The Stop for Cheap Airline Tickets

With ongoing tensions between the Philippines and Taiwan, budget carrier Zest Airways has decided to suspend its daily chartered flights from Kalibo, Aklan to Taipei.  The airline released a statement in which they said the flights were suspended on Monday and that this suspension was done at the request of the charter agent.  The move comes after the death of a Taiwanese fisherman, which is being investigated by authorities in both countries.

Zest Airways said they have been serving the route since 2011 and they hope that they can resume flights soon.  However, at the present time the flights have been suspended indefinitely, despite the fact that Kalibo, one of two gateways into Boracay Island, has become very popular among Taiwanese travelers.  Taiwan is the fifth biggest destination for tourists from the Philippines, behind South Korea, the Chinese mainland, the United States, and Japan.

The above article is a summary.  Please see the source article at Google News.

After posting a record annual profit of €569 million, despite rising fuel costs, Ryanair is now looking to double their share of the short-haul European market.  The budget carrier currently has about 10% of the market and wants to increase that to 20% within the next five years.  The plan is to take customers away from the “legacy” airlines, such as British Airways, Iberia, and Lufthansa and increase their passenger numbers by over 50 million per year by 2018.

The airline’s post-tax profit increased by a whopping 13% from April 2012 to April 2013 and revenues grew by the same amount, reaching €4.9 billion.  This increase in revenues came despite the fact that the airline’s fuel bill was €290 million and made up 45% of its costs this past year.  Much of the increase in Ryanair’s profits was due to customers spending more on extras, such as the airline’s reserving a seat or traveling with a suitcase.

The above article is a summary.  Please see the source article at Google News.

If you are looking for a cheap flight and you are ready and willing to buy your tickets quick, then you will be able to take advantage of JetBlue’s “Flight Club” sale, which are to be purchased by May 8 for travel from May 21 through June 19.  The ticket prices range from $53 for a flight from Long Beach to Las Vegas to $229 from New York to Puerto Rico.

For the JetBlue deal, there are some blackout dates and the cheapest fares are generally for travel on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but Saturday travel is included, as are taxes and fees.  While this deal may have slipped by many, Southwest Airlines is also offering a deal for tickets bought by May 9 and tickets start as low as $59.

The above article is a summary.  Please see the source article at Google News.

Finding cheap flights seems easy on the surface, but if you ever have to cancel your flight, then you will pay the big bucks.  Fortunately, there are options when it comes to cheap flights these days.  According to Andrew Lau, product manager and a deals expert at redflagdeals.com, if you are booking a basic economy fare, then the airlines usually give you a few options.  However, it is important to decide what options are available and how much you are willing to pay for access to those options.

One option many airlines have adopted is the ability for passengers to cancel their flight within 24 hours at no extra cost to them.  Once inside the 24 hours, the travel insurance policy is the next best bet, particularly for families, which provides travel health insurance and cancelation insurance up to a certain value.  However, these are not useful when you have simply changed your mind.  For that, many airlines now charge a cancelation fee or include a cancelation option for an extra fee when purchasing your ticket.

The above article is a summary.  Please see the source article at Google News.

Vietnam-airline.org recently launched a new program called “Cheap Tickets for Everyone,” which has the airline offering cheap tickets for flights from the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.  These flights can be as much as 50% off the regular price, depending on when the flight is booked, and customers can book flights right on the airline’s homepage, with options such as one-way, round-trip, and multiple destinations available.

As a part of the program, there are a number of preferential destinations, both domestic and international.  Domestic routes include Hanoi to Hue, Danang, and Ho Chi Minh City and international routes include Hanoi to Bangkok, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, and Washington DC.  Those who want to take advantage of the offer just need to go to the website and click on “Book Your Trip.”

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Cheapflights.co.uk has put together a list of the cheapest holiday destinations for 2013 to help those who want to get away even though the sterling has fallen compared to the Euro in recent months.  Popular resorts have lowered their prices, which makes a vacation is little more affordable than people might have thought.  The new Post Office Holiday Costs Barometer has determined that prices in the Algarve have dropped by 15% and prices in Spain have gone down by 20%.

