Singapore Airlines to launch budge airline.

Singapore Airlines is hoping to muscle in on Asia's burgeoning no-frills travel market with a new long-haul budget carrier it's calling "Scoot."

The low cost airline will begin operating by June 2012 with four Boeing 777-200 jets flying by the end of that year, its chief executive Campbell Wilson told reporters Tuesday.

Scoot plans to initially focus on destinations that are five to 10 hours from its base at Singapore's Changi International Airport and fly to four or more cities in Australia and China.

Qantas Back In the Air

Australia's Qantas Airways returned to the air on Monday after grounding its entire global fleet over the weekend in a bold tactic to force the government to intervene in the nation's worst labor dispute in a decade.

Qantas took the drastic step to ground all flights on Saturday, disrupting 70,000 passengers and spurring the government and its labor-market regulator to seek a quick end to hostilities between the airline and unions.

At the government's instigation, Australia's labor tribunal ordered Qantas to resume flights and banned trade unions, which have waged a damaging campaign of industrial action, from staging more strikes while negotiations continued.

"That was the only way we could bring that to a head," a bleary-eyed Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told reporters after 36 hours of round-the-clock brinkmanship.

Later, after being given the all-clear from aviation regulators, Qantas resumed flights from Sydney with an Airbus A330 bound for Jakarta.

EU + US carbon war?

 Twenty-six nations, including the United States, are expected to lodge a formal protest on Wednesday against a European Union law to make all airlines travelling to and from Europe pay for their carbon emissions.

The protest at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) meeting in Montreal, Canada, is likely to escalate transatlantic tension, which has triggered an anti-EU bill in the U.S. Congress.

It declared illegal the EU plan to make all flights buy carbon permits under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) from Jan. 1 to offset their emissions.

The proposed U.S. legislation could mark the beginning of a trade war, analysts and lawyers said. The following looks at some of the issues.

Down at last

Footage shows Boeing 767 landing

A Boeing 767 with 230 people on board has made an emergency landing at Warsaw airport, apparently without its landing gear.

It appears the Polish Lot aircraft, en route from New York, circled the city to burn up fuel and allow emergency crews to gather in preparation for the landing.

LOT 767 Lands without wheels!

A Boeing 767 on a flight from Newark, New Jersey, made a dramatic emergency landing at Warsaw, Poland's Frederic Chopin International airport Tuesday after problems with its landing gear, an airport spokeswoman said.

All the passengers on the flight, from Newark Liberty International Airport to Warsaw, are safe and uninjured, she told CNN. Newark Liberty serves the greater New York area.

The LOT Polish Airlines flight, which had been due to land at 1:35 p.m. local time, circled above the airport for an hour before coming down in a belly landing at 2:40, she said.

"After noticing a central hydraulic system failure the standard procedure for emergency landings at Warsaw airport were implemented," LOT said in a statement, saying emergency crews were in place on the ground to assist.

There were 231 people aboard the flight, 220 of them passengers and 11 crew, the airline said.

The passengers "stayed calm" during the emergency landing and after reaching the terminal were cared for by support staff and psychologists, the airline added.

The shower smiles in a politician.

Air Canada Deal?

The union representing Air Canada flight attendants was optimistic on Tuesday that its members would support a last-minute labour deal hammered out with the country's biggest airline.

The tentative contract agreement was reached between Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees CUPE.L on Tuesday afternoon, less than nine hours before the start of a strike by about 6,800 flight attendants, which would have grounded much of the airline's fleet.

The agreement must still be ratified by union members, who rejected a previous deal with Air Canada last month.

"We are pretty confident that we have a good deal," said Jeff Taylor, president of CUPE's Air Canada component.

Air Berlin fleet cuts

By Victoria Bryan Reuters

Germany's two largest airlines said on Wednesday they were cutting capacity and fleets to salvage profits, as economic turbulence hits bookings numbers and prompts customers to put off booking flights until the last minute.

Air Berlin (AB1.DE) said it hoped to pass on planes it no longer needed to Asian rivals, while German flagship airline Lufthansa (LHAG.DE), which on Tuesday shocked investors with a profit warning, said it would now only increase capacity over the winter by 4 percent.

Lufthansa had in July already reduced the planned growth in capacity to 6 percent, down from an original 12 percent and indicated on Wednesday it could cut more seats.

Go's Goahead

Brazilian airline Gol has been given the green light for its purchase of low-cost carrier Webjet by the country's civil aviation administration ANAC.

Shortly after the deal was signed on 8 July, the agreement was forwarded to ANAC and other government agencies for final approval. ANAC's go-ahead is conditional on similar approvals from Brazil's securities exchange commission (CVM) and the CADE - a justice ministry agency that oversees large-scale financial transactions.

More drama from bomb trial

The accused underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has "vehemently" objected to plans by prosecutors to show a model of the device he is charged with attempting to use to blow up a passenger airliner on Christmas Day 2009.

"Abdulmutallab vehemently objects to the government introducing a model of the bomb," Anthony Chambers, who is Abdulmutallab's stand-by attorney, said in documents filed late on Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Detroit, reports Reuters news agency.

"Presenting the jury with a model of the bomb is unfairly prejudicial, and is only meant to inflame the jury and appeal to the jurors' emotions," Chambers added, in asking that the evidence be excluded.

Chambers said the government's pictures of the remnants of the bomb would achieve its goal. The trial is set to start on October 11.

Singapore Airlines all set to introduce low cost carrier -

 

Facing stiff competition from low fare air-carriers, Singapore Airlines is all set to introduce a low cost carrier soon, a top official said on Tueday.

 

China low-fuel landing row reflects growing pains

 

Aviation authorities have ordered stiff punishment for a local airline whose pilot refused to yield to a Qatar Airways jet requesting to land because it was short of fuel, highlighting growing concerns over safety in China's overcrowded skies.

Cathay Pacific to launch premium economy class

 

Cathay Pacific's new premium economy class is likened to the airline's regional business class, shown above.

Cathay Pacific will introduce premium economy seats to its fleet in the second quarter of 2012.

World's safest airlines revealed

 

Two other European airlines, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, featured in the report, which was published by the Geneva-based Air Transport Rating Agency (ATRA).

Six of the ten safest airlines – Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, American Airlines and US Airways – are based in the United States. Japan Airlines was also named among the top ten.

In its “Holistic Safety Rating” report ATRA compared publicly available data on 100 of the world’s largest airlines.

It took into account 15 different criteria, including the age of the each airline’s fleet, their pilot training facilities and the number of accidents they have been involved in during the last ten years.

ATRA, which operates independently of any airline, manufacturer or regulatory authority, says the study was undertaken to “provide the aviation sector with rigorous and transparent information, liable to encourage airlines to track, interpret and discuss any criteria in the organisation contributing to flight safety.”

Each year, the European Union releases list of banned airlines, often considered to be the world’s most dangerous. The latest list, published in April, can be seen at http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air-ban/list_en.htm. It includes 37 Kazakh carriers and 43 Indonesian airlines.

World's safest airlines revealed - Telegraph

Qantas forced to issue apology after 'blackface' stunt on Twitter is branded 'appalling' racism

 

Australian airline Qantas has been forced to issue a grovelling apology after one of its attempts at social media advertising was branded racist.

The airline had offered two tickets to the deciding game of the Bledisloe Cup between Australia and New Zealand national rugby teams in Brisbane on Saturday night.

Set up earlier in the month, the Qantas Twitter giveaway promised two exclusive tickets to the game, at Suncorp Stadium, to the two fans who could best show their support for the Australian team.