While the Middle East conflict continues to hit air travel badly, Asian carriers are also feeling the effects of a mystery respiratory illness, similar to flu that originated in the region. Already some 50 deaths have occurred worldwide. The feeling is that the illness has been spread by air travel. Singapore Airlines has admitted it continues to see cancellations and a fall in bookings because of fears about the disease.
Italy’s national airline, Alitalia, is the latest major carrier to raise the price of its fares because of a 30% increase in fuel costs in the last 6 months. From March 15, Alitalia will charge an additional EUR6 (USD$6.60) on domestic tickets; EUR8 on international flights and EUR12 for inter-continental services.
Fares at Air Canada are to cost more. The airline is raising its fuel surcharge on domestic long haul flights from March 11. The new charges will also apply to services flown by Air Canada subsidiaries Jazz and Tango. The price of tickets on flights over 300 miles is go up by CAD$10 to CAD$25 (USD$17) each way. The surcharges will not apply to short haul services where the charge remains at CAD$15.
The European Parliament voted to overturn an agreement made between European airlines and US Customs officials. The agreement was to allow European airlines to give data on passengers flying to the US to US Customs. The European Parliament felt that this agreement infringed data protection rules.
Paris based French airline Air Jet, started in the 1980s has been put into receivership after filing for bankruptcy earlier this week. Jet used to fly charter services and code-share flights on behalf of Air France, and has suspended services from Paris to La Rochelle and St Etienne.
In response to military action in the Middle East, Delta has just announced capacity cuts of around 12 percent to both domestic and international routes (but not Delta Connection.) Delta is to postpone indefinitely the start of seasonal service between Boston and Rome and daily service between Cincinnati and Rome. Both were set to start on May 1.
With passenger numbers falling because of the Middle East conflict, British Airways has cut flights and trimmed staff as have US Airways, Alitalia, Japan Airlines System and Air France.