Organisers of the calendar project are hoping to raise more than €10,000 for the Dublin Simon Community with the help of the glamorous girls who took the time from their busy lives – and took their clothes off.

Last year, the low-cost carrier’s calendar raised more than €70,000 on behalf of Angels Quest.

“The 2009 edition, which was shot in Spain in September, is even more colourful and sexy and should sell like hot cakes,” said a spokeswoman for the airline.

Calendars can be purchased at €10 each, via the Ryanair.com website, or on Ryanair flights.

“It will make the ideal Christmas present, or a New Year gift which will remind people not just of Europe’s favourite low fares airline, but the gorgeous girls you can meet on board Ryanair flights,” the spokeswoman added.

The airline sent a free copy of the new Ryanair Cabin Crew 2009 calendar to FACUA, Spain’s consumer watchdog group that objected to last year’s calendar.

Sam MacGuinness of the Dublin Simon Community said: “With Government funding constraints we now, more than ever, depend on the generosity of corporate supporters, such as Ryanair.”

Thanks to www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.ryanair.com

Ciampino airport serves budget airlines, and has been closed since a Ryanair flight was forced into an emergency landing on Monday after birds were sucked into one of its engines. On Tuesday evening, the airport had not yet reopened.

At Rome’s main airport, Fiumicino, Alitalia had to cancel 39 of its flights due to an unannounced walkout by 100 of its staff who are opposed to some of the conditions of the proposed rescue plan for the financially-troubled carrier.

Hundreds of Alitalia’s passengers remained stranded at the airport throughout the night, according to Telenews, which also indicated that it would be hours before either airport would be able to resume normal operations.

In Milan, 54 flights were cancelled on Tuesday as the result of the strike in Rome on Monday, according to the news agency ANSA. Additionally, four flights that were due to depart Naples were cancelled, as were four in Sicily.

In Rome, prosecutors are investigating the legality of the Alitalia labour action.

www.alitalia.com

Operating profit for the period was reported at £140 million, as compared with £567 million for the same period in 2007.

The carrier saw lower profits despite a rise of 6.4 per cent in revenues for the period, which were up from £4,470 million to £4,754 million.

Fuel costs for the full year are still anticipated to reach £3 billion, according to an airline report. Fuel bills are showing a 52 per cent increase over last year, in spite of hedging profits of £329 million for the six months ending 30 September.

At both Gatwick and Heathrow airports, BAA implemented major price increases, which meant an overall price increase for the airline at Gatwick of 36 per cent and at Heathrow of 38 per cent for the balance of the year, the airline said.

BA is suspending four of its scheduled services that were part of the timetable for the summer of 2009 – from Heathrow to Dhaka and to Kolkata, and from Gatwick to Dublin and to Zurich.

The carrier’s flights to Atlanta will be transferred from Gatwick to Heathrow beginning 29 March, which has been made possible by the Open Skies agreement.

Continued restructuring will mean that approximately one-third of the 1,350 managers eligible to do so will take voluntary severance, with most leaving BA by the end of this year.

www.britishairways.com

Most airlines are incensed by the new regulations, which were approved by EU member governments this past Friday.

U.S.-based airlines and government officials have said that the inclusion of airlines in greenhouse gas initiatives will in fact do little to reduce emissions. They have also indicated that Europe should have waited until a global agreement could be reached, covering flights worldwide.

European lawmakers countered that there had been too little progress with the U.N.’s International Civil Aviation Organization, toward a global agreement, so they decide to put their own regulations in place.

Last week, the director-general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Giovanni Bisignani, publicly criticized the EU for its approval of the regulations during the current financial crisis.

The rules do not take effect until 2012, however, which should give airlines the necessary time to prepare for compliance and for global economic conditions to turn around.

All airlines flying to airports in Europe will be required to account for emissions to EU authorities.

europa.eu

The inaugural A380 service on the Australian national airline departed Melbourne bound for Los Angeles this week, making Qantas the first carrier in Australia to operate the superjumbo.

On Friday, the carrier’s second service to the US will be launched – from Sydney to Los Angeles.

In his remarks at the inauguration of the A380 service, Dixon noted that the airline had been seeing a decline in passenger numbers in all classes of travel.

“There is a lessening in demand in all classes, Qantas has held up better than most airlines,” he commented.

The chief executive added that Qantas would take delivery of another three A380s by the end of 2008, and that the balance of its 20 superjumbos on order were scheduled for delivery before the end of 2013.

“By the end of 2009, when our eighth aircraft has been delivered, Qantas will offer daily A380 services to Los Angeles from Melbourne,” Dixon said.

In January of 2009, the airline plans to operate service to London via Singapore on the A380.

Sydney Airport is on record as welcoming the roll-out of A380 flights, noting that the aircraft is quieter and more environmentally-friendly than other planes.

Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.qantas.com.au

These Allbury Travel operators are claiming that customers will save as much as £110 per couple if they book next year’s holiday by 31 October.

The special offer covers holidays that are scheduled during 1 January and 31 October 2009, but excludes the periods of 9-15 February and 29 March-12 April.

