Jetstar chief Bruce Buchanan defended the decision to fly the new services to Sydney and the Gold Coast, not direct to Melbourne or Brisbane.

"We wanted to get established on the Tasman market with what we thought would be a good complementary offering. We already have quite a sizeable presence in Sydney ... it was a natural fit," Buchanan said.

"The Gold Coast provides a unique opportunity. It provides a strong outbound market we think for, and to sell a very different proposition, into the New Zealand marketplace.

"It also provides an opportunity to link into our Japanese hub," he said.

Currently Jetstar has a New Zealand operation based in Christchurch.

Buchanan said the Auckland service was important so that Jetstar could build a critical presence in New Zealand.

"I think it is a fair bet that when we do enter the domestic New Zealand market that Christchurch and Auckland will be two cities that we would like to join together," Buchanan said.

Auckland Airport chief executive Simon Moutter said he expected Jetstar to perform well in its new operations.

"Jetstar have proven themselves to be a strong competitor who offer great service to customers. They grow the size of the market wherever they enter and they have the solid backing of Qantas," Moutter said.

The cut-price introductory fares will be for travel between April 28 and June 18 next year.

BUSINESSMEN and women, hit by the global financial crisis, are cutting back on their trips and forcing airlines to either slash their prices or to reduce capacity, analysts say.British Airways, which has 10 flights daily between the world's top two financial centres of London and New York, is among the worst hit carriers."Longhaul premium traffic has softened after the summer and forward bookings are being affected by the increased anxiety in financial markets and by the uncertain economic outlook," it said in a review of traffic for September.British Airways saw an 8.6 per cent decrease in premium traffic and a 4.1 per cent fall in non-premium traffic compared to the same month a year before, the airline said on its website."Its compatriot Virgin Atlantic, which also focuses on the same zone, is going through the same torments, even if it won't say so publicly," said a Paris airline sector analyst who asked not to be named.

"There are a lot of job losses (in finance) and that tends to translate into a lot less travel, not to mention that companies are cutting back on their expenses," said a London-based analyst who also declined to be named.

"Now it's not just the US, it's many markets around the world," he said.The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) said this week that "weakening passenger demand, particularly for first and business class travel", was the biggest challenge facing the sector.

"The next 12 to 18 months will be extremely difficult times for airlines and some won't survive the current crisis," it said.To try to revive demand, also dented by soaring oil prices, airlines can either cut capacity by reducing the number of flights, using smaller planes, or cutting ticket prices, analysts said.

"In the US, they are more or less cutting capacity and try to manage that way," said the London analyst. "In Europe, everybody is still growing capacity so my assumption is that they are going to do it through prices."

L'Avion, a BA-owned carrier that provides only business class travel between Paris and New York, is taking the latter approach. It says its September figures were good but notes that ticket prices that month had been lowered.

Thanna remained the place of great importance for traders of Kashmir and set of India. This place was considered as centre place for Kashmiris as well as Punjabi traders, because from here the high mountains of Panchal Range start and it was not possible for Punjabi traders to cross these high altitudes with their loaded horses and camels. On the other hand Kashmiri traders were also unable to sell their handicrafts in Punjab because they were not in a position to accommodate themselves in hot climatic conditions prevailing here. Therefore, the traders and businessmen of both the sides assembled at Thanna for the exchange of their goods and commodities like Kashmiri Shawls, loes, wood carving work carpets from one side and salt, tea and gur from the other side. In these circumstances, this small village on the foot hill of Rattan Pir (8600 foot) developed as a Mandi (Bazar) for traders and businessmen of Punjab and Kashmir. Later on the word “Mandi” was also attached with Thanna and the new name emerged as Thannamandi

Thannamandi came into the lime-light of history in 1420 when a severe conflict took place between Shahi Khan (Zain-ul-Aabdeen) and his brother Sultan Ali Shah of Kashmir. This battle for Kashmir which was fought at Thannamandi decided the fate of Sultan Ali Shah who was killed and Shahi Khan who after defeating his brother at Thanna ascended to throne of Kashmir in 1420 AD under the title of “Sultan Zain-ul-Aabdeen-Badshah.”

