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A new study carried out by J.D. Power and Associates showed that customer satisfaction with the airlines serving North America has finally come out of a three-year decline, and improved dramatically in the last year. The improvement is due to lower fares, improved in-flight services, a growing acceptance of fees, and fewer mishandled bags.

The marketing and consulting company says: “The improvement comes despite a general increase in unpopular add-on fees nearly all airlines have imposed for such services as checking bags, changing bookings and even food and pillows.”

Stuart Greif, a J.D. Power and Associates vice president claims that passengers don’t like the extra fees, but they are starting to recalibrate their expectations.

From April 2009 to April 2010, the study surveyed more than 12 300 fliers on 11 major North American airlines and one Canadian carrier. On a 1 000-point scale, consumer gave airlines a satisfaction score of 673 points. Compared to last year, that’s 15 points higher, and even though this does not seem as a dramatic change, it is the best score since 2007. 10 of the 12 airlines improved their scores from a year before. In the survey consumers were asked questions regarding fare and fees, in-flight services, flight crew, aircraft, baggage, boarding, deplaning, and check-in and reservations.

Once again JetBlue is ranked No. 1 among low-cost airlines (for the fifth consecutive year) and it also had a higher overall satisfaction score than all other airlines.

Top traditional network carrier is Alaska Airlines (for the third consecutive year) and second place was given to Continental.

The carrier with the most significant improvement (satisfaction score raised by 17 points) is AirTran, however they still had the second-lowest score among low-cost airlines.

Not every company improved their score- Frontier scored lower than last year and among "traditional" carriers, Delta’s satisfaction score dropped with one point since last year.

However, Greif defines this as an accomplishment for Delta, since last year the airline merged its operations with Northwest, which traditionally scores low.

Grief points out that despite the satisfaction improvement, not everything is OK for passengers. This year’s total satisfaction score is 19 points below the score in 2006, before many extra fees were added.

Nowadays, despite all the websites available to travelers for online bookings, reservations and so on, there are still a lot of details to deal with- details that can often turn the most pleasant journey into a nightmare. Just think about it- when you are about to set off on a journey you have to carry all those pieces of paper from your booked airline tickets, hotels, restaurant reservations, rental cars, and you must not forget local maps and directions. If this journey happens to be a business trip, then forgetting a small detail might cost you your job.

TripIt is a website that serves as an organizer for your travels- it is an online tool for managing all your trip arrangements from one place easily and effectively. The whole procedure is quite simple- all you need to do is sign up for a free account on www.TripIt.com and forward your confirmation emails for all your reservations, booked flights and planned arrangements and TripIt will generate your itinerary for you. You will be able to add manually additional plans and reservations for theatre tickets or sporting events. You will be given a timetable where you trip will be explained in details step by step. You will also be provided with a local map with marked directions and you will also be informed about the weather on each day of your journey. Here is a sample itinerary which TripIt can prepare for you. As you can see, you can also let your friends, family, or colleagues know how your trip is going.

TripIt works with a wide range of websites for online booking and reservations including almost any major airline in the world. Once you have submitted all your details, you can be notified if a flight is cancelled or delayed and you will also be provided alternative flights to prevent you from being late for your important conference, for example. You can also book flights and make reservations from your TripIt account and download free applications on your smartphone for faster and easier access.

Tripit is very likely to become an integral part of every traveller’s trip preparation.

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Now is the time of the year when people start booking their summer travel. For the last few weeks you have been checking fares and you come across a fare that is decent, but not great. You are not sure what to do.

Do you jump on it and book it now? Do you wait a few days or weeks and hope for a miracle? Are you even sure that the deal is best one available? What really to do!?

Don’t worry! With our easy tips, you will be on your way to spending less on airline tickets and becoming a wiser traveler. All it takes is research skills, flexibility and a little patience.

1. Best Days to Book Travel: The best days to book travel have consistently been Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday ( midnight EST ). So always book flights on these days if possible. Airlines update their fares through what is called a Global Distribution System (GDS) overnight on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Saturday at midnight, unused reservations are cleaned up automatically and lower price category becomes available. So if you are a night owl and want the best fare possible, book on our website http://www.paylessbg.com within this timeframe and you should save some cash.