Albufeira in the Algarve in Portugal offers the best value for holiday-makers with cheaper drinks and meals, allowing it to narrowly beat out Spain.  In addition, the Post Office Holiday Costs basket of goods, which includes ten items – a cup of coffee, a newspaper, a three-course meal, a glass of wine, a bottle of beer, a soft drink, cigarettes, bottled water, sunscreen, and insect repellent – only costs 16p less in Algarve than in Torremolinos on the Costa del Sol and 80p less than in , Javea on the Costa Blanca.

The above article is a summary.  Please see the source article at Google News.

The low-cost airline FastJet is showing signs of business distress after making the decision to suspend flights on two major routes in Tanzania.  Only recently, the management of the airline held a press conference to announce the launch of new routes and now they are suddenly cutting two routes.  The airline announced the flight cuts in an advertisement to customers, stating that the Kilimanjaro to Mwanza flights and Kilimanjaroto Zanzibar flights have been canceled.

Passengers who have booked seats on any of these flights will be refunded the price of the ticket.  The two canceled routes are very important for business and leisure travelers.  FastJet Public Rrelations Consultant, Ms. Meg Muigai, has confirmed the cancelation of the two routes, saying the suspension is temporary and that it is due to low demand during the rainy season.  She says the airline will continue to fly on the Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam and Mwanza routes and that the suspended routes will begin again in July.

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Finnair is now offering a flight sale with cheap flights between New York and Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, and Russia.  Round trip tickets can be purchased for these routes for less than $700 as follows: $670 to Stockholm, Sweden; $655 to Tallinn, Estonia; $695 to Vilnius, Lithuania; and $679 to St. Petersburg, Russia.  Business-class seats are also on sale and range from $2,729 to $2,755.  Those who live in the west, such as Los Angeles, can take advantage of these prices by finding a deal of a flight to New York.

The sale is good for travel from now through the end of April and from the October 1 through the end of the year.  This is a deal for the off-season and sale prices on tickets to New York for those who live elsewhere will still make this a fabulous deal for traveling overseas.  Flying direct on Finnair from Los Angeles to Tallinn costs $1245 return, making it cheaper to fly to New York first.

The above article is a summary.  Please see the source article at Google News.

Only days ago, Southwest Airlines celebrated five inaugural flights to five cities and now the airline has announced that they are cutting one of their three daily flights from Jackson to Houston.  According to Dirk Vanderleest, chief executive officer of the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, the budget carrier will drop the 2:10 pm flight from its schedule as of June 1, which will leave them operating the 6:45 am and the 6:20 pm flights.

This latest move is the final bit of tweaking the airline is doing as part of integrating Air Tran into its flight plans.  The new flight destinations the airline began offering on Sunday include Puerto Rico, San Juan, Tampa Bay, and Orlando.  Vanderleest says they are just finalizing their new schedules and it is common for airlines to adjust and reallocate their resources to make the most of their flight schedule.  He adds that although they are disappointed, they are glad the airline is still with them.

The above article is a summary.  Please see the source article at Google News.

Porter Airlines has a plan, a big plan, that they say will bring cheaper flights.  The plan includes the expansion of the airline across the continent, which is a huge risk.  However, the airline has to overcome some rough spots, including the concerns being raised by the Toronto municipal government.  Robert Deluce, chief executive of Porter, attended a press conference on Wednesday where he said that if they can proceed with the expansion, then destinations such as Vancouver, Calgary, Los Angeles, and Miami would be on their schedule.

Deluce stressed that if they are successful, then there would be more competition leading to more affordable airfares for passengers.  The airline currently serves 19 destinations, but the new plan would see that number increase by 14, starting in 2016.  The expansion will cost the airline a significant amount of money, with $2.3 billion being spent on new aircraft from Bombardier.

The above article is a summary.  Please see the source article at Google News.