Mr N. K. Zutshi writes in his book “Sultan Zain-ul-Aabdeen of Kashmir” the details of Thanna battle. He wrote that on the death of Sultan Sikander his elder son Mir Khan ascended the throne of Kashmir under the title of Ali Shah in 1413 A.D. He was not a balanced man and could not control the situation prevailing in Kashmir. On the other hand, he declared his brother Shahi-Khan as heir apparente (Yuvaraj a). Later on in 1419 AD he handed over the kingdom to Shahi Khan and left for pilgrimage towards Mecca. When he reached Jammu his father-in-law Raja Bala Raja of Jammu disapproved his action and scolded him for giving up the throne of Kashmir to Shahi-Khan. Now Ali Shah repented and instead of going on pilgrimage to Mecca, he returned along with the forces of the Ruler of Jammu and regained his kingdom from his brother.

At this occasion Shahi Khan left Kashmir alongwith his supporters who were Muslims of Thakar and Maliks by caste which remain traditionally a fighting class and were inhabiting the hilly territories of Thanna and its surrounding villages. Shahi Khan along with Thakar and Maliks reached Thanna and made this place as his headquarter for the final show with his brother.
Sultan Zain-ul-Aabdeen in 1420 A.D. ascended the throne in Kashmir. He ruled Kashmir upto 1470 A.D. Since the Muslim Thakar and Rajputs of Thanna and its surrounded villages remained the most important allies of Sultan Zain-ul-Aabdeen when he had wrested the kingdom of Kashmir from his brother in the battle of Thanna, hence after becoming the Sultan of Kashmir he rewarded these tribes of Thanna with jagirs in Kashmir and bestowed upon them the high offices of his kingdom.
On the orders of Emperor Jahngir, a big Mughal Sarai of red bricks was also constructed at Thanna Mandi Jahangir had visited this place for about 13 times. When he was on the way to Kashmir. He describes Thanna in his Tuzak as under.
“On Thursday, the 7th, the village Thanna became the camping place. The great difference of this place from Kashmir. Was apparent in the climate, the language, the clothing etc. The people are speaking both Persian and Hindi. Evidently Hindi is the real language and they have acquired Kashmiri on account of proximity to Kashmir. Briefly one enters India at this place. The women do wear woolen clothing and like India women wear nose rings.”

Before partition Thanna was a jagir of Bakshi Hindu family of Kashmir. This jagir was given by the Maharaja Ranbir Singh to Bakshi Daya Ram who was his Shahi Hakim and a Sanskrit scholar. This family never came to Thanna. The jagir was looked after by their representatives of Raina family of Kashmir. The last representative was Prem Nath Raina who was killed in the happenings of 1947 at Thanna.

At present Thanna Mandi is emerging as a commercial centre and a beautiful town. It is Tehsil Head Quarter. The old Sarai of Mughal’s period is still existing. But now it has been occupied by the security forces to combat militancy in the area. Three temples of Dogra’s period are also existing in old Thanna area in dilapidated condition. Some idols of ancient time are also lying in Kali Temple which have been constructed recently. Apart from the chikhri wood craft the main importance of this place is due to the renowned shrine Shah Dara Sharif which is six kms from Thanna. A big complex alongwith educational centres and Musafar khana is under construction at this place. The people from all over country come to this scared place and offer prayers in the shrine. Keeping in view the religious importance due to Shah Dara Sharif and attractive natural scenic beauty of Thannamandi. This part can be developed as tourist resort.

An Introduction...

Ryanair has been around for a good few years now, since 1985 to be exact, but we have really only heard of them in the last few when low cost cheap flights all around Europe exploded. Ryanair is owned by Michael O'Leary (CEO). Ryanair in the past has always helped me out of a tricky spot by providing routes that the major airlines, even easyjet, dont do. For many a year they were the only airline i would ever fly, but then something happened. I became afraid of flying. I said to myself that i would never get on a plane again, and didnt for one year and throughout that time there were news reports, documentaries and news paper articles slamming ryanair, one even going as far to say as "the worst airline in the world". As you can imagine this can have a greater affect on someone who really hated flying, and the idea of getting on a plane which the media had pegged as unsafe was something i never entertained.

So why do you have a problem?

