LONDON – It is being reported that British Airways and India’s Kingfisher Airlines are likely to announce a codeshare agreement next month. Rumours have been brewing since BA chief, Willie Walsh, flew with Kingfisher while in India recently and proncounced the he was impressed with their service.

British Airways have been looking for an Indian partner recently to help them gain access to what are referred to as ‘mid tier cities’. A partnership would allow BA to tap into Kingfisher’s 66 domestic routes and its eight international ones. It would effectively open up popular tourist cities like Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Varanasi to British Airways travellers.

AMSTERDAM – Dutch airline, KLM, has still not paid compensation to travellers affected by the ash cloud earlier in the year.

The EU has said that anyone stranded as a result of the ash cloud should have hotel bills for the extra time paid for by the airline responsible for bringing them home. However, KLM have said that they will only pay bills for one day.

With some passengers trapped for weeks, hotel bills were high, but KLM are currently standing firm, despite contact from the Civil Aviation Authority and a threat of legal action from the EU.

NEW YORK – US Airways has announced it will begin flights from Columbia to New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The flights should begin on the 31st October.

Flights will run on this route most days, but it is being reported that round-trips will cost as much $600. The equivalent tickets with Delta Airlines are just $284.

Other routes that have been announced include Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport to NYC.

US Airways now flies to 34 different airports from LaGuardia.

MANCHESTER – A Thomas Cook flight from Manchester to Dalaman in Turkey was forced to land at Gatwick after an oven caught fire.

The Boeing 767-300 was en route to the Turkish holiday resort of Dalaman and was flying at 28,000 feet when crew on board noticed that there was smoke coming from one of the galleys. After going to take a look, they realised it was one of the ovens used to prepare in-flight food.

After switching the oven off, the plane redirected to Gatwick where fire engines were called to the scene as a precaution. Passengers disembarked but after checking the plane, it was given the all clear and what had now become a Gatwick to Dalaman flight departed later that day.

LA – Victoria Beckham was said to be left shaken after her flight from Heathrow to LA was forced to turn back an hour into the journey due to technical problems.

The British Airways flight had a mechanical fault which caused the pilot to return to London, but BA said that passengers were not alarmed and the plane returned without any untoward events. Having spent the night in a hotel, former Spice Girl, Beckham, was then able to take a flight the following day, allowing her to meet up with David Beckham in LA as well as her three sons, Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz.

MEXICO CITY – Mexicana have said that flights from Gatwick Airport to Mexico City will be up and running again this week after previously announcing that the service would be put on hold.

The 1594 and 1595 flights have been reinstated, although UK Mexicana staff say that only today’s, tomorrow’s and Saturday’s flights will run.

Mexicana has actually filed for bankruptcy but wishes to continue operating. Thought to be in debt to the tune of around a billion dollars, there have been talks regarding a reduction in staff wages.

Flights between Mexico City and Madrid are also back up and running, although many others are still suspended.

Google have splashed out around £460m on a company that aggregates flight information. ITA Software occupies a middle ground between airlines and consumers and many online travel agents are now concerned that this could be Google’s first step towards selling flight tickets.

Google themselves say that the purchase is purely for information purposes, so that they can provide flight information on results pages, but this won’t reassure Kayak or Expedia who felt strongly enough about the deal to approach ITA asking them to call it off.

With a stranglehold on the search market and access to the latest flight information, Google could eventually provide a powerful online flight booking service which would be hugely threatening to the likes of Expedia and Kayak.

LONDON – A recent study carried out by Which? has rated Thomas Cook as being the worst short-haul airline. This conculusion was reached, largely due to Thomas Cook’s online booking system.

Various factors were taken into consideration when rating the various short-haul airlines, including the extra charges which are added to each booking. For example, Easyjet charges £3.50 for each booking, while Ryanair charges £5 per passenger for each leg of the journey, which can ratchet up the price considerably if you’re booking for a number of people.

Thomas Cook had most opprobrium heaped upon it, however, for its booking system which won’t tell you the full price of the fare until you’ve entered in full contact details. Most airlines in the study only required passenger names before the person making the reservation could find out the total cost.

EasyJet says that over 6,500 of its flights have been grounded so far as a result of the volcanic ash cloud disruption and says that this will cost it in the region of £75m.

The budget airline’s profit forecast has therefore been revised to somewhere between £100m and £150m from the £175m to £200m which was previously expected.

The last six months, the airline’s quietest period, saw a loss of £78.7m, which represents a substantial improvement on the £129.8m loss in the same period during the previous year.

EasyJet is expected to show considerable growth this year, despite these various setbacks and against the backdrop of the current weak economy.

SYDNEY – Comments made my Qantas seem to indicate that the airline may step in to help British Airways during the next round of cabin crew strikes.

Qantas flights to the UK will be unaffected by the strike, but there are a number of codesharing flights between the two airlines which could be hit. Qantas also said that if other partners of theirs were needed, they could also assist the British airline. Cathay Pacific and Air France are also part of the Qantas alliance.

With cabin crew strikes following the major disruption caused by the ash cloud, BA will doubtless welcome any assistance they can get.