Japan’s ANA to launch budget carrier
TOKYO, 9 September, 2010 – Japan’s All Nippon Airways will launch a low-cost carrier operating both international and domestic short-haul routes, anticipating booming Asian travel demand, the airline said Thursday.
The new company will be established by the end of this year, ANA said, and aims to begin services out of Kansai International Airport, Osaka, in the second half of 2011.
The carrier said it had signed an agreement with Hong Kong-based private equity firm First Eastern Investment Group to establish “the first Japanese low-cost airline” in a bid to reshape the country’s costly air travel market.
Reliance buys into Oberoi
MUMBAI, 1 September, 2010 – A unit of India’s largest private firm Reliance Industries has bought a 14% stake in one of the country’s most luxurious hotel chains in a US$217-million deal, the companies said last Monday.
The giant conglomerate, headed by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, said its unit Reliance Industries Investment and Holding had acquired a 14.12 % stake in East India Hotels, which owns the Oberoi and Trident brands.
SAS will host mile-high gay wedding
STOCKHOLM, 1 September, 2010 – Scandinavian airline SAS said Wednesday it plans to host the first-ever in-flight gay wedding in December, and is searching for a suitable couple to walk down the airplane aisle.
“It will be a very traditional wedding,” SAS spokesman Anders Lindstroem told AFP. “There will be wedding cake and dancing in the aisles.”
SAS is accepting entries from gay couples who wanted to celebrate their nuptials mid-flight from Stockholm to New York, 6 December, with the winning entry will be chosen by an online vote.
PAL still in trouble over pilots
MANILA, 6 August 2010 – Philippine Airlines may post a loss in its current fiscal year because of pilot trouble that led to flight cancellations, its listed parent said last Wednesday.
The flag carrier, known as PAL, had said it expected to return to profitability in the 12 months to March 2011 after posting a net loss of US$14.3 million in its previous fiscal year.
“We wish to confirm that (PAL) may have to revise its targets… because the cancellation of several flights have indeed affected revenue,” PAL Holdings said in a statement.