I have a major problem with Ryanair for many reasons, and im going to lay them all out. Since i got over my fear of flying (sort of) i have always been flying with easyjet. Easyjet are by far, in my opinion, the best and cheapest low fare airline around. Their service is unbeatable, their prices are unbeatable and the general mood of the people on board and their staff is great, they make flying a real treat.

Ryanair on the other hand do not. Their planes are old, they are considerably older according flyers released by their rivals and they have had a string of problems of late. Their planes have been skidding off runways, scraping the back of the plane on take off.

Their workers need to pay for the uniforms that they wear, which in this day and age i find an absolute disgrace. They are overworked and under paid. The newbie working for easyjet can expect to start off on around £1700 pound per month which in considering is not that bad. They provide everything for their workers, so why shouldnt ryanair.

Ryanair has also forced their prices up by hidding charges when booking a flight over their website. They add money by telling you that you have a choice, either bring only hand luggage or expect to pay £24+. They are also charging for the fact that you check in at the airport, a service which normally was always free. People now have to check in online if they want to save some money for their holiday. For me that isnt a problem but for the blind person it is. Think about it, if a blind person wants to fly with ryanair, and wants like the rest of us to save some money, they cant.

What has happened ryainair, they used to be top of their jobs.

So what can be done?

What you can do is not fly with them. Everyone loves a bargain, i love them, and so does the next person but there are lots of other companies out there who offer better service for less, you just need to luck.

Conclusion...

In concluding, i would love to ask Michael O'Leary (CEO) what has happened his company. I would love to know what went wrong and is he trying to improve it. I think if ryanair does not try to makes things better then they never will, and the company will go bust, and that would be a real downer, not only for people flying regulary in Europe, but for the people of Ireland.

Now, if flying ryanair was only that good.

A good article: Easyjet vs Ryanair

• Kolayat
• Lunkaransar
• Nokha
• Sri Dungargarh.

Transport

Being a well-known trade and tourist destination, Bikaner is connected to India's major cities through direct rail and road services. There is currently no passenger air link to Bikaner. Bikaner has a well-resourced military airport at Nal and hopes to have a passenger airport in the near future.

Weather

Bikaner is situated in the center of the Thar Desert with very little rainfall and extreme temperatures. Temperatures exceed 50 °C during summer and in winter, it becomes very chilly.

Art & Culture

Bikaner is famed for its "Bikaneri Bhujia" and its sweets. Bikaner is also known for its palaces, for its handiworks and leather items. Bikaner has Asia's biggest camel farm. The city is also known for its intricate carved Jharokas.
Usta Art, a standard term for Art produced by Usta Masters has also its origin from Bikaner and is very famous.

No hold-ups for once and a smooth flight on a virtually brand new Boeing 737-800 meant Friday's journey down to Tasmania was a lot quicker, and certainly much less effort, than the swallows would have endured. It wasn't all wonderful though, for a start I had the reclining women from Hell in front of me and a neurotic elderly American woman on a 'see everything and nothing' tour of Australia sitting to my left. After getting up and down about hundred times, she then swallowed a cocktail of 20 assorted prescription drugs. At last she finally settled down in her seat and put her black raincoat hood on her head backwards. She looked like some weird urban Ninja bag-lady. Apart from people thinking she was with me, I didn't mind how mad she looked, as long as she kept still for the rest of the one hour forty minute flight. At one point, so lacking in movement did she now become, I remember thinking perhaps she's overdosed and died. Dismissing the thought quickly I reasoned that even if she was now a corpse, nothing could be done until we touched down, and so went back to my book. As I had booked my flights a while ago, I was able to take advantage of one of those loss-leading advertising fares. Unbelievable value at only $32 plus $44 taxes, so $76 ($53US/£30) in total each way. I know I shouldn't have, but I did feel a little bit superior knowing that this was certainly a lot less than 'Sleeping Grasshopper' next to me would have paid, or indeed most people of the flight for that matter.