2. Take Advantage of our Fare Alert: Sign up for our newsletter or fare alert in order to be notified about the latest and lowest international flight deals. When airlines have hot sales, we always send email alerts out. Remember call us or book that same day, as airlines recently run sales only for a day.

3. Flexibility: Always be flexible with your travel dates as it is extremely helpful in obtaining cheaper airfare. When booking your next trip, be sure to check out the days before and after your original search. Many times fares can be much lower and you will wind up saving some serious cash. A little investigative work can go a long way! The extra weekend charges of $ 25 per direction are for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. British Airways charges extra $ 30 for travel on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On our website you can also select “ flexible dates option” and will search plus minus a day.

4. Get Connected: If you are willing to take a flight with connections when traveling, chances are will land a flight for less. The hassle of a layover could turn out saving you big bucks in the end.

5. Airports close by: Don’t forget to check the fares from airports close to you. Many times will be a lot cheaper if you fly from a different airport.

6. Talk to one of our travel agents: As much as you feel comfortable booking online, if you trip is not simply flying from A to B, it is best to call us. It will save you time and money. Agents will advice you in your options no matter how complicated is the combination that you need.

So now that you are a full-blown savvy traveler with the knowledge and skills to scope out the best deals, start planning that next dream vacation for less thanks to Payless Flights at www.paylessbg.com .

Have you been looking to take a trip to the moon? Richard Branson certainly hopes so. The billionaire entrepreneur showed off his plans to send a winged rocket into outer space this Monday. Branson already has 300 deposits of $20,000 from people that are looking to go where not many men have gone before.

SpaceShipTwo as it is being called was revealed to investors, media and future passengers today at its Mojave, California hangar.

The first flight is scheduled to blastoff as early as 2011 from a New Mexico locale. Another aircraft will carry the 60-foot-long SpaceShipTwo 60,000 feet above the Earth, where it will then be released and flown at 2,000 miles per hour in 10 seconds.

Branson is so sure of his new experiment that he plans to take the inaugural flight with his family. The first expedition will launch Branson, his wife, mother and children. Hopefully will go well.

The total flight time is pretty quick, as SpaceShipTwo will only be in the cosmos for a few minutes before getting back to Earth in the same New Mexico station. Roughly 80,000 people have signed the waiting list to take part in SpaceShipTwo and its successors.

Would you be interested in flying to the moon or some other part of the universe?
 

Princess Juliana International Airport (Saint Martin)

Princess Juliana International Airport serves Saint Maarten, the Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin. It is the second busiest airport in the Eastern Caribbean. The airport is famous for its short landing strip — only 2,180 metres/7,152 ft, which is barely enough for heavy jets. Because of this, the planes approach the island flying extremely low, right over Maho Beach. Countless photos of large jets flying at 10–20 m/30-60 ft over relaxing tourists at the beach have been dismissed as fakes many times, but are nevertheless real. For this reason as well it has become a favourite for planespotters. Despite the difficulties in approach, there has been no records of major aviation incidents atthe airport.

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport (Saba)

Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport is the only airport on the Caribbean island of Saba, in the Netherlands Antilles. It is well known among experienced fliers for the way in which airplanes must approach or take off from the airport.

Yrausquin Airport covers a relatively large portion of the small island of Saba. Some aviation experts are of the general opinion thatthe airport is one of the most dangerous in the world, despite the fact that no major tragedies have happened at the facility. The airport’s sole runway is marked with an X at each end, to indicate to commercial pilots that the airport is closed for commercial aviation.

The danger arises from the airport’s physical position. It is flanked on one side by high hills, and on the other side and at both ends of the runway by cliffs dropping into the sea. This creates the possibility that an airplane might overshoot the runway during landing or takeoff and end up in the sea or on the cliffs.

Courchevel (France)

Courchevel is the name of a ski area located in the French Alps, the largest linked ski area in the world. It’s airport has a certain degree of infamy in the aviation industry as home to a relatively short runway, with a length of 525 m (1,722 ft) and a gradient of 18.5%. It’s so short that you have to land on an inclined strip to slow down and take off on a decline to pick up enough speed.

