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Airline employee booking tool ID90T raises $3 million in new funding
TransportID90T, a startup building an airline employee travel platform, announced a $3 million second round of financing today. The funding was led by Gerbera Capital and Mexico Ventures, with participation from existing investors Baroda Ventures and Thayer Ventures. The company’s main product is its a cross-carrier ticketing platform, a booking tool, that lets airline employees [...]
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Obama administration looks to $14 air tax bump to improve infrastructure
TransportThe cost of flying might be going up, but this time it’s not the airlines raising prices. The Obama administration has proposed raising the taxes on air travel by about $14 per flight, a move airlines strongly oppose. Higher taxes are needed to help reduce the deficit, pay for improvements at the nation’s airports and [...]
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Low-cost carriers and airfares: Shattering the myths
TransportThe average true price of a one-way airline ticket has increased by nearly 30 percent since 2008, and the presence of a low-cost carrier is not an accurate predictor of lower airfares, says a new study by Evergreen, Colorado-based Boyd Group International. The data indicate that recruiting a “low cost” carrier to an airport may [...]
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Pintrips tracks Web flight searches and provides dashboard for airfare changes
TransportPintrips, a new personal travel planning startup, is today publicly entering the competitive, crowded travel space with the public debut of its online pinboard for tracking flights and prices. The service operates differently from the typical price comparison engines and aggregators, as its focus isn’t only on finding the best prices and schedules – it’s [...]
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Men and tall travelers are biggest losers if airlines adopt pay-by-weight airfares
TransportThis week Samoa Air, in a move that was mistaken by many for a belated April Fools’ Day prank, became the first airline to charge passengers according to their weight. Passengers flying on the South Pacific carrier, which largely operates domestic routes, must now pay one Samoan tālā (around 29p) for each kilo that they, [...]
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Samoa Air CEO says pay-by-weight airfares will raise obesity awareness
TransportA tiny Samoa airline is giving passengers a big reason to lose weight: tickets sold not by the seat, but by the kilogram. Samoa Air planned on Wednesday to start pricing its first international flights based on the weight of its passengers and their bags. Depending on the flight, each kilogram (2.2 pounds) costs 93 [...]
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Is Southwest the leading low-cost airline? Depends whether you check a bag
TransportTravelers who often don’t check bags can shop around and find lower fares than Southwest’s more than 60% of the time. However, when travelers check one bag, the findings are reversed: competitors beat Southwest only 40% of the time, and Southwest offers the lowest fare 60% of the time. These were the findings of a [...]
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Why Americans don’t care airfares are the cheapest they’ve been in 30 years
TransportWhy don’t we appreciate this heyday in bargain flying? The first, and obvious, answer is that flying is, by definition, expensive, and you average family expends very little energy adjusting big numbers for inflation. The second, and less obvious, reason why we don’t recognize the amazing fall in ticket prices is that average consumers don’t [...]
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First U.S. airfare hike of the year targets business travelers
TransportThe first nationwide hike in U.S. airfares looks like it’s taking hold this week, as Delta Air Lines initiated a ticket-price increase, according to FareCompare.com. However, the effort is limited — an increase of $4 to $10 roundtrip on domestic flights booked inside of seven days before departure, most likely to affect business travelers. Three [...]
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British Airways offers cheaper fares to flyers without checked bags
TransportBritish Airways is to offer cheaper fares on selected routes to passengers who travel without checked luggage. The airline says the fares – which will initially be offered on flights from Gatwick to Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Jersey, Tunis, and Turin – will give its passengers “more choice”, and is likely to be viewed as an attempt [...]