I was travelling to Tasmania to catch up with my sister and her family (and to temporarily escape the doom and gloom of the global financial meltdown). Sixteen years ago my sister amazed us all with a rather remarkable event, that of the birth of her third child. What was notable about this particular birth was that this baby also shared the same birthday with both of her older siblings who were then two and five years old. After playing with the numbers, I may have contributed to my sister's post-natal depression. I alerted her to the fact that in sixteen years time on Saturday 11 October 2008 she would have a 16th, an 18th and a 21st birthday party to organise, all on the same day! That day has now come and gone and the party, though a frightening concept back then, went off without a hitch and I can confirm it was a totally befitting celebration of such a maternally mathematical accomplishment.

This kind of thing seems to run in my family actually. One of my brother's children has the same birthday as him, and all three of his children are the same ages and gender as ours. The three lots of corresponding cousins were all born within no more than two weeks of each other. I have no idea how this could occur. We certainly didn't discuss our plans with them nor they with us. In fact, we were trying for three years to have Princess and another two years for Soldier Boy. Despite no medical reason to stop us from conceiving, it simply just wouldn't happen. When, out of the blue it finally did, the pregnancies then progressed quite normally with large healthy babies popping out the conventional way some 42 weeks later.

Tasmania is a very interesting place with much history, for example, the first Australian telephone call was made in Tasmania (1874). It has the oldest pub in Australia (1825) and the oldest bridge which was built by convicts (1823) and is still in use today. Hobart is the second driest capital city in Australia after Adelaide, but unlike all the others, it has an abundance of drinking water. Tasmania produces just 0.2 per cent of the total Australian wine crush but over 10 per cent of the premium and ultra-premium wine market. Atlantic salmon, ocean trout, tuna, crabs, crayfish, abalone, scallops and oysters all thrive in the crystal waters around it's shores. It has the cleanest air in the world and its rainwater is so pure that it's considered one of Australia's sporting secret weapons and is always sent to our athletes at the Olympics. Tasmania has the lowest crime rate in Australia and is closer to the equator than Rome, Chicago or the Azores. The 1930's Hollywood actor Errol Flynn was born there, as was Crown Princess Mary of Denmark née Mary Elizabeth Donaldson of Hobart.

So why is the population so small, with visitors outnumbering residents every year? Why doesn't everyone from the mainland want to move there? Well, as idyllic as it sounds on paper, it's also unbelievably parochial and can, at times, feel like a giant aged care facility. Obesity and Education continue to be a challenge and of course it's really quite isolated even by Australian standards.

But hey, I love to visit the place and while I could never live there like my sister does, I always enjoy the wonderful hospitality offered in abundance by the majority of Tasmanians each time I'm down there. They are extremely proud of their state and the fantastic wine and sensational fresh produce they grow, farm and harvest. While Australia is a huge diverse place to visit, 'Tassie' as it's known locally, should certainly be included on your itinerary when visiting Australia. Just make sure you go in Summer and have no desire to rave all night.

The author was not a guest of the Tasmanian Tourist Commission

Alicante - Dusselldorf - Munich - Bangkok - Jakarta.

Oh my god, absolute hell, but with wings attached. Because I had to have a cheap flight, this took four days in total. And now I never want to get on a flight ever again. I flew with airberlin most of the way, and while the food was brilliant, there wre nasty staff who insisted on speaking to me in German although it was blatantly obvious I had no idea what they were saying, and horrible nasty tourists, especially the woman in front of me who insisted on slamming the back of her chair against my head whenever I tried to sleep. (I can only sleep with my head on the pull down tray). When I'm tired and agitated I tend to regress to a petulant two year old so me and said lady commenced a pushing contest for the entire flight.

Dusselldorff airport, these are my survival tips:

Avoid phillipino women who decide to tell you about their crappy relationship problems at four in the morning.

Sprawl across all your luggage in the hope of not having anything stolen and wake to find a large number of people watching you dribble and snore. Try to act nonchalent.

Wear your most comfortable clothes so that when you do venture outside the airport for a cigarette, you can be looked down on by fantastically dressed women snorting at you in utter disgust.

Even though on the flight to Bangkok I was seated next to the smelliest, sweatiest man I've ever come across I did manage to sleep. When  I did eventually arrive in Bangkok I honestly had no idea how humid it would be. Rushing through customs, I stepped outside for my much needed nicotine and was covered in sweat in seconds. My flight to Indonesia was another ten hours away so I wandered to the toilets and washed as best I could, although it's difficult to wash in public in a dignified manner. Why do airports not have showers?