Who gets to land here? Well, Pierce Brosnan made the short list. This was the airport used in the opening seen of Tomorrow Never Dies. For the rest of us, private plane, helicopter, or charter are the only ways to go, and your pilot is going to need some serious training before he or she is allowed to land at CVF.

Madeira Airport (Madeira)

Madeira Airport also known as Funchal Airport and Santa Catarina Airport, is an international airport located near Funchal, Madeira. The airport controls national and international air traffic of the island of Madeira.

The airport was once infamous for its short runway which, surrounded by high mountains and the ocean, made it a tricky landing for even the most experienced of pilots. The original runway was only 1,400 metres in length, but was extended by 400 metres after the TAP Air Portugal Flight 425 incident of 1977 and subsequently rebuilt in 2003, almost doubling the size of the runway, building it out over the ocean. Instead of using landfill, the extension was built on a series of 180 columns, each being about 70m tall.

For the enlargement of the new runway the Funchal Airport has won the Outstanding Structures Award, given by International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). The Outstanding Structures Award is considered to be the "Oscar" for engineering structures in Portugal.

Flying Lufthansa just got a whole lot cooler. The international airline announced that it plans to add new in-flight WiFi and phone services on flights between the U.S. and Europe. The new technology is expected to be installed and fully implemented by mid-2010, according to The Associated Press.
Lufthansa attempted this technology upgrade three years ago, but cancelled the plan due to lack of demand. It seems most airlines are starting to catch up with the WiFi times, and now Lufthansa is back in the game.
In an interview with The New York Times, Michael Lamberti, a Lufthansa spokesman, said the airline hasn’t set firm prices on the WiFi and cell phone access, but it’s expected to be in the same price range as previously planned ($10 per hour or $27 for the entire duration of the flight for Internet access, up to $3 a minute for cell phone access, according to the Wall Street Journal).
Currently, some U.S. carriers are offering in-flight WiFi access for a price. The cost ranges from $5.95 for short-haul flights to $12.95 for long-haul flights.
 

Airlines around the world announced a major agreement to reduce carbon emissions over the weekend.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 230 airlines, said its members will reduce net carbon emissions 50% by 2050.

In addition, they committed to improving fuel efficiency 1.5% a year through 2020 and to stabilize emissions by 2020, pledging to carbon-neutral growth beyond that date.

IATA made the announcement following a meeting in Montreal, Canada.

“We took a step in the right direction, toward a global sectoral approach, but there is still a lot of ground to cover. As a united industry, we remain committed to the ambitious environmental targets that we brought to this meeting. Governments took note of our targets and recognized the need to work with industry to secure a sustainable future for aviation,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

The European union plans to inclue airlines in its emissions trading scheme beginning in 2012, and international climate change negotiations are expected to place restrictions on transportation and shipping industries, which have been growing quickly this century, accounting for greater greenhouse gas emissions.

The IATA is proactively engaging the issue in an attempt to get out in front of future carbon regulations and perhaps have a hand in helping to mold them.

For years airlines had the “code-sharing” deals on which they sell tickets on each other’s flights. Antitrust exemptions go farther giving them the power to plan prices and schedules. Airlines say the arrangements have increased travel options for their customers.
In my opinion this is killing the competition. For example Skyteam and Star alliances are enjoying the immunity and as a result there is less competitions between the members of those alliances. For travel to Europe the fares of United, Lufthansa and Austrian are the same. The only difference between is the service they provide. Now American, British Airways and Spain’s Iberia — members of the third alliance, called Oneworld — are seeking immunity. Continental is jumping from SkyTeam to Star, to enjoy the antitrust immunity.
The European Commission on Friday warned American Airlines, British Airways and other members of the Oneworld alliance that their pending request for antitrust immunity on transatlantic routes may be illegal.
In its statement of objections, the EC said that agreements among British Airways, American and Iberia were anti-competitive. A statement of objections is a formal step in commission antitrust investigations, in which the EC informs parties in writing about objections raised against them.
The airlines now can reply in writing to the objections, and then the EC will decide whether to further pursue the investigation.
The EC is still investigating the proposed cooperation between four Star Alliance members — Lufthansa, Continental, United and Air Canada — and between SkyTeam members Air France-KLM and Delta.
 

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