DWS Aviation

Ryanair accuses fuel supplier Air BP of profiteering, urges UK’s economic regulator to probe increased fuel costs

The jet fuel using algae produced by Solazyme Incorporated, the company based in South San Francisco, California, the United States, has passed all the tests required for aviation turbine fuel.

Many airlines in the United States are cutting domestic flights and routes nationwide with a view to reducing losses incurred by the enormously high prices of aviation turbine fuel.

Zoom Airlines, the low-fare scheduled trans-Atlantic airline based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has suspended operations and has sought protection from creditors in Canada and the United Kingdom after many of its aircraft were detained for non-payment of leasing fees and other fees.

Soaring fuel bills have forced Australian airline Virgin Blue, owned by Richard Branson, to ground two more aircraft. A three per cent reduction in route capacity has brought overall cuts by the airline to 12 per cent since last month.

Long haul operations by Air India are likely to be initiated via the polar routes.  Air India is reportedly planning to file an application with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to fly the transpolar route.

Deutsche Lufthansa has announced that it expected to meet its target for operating profits in 2008 despite record-high prices of aviation fuel.

United Airlines, the second-biggest airline in the United States, is planning to lay off 950 pilots, which is 15% of its total number of pilots.

Northwest Airlines, a major airline based in the United States, will once again cut its capacity in the fourth quarter of 2008 and reduce its workforce in its efforts to cope with rising prices of aviation fuel.

A number of smaller carriers in Europe are likely to go out of business in the coming months if the oil price does not fall considerably.

Four major airlines of the world – Lufthansa, Air Berlin, Air France-KLM and American Airlines – have raised passenger fuel surcharges in the wake record-high prices of aviation fuel.

American Airlines, United, Continental, Delta and US Airways reduce fares

Silverjet, the British all-business class airline that suspended operations on May 30, 2008, is  likely to fly again.

United Airlines, a major airline of the United States and a subsidiary of UAL Corporation, is offering voluntary retirement packages for about 600 eligible flight attendants as a part of the job cuts announced earlier.

The global airline industry is facing a loss of $2.3 billion in 2008 because of the prohibitive prices of aviation fuel, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Delta Air Lines, based Atlanta, Georgia, the United States, is considering suspending more flights in the face of rising fuel costs.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Company’s jetliner business division, says the aircraft-manufacturing giant will be able to survive the current crisis arising out of the prohibitive prices of aviation fuel.

Global airline giants such as British Airways, the national airline and flag carrier of the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe, and Qantas Airways, the national airline of Australia, are likely to join low-cost, rival carriers in charging passengers for baggage check-in and food in the face of exceptionally high prices of aviation fuel.

Airlines are set to raise domestic as well as international fares following the huge hike in the prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) announced by India’s state-run oil companies.

Like elsewhere in the world, airlines across the Asia-Pacific region are feeling the pinch of the phenomenal rise in prices of aviation fuel.

Ryanair and Aer Lingus, two major airlines of Ireland, have increased charges for luggage.

JetBlue Airways, partly owned by Deutsche Lufthansa AG of Germany, has said it deferred deliveries of 21 Airbus A320 jets. This has been done with a view to slowing down further the airline’s expansion in the midst of enormously high prices of jet fuel. 

The phenomenal rise in the prices of fuel is sweeping each and every sector of the aviation, the aircraft-making companies included. Airlines are reining in spending as they face losses that may total $40 billion in 2008.

Silverjet, the all-business class airline based in the United Kingdom, has suspended all operations after failing to secure new funding.

American Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of the AMR Corporation, the United States, has announced a drastic reduction in the number of flights in the face of record-high fuel prices.

Frontier Airlines, based in Denver, Colorado, the United States, has decided to raise the charge for taking antlers on its planes to $100 from $75.