Wandering aimlessly around I think I must have tested every single coffee in Bangkok airport, and checking in on an airasia flight is a must for every traveller. My baggage was about fifteen kilo's over, and I was informed I would have to take some of my things out of my bag. I was gutted as I only have one backpack, filled with not that many clothes. I tried to work out what was fifteen kilo's, and took out all the heaviest items thinking I would have to leave them. Not to be.

As soon as the bag registered the correct weight the lovely man on the check in desk, looked around for his supervisor and then let me put everything back in. My kind of airline.

The flight was an hour late but I couldn't complain as I had four seats to myself. Absolute bliss! I'd forgotten to change my dollars into rupiah, and when I asked the lovely airhostess if I could pay in dollars she gave me a free coffee. How nice?

After the trauma of airberlin, it was amazing. I actually managed to get more sleep and arrived in Jakarta buzzing from my earlier caffeine intake and excited to see my friends after two years. Bouncing through arrivals and trying to ignore the huge sign that said something about the death penalty I was here!

Four days, absolute hell but so worth it, when I got that hug from my friends.

 http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Sensitive-Computers.aspx

There was an article in Guardian Travel last week saying that given the actual economic climate, the earlier you book your flight the better it is. I've got to say that flights have been a bit of a concern for me, several reasons for that:
-    The first one was that I had to tell my boss first about my travel projects. If I was leaving my company this wouldn't have been an issue but negotiating a sabbatical has other implications. I would have waited a little bit longer to get a pay rise and maybe a promotion but I can't afford waiting until the last minute and use up half of my travel budget for the flights so I had to make a choice.
-    Then there was the fact that I needed to stick to Laure and Kawtar's plans. They booked their RTW trip through Les Connaisseurs du voyage, a French Travel Agent specialised in RTW trips. The thing is that not all the travel agents serve the same destinations. Fortunately for me the plans are simple: Bali and Bangkok are two popular destinations and also my only flights. The rest of the transports will be by bus, train or car and we will manage this when there.
-    The last (but not the least) challenge was finding the cheapest flights. I have been crawling the web trying to find the best deals. I went to different travel agents websites in France and England, checked the flight directly on several airlines' websites, waited for the sales, I've been on all the forums and subscribed to pretty much all the travel eNewsletters to find the best deals.

You know what? I'm bored of filling up the search cases again and again. I have decided to book with STA Travel and indulge a little bit of luxury. I've booked an appointment in their Covent Garden branch next Wednesday and I will let them do the work for me. They have pretty cheap flights for under 26 years old (595£ for the two flights London-Bali/Bangkok-London) and they can sort out all the visas, advise me on the transport options in between the cities we will visit, book the first accommodations, the travel insurance and tell me which jabs I need before I go.  So I am now free to think about where I want to go rather than how I want to get there. And I like that!

Is this allowed?, originally uploaded by J L Sanchez.

• www.changiairport.com for Singapore Changi Airport
• www.bangkokairportonline.com for Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport
• www.yvr.ca for Vancouver International Airport

After the plan strategically designed by the authorities and since the aerial chaos took place on 2006, the airport appeared as a new connection and hub, an alternative to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro problematic situation. New national and international flights now start form Belo Horizonte, including the BH-Lisbon route operated by TAP, BH-Santiago by GOL and BH-Buenos Aires by TAM.

Recently, TAM and Air Canada declared that they have reached an agreement for codesharing and integration of their frequent flier programs, TAM Fidelidade and Aeroplan (Air Canada's mileage plan). Scheduled for November, the bilateral accord will enable the two companies to strengthen services for passengers traveling between Canada and Brazil, including connections to Belo Horizonte as well as Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Recife, Curitiba and Porto Alegre.

In addition, TAM has launched a daily flight from Confins to Miami, stopping in Rio de Janeiro, as well as daily services to Paris, stopping in Sao Paulo. It's estimated that the roundtrip price between Belo Horizonte and Miami will begin at US$ 829. The same route was also offered by another major company, American Airlines, including also the cities of Salvador and Recife. To encourage the new routes, they are offering special fares and benefits.