Steve Heapy, the product and operations director for the group said: “The recent launch of our new edition brochures has stimulated the market and resulted in a healthy number of sales for the winter season as well as early bookings for next summer.”

He added: “As an additional motivation, we have removed the fuel surcharge to stimulate the market further and offer an incentive to book now and save the pennies, a key bonus during the credit crunch.”

The travel exec noted that the increase in bookings is most likely also related to the public’s awareness of the safety involved in booking with an ATOL-bonded travel operator. He stressed that all of Allbury Travel’s brands are ATOL-protected and that their agents are ABTA members, ensuring customers that their holidays are protected.

Thanks to www.travelmole.com, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.allburytravelgroup.com

Mr Coupe weighed 20 stone at the time, and complied with the request, making it possible for the plane to leave the ground, from the airport in Southampton.

The incident was such an embarrassment to the couple that they went on a diet and subsequently lost 12 stone 7 pounds between them. Mr and Mrs Coupe were headed to Guernsey on holiday at the time.

The Coupes operate a bed and breakfast business in Stubbington, Hampshire. Mrs Coupe, who weighed 18 stone at the time, recounted the incident with horror: “The stewardess asked one of us to get up and move to the front, so Alan volunteered to move which I was thankful about as I was so embarrassed I just couldn’t look up.”

She added: “We couldn’t believe that we were too heavy for the plane to take off. It was a decent-sized plane full of holidaymakers so it was devastating to be told that even a big plane like that couldn’t cope with all our weight being at the back.”

Thanks to www.telegraph.co.uk for the quotes above, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.telegraph.co.uk

The Dutch company, EUclaim, has offered to handle claims for compensation being made by Ryanair passengers.

“When individual passengers approached the airline for compensation they were informed that the delays or cancellations were due to ‘weather conditions’ or ‘technical problems,” an EUclaim spokesman said.

He added: “In most cases airlines will reject claims made by individual passengers, stating ‘extraordinary circumstances’ as the cause of the delay or cancellation. But more often than not this is not the case.”

EUclaim insists that it is able to help individuals who find themselves unsuccessful in their attempts, as it is able to trace all movements of specific aircraft, by using their tail fin numbers.

The new court action is the latest round in the ongoing battle over the rights of passengers, which has thus far involved various lawyers, consumer advocacy groups and the EU.

Under provisions of EU law, airline passengers are entitled to receive compensation of as much as £476 per person for a cancelled flight. Attempts in the past to enforce the provision – and passenger rights – have met fierce opposition from the airlines. Both the EU and consumer groups continue to claim that carriers are doing their utmost to avoid paying compensation.

In addition to compensation for cancelled flights, EU law also calls for compensation in the case of flight delays, for food costs, phone call charges and, depending on the circumstances, the cost of overnight accommodation.

Thanks to www.telegraph.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.ryanair.com

The carrier’s deputy chief executive, Howard Millar, told an airline conference audience in London that only five airlines in Europe are financially stable enough to survive the current industry crisis.

Millar named easyJet and Ryanair as no-frills carriers that will make it through the difficult period, and a spokesperson for Ryanair later confirmed that the remaining three airlines were Air France-KLM, British Airways and Lufthansa.

In his remarks to an audience of his peers in the airline industry, the Ryanair executive added that further consolidation in the industry is inevitable, accompanied by reduction of the number of jobs and fewer flights for air travellers to choose from.

He said that there was good news in this for holidaymakers, however: “People are more price sensitive and carriers will struggle to fill their seats unless they reduce fares.”

Ryanair is maintaining its gloomy outlook about performance for the full year. Millar noted that the carrier is hoping to break even - an improvement on the warning issued in July, when oil prices hit their highest levels of the year, that the airline would post its first full year loss since 1989.

Thanks to www.timesonline.co.uk for the quote above, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.ryanair.com

Thomson is the latest travel company to pull routes from the Durham Tees Valley Airport, located near Darlington, announcing that, from next year, it would no longer be offering flights to Alicante, Spain, from the North-East.

This news follows the decision by Hungary-based Wizz Air to cancel all flights between Durham Tees Valley and Warsaw, Poland. In addition, there is speculation that Flyglobespan, which has not yet announced it schedule for the coming year, could be the next operator to pull out of Durham Tees Valley.

A holidaymaker from Newton Aycliffe, Allan Carter, asked: “Why are all the flights being cut back? I go to Alicante regularly, but Thomson are not going to fly there after this year. Everybody is in the dark about what is happening.”

The high price of jet fuel and the effect of the economic downturn on the travelling public have hit the airline industry hard, and led to the failure of travel operators, including giant XL last week.

Carter added: “Not so long ago we were being told how wonderful Durham Tees Valley was and how the owners had huge plans for it. It is great to have an airport so nearby. It’s so convenient to get there. If it was not there we would have to use Newcastle instead. That could end up costing you £80 there and back in taxi fares - maybe more.”

www.durhamteesvalleyairport.com