former "Sundrome" home of the now-defunct National Airlines, but it served as the first real home of JetBlue; it was their training wheels terminal before building Terminal 5, if you will.

The building may be gone but Terminal 6 lives on...as what's soon to be an extension of JetBlue's massive T5. Just this morning the airline's head honchos broke out the shiny silver shovels with Port Authority officials to break ground on "T5i," an annex specifically for JetBlue's international flights.

more ›

Previous
Use of this Site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (effective 3/21/12) and Privacy Policy (effective 3/21/12). © Condé Nast. Your California Privacy Rights. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.
Ad Choices