With all the new activity, Confins is showing its hidden and unknown deficits. It's emerging a new situation where Belo Horizonte Airport now is not able to fit and manage all flights, and problems with parking lots are visible.

Nowadays the airport prepares to receive great investments, including the improvement of the access, the implementation of one second landing and take-off track to operate with independence and the installation of an industrial airport.

Photo: BHvirtual.net
Consulted sources: Fox Business, Trading Markets and Focus on Travel News

By Mark Heinrich and Jack Kim

VIENNA/SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea deployed more than 10 missiles on its west coast apparently for an imminent test launch, a South Korean newspaper said on Thursday, and Pyongyang halted U.N. monitoring of its nuclear complex.

The potentially destabilizing moves followed reports that the United States had offered to remove North Korea from its terrorism blacklist this month in an effort to keep a nuclear disarmament pact from falling apart.

It would be an unprecedented test if North Korea fired all 10 of the surface-to-ship and ship-to-ship missiles. Intelligence sources quoted by the Chosun Ilbo paper said they thought the North may launch five to seven of them.

North Korea has forbidden ships to sail in an area in the Yellow Sea until October 15 in preparation for the launch, an intelligence source told the paper.

A South Korean defense ministry official declined to comment on the report but said the government had no indication of unusual activity in the North.

The United States urged North Korea not to do anything, including launching missiles, that would make matters worse. "We would urge North Korea to avoid any steps that increase tension on the peninsula," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Read the rest:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081009/ts_nm/us_korea_north;_ylt=
AvXeMGpBHna.pP5QX_dh5ums0NUE

Qantas would talk directly to passengers who sustained injuries in the incident, the spokesman said.An air safety investigation is underway but investigators say it is too early to blame passenger lap-top computers for causing the jet to abruptly plummet.Laptops could have interfered with the plane's on-board computer system, it has been reported.An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) spokeswoman said the bureau had not yet received an update from its investigators at Learmonth, near Exmouth in WA's north, where the plane was forced to land.The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder had only just arrived at the ATSB's Canberra headquarters and were yet to be analysed.

If you are lucky enough to score one of these $7 fares on Spirit Airlines from New York to Fort Lauderdale, you surely won't mind the 45 minute taxi ride to South Beach or the Design District. While you are there, do not miss Michaels Genuine Food & Drink, one of our favorite Miami restaurants, which is miles beyond the touristy and tired competition.

Photo credit

We all love the nightclub-in-the-sky that is the Virgin America NY-LA route, and we love it even more when first class is free.  From Virgin:

Elevate members can now redeem points for travel on any unsold seat, on
any Virgin America flight, at any time. Members can book a reward
flight online with as few as four paid roundtrips.

"The quantitative cost-benefit assessment is this paper supports these conclusions,'' Professor Steward and Professor Mueller said.Australia, the United States and many other nations adopted far more stringent aviation security measures following September 11.In those attacks, Islamic terrorists commandeered four US domestic airline flights. Two crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York and one hit the Pentagon in Washington, killing about 3000 people.Realising what was in store for them, passengers and crew aboard the fourth aircraft fought back. The aircraft crashed into a field killing all 44 aboard.The researchers said hardened cockpit doors, designed to ensure hijackers could not take control, and armed sky marshals - known as air security officers (ASO) - cost Australian taxpayers and airlines about $60 million a year.

Cockpit door reinforcement was regarded as a significant deterrent.But they said there was a 10 per cent probability one or more of Australia's 130 sky marshals would be aboard any flight, about the same as the US.Significant risk reduction was provided by improved policing and passenger screening."All reasonable combinations of security measure effectiveness lead to the conclusion that the ASO program fails a cost-benefit analysis,'' they said.So far, Australian sky marshals have had to act just once, in 2003, to subdue an elderly man who produced a knife.

US sky marshals have made 59 arrests, but none for terrorism.In the most recent Australian incident, passengers and flight attendants subdued a deranged man who sought to enter the cockpit of a Qantas flight in 2003."Experience shows that the actions of concerned citizens have foiled more attempted hijackings than hardened cockpit doors or air marshals,'' they said.