Aircraft Industry: Delta chooses Airbus over Boeing for 40 plane order - by Karen Jacobs

Airbus A321

Delta Air Lines Inc announced an order for Airbus jets on Wednesday worth almost $6 billion at list prices, softening its reliance on Boeing for the first time in two decades as it looks for plane bargains.

The order, crowning a months-long competition between the transatlantic plane-making rivals, includes 30 A321 narrowbody planes to be used on domestic flying as well as 10 A330-300 widebody aircraft for international routes. Deliveries will be between 2015 and 2017.

The list price for the deal is $5.6 billion, but analysts said Delta may have won a steep discount after holding out longer than most of its rivals for lower prices as Europe's Airbus seeks to expand recent successes in Boeing's home market.

"I would be surprised if Delta didn't get a phenomenally good deal," said Adam Pilarski, senior vice president at U.S.-based aviation consultants Avitas.

Both the aircraft types and the delivery schedule - between 2015 and 2017 when both major plane makers are keen to keep up production of existing models before switching to new variants - underscores the probability of competitive pricing, he said.

Read more: Delta chooses Airbus over Boeing for 40-plane order - chicagotribune.com

EU-Digest: Airlines scamming passengers on fuel surcharges: Surcharges paying the bulk of airline fuel bills

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Airlines scamming passengers on fuel surcharges: Surcharges paying the bulk of airline fuel bills

The cost of jet fuel for a transatlantic flight on British Airways can now be paid by the airline company almost completely by surcharges that are levied on passengers, according to a recent report. Beginning in May, BA added fuel surcharges to its ticket prices, with passengers paying from euro 100 to 130 additional on long-haul services of less than nine hours’ duration. These charges bring in euro 14.000 to the carrier on a 224-seat Boeing 777 London-New York flight. The same is true for flights on Virgin Atlantic. For some time, airlines have complained about the cost of fuel. Manufacturer testing shows that a Boeing 777 carrying 305 passengers typically requires 44 tons of fuel on a London-New York run. The estimate includes cargo and luggage in the calculation. At current oil prices of euro 600.85 a ton, the cost to the carrier would be euro 15.021.00, which would be nearly covered by fuel surcharges. Only very few airline companies reduced the fuel charges as fuel cost dropped dramatically during the past two months.

Many other airlines including KLM/Airfrance are involved in this "extra fuel surcharges" scam and several consumer organizations are not only looking into these charges, but are also planning to take legal action. In the meantime the European Parliament has been requested by representatives of European political parties to look into the matter. It was disclosed on Dutch TV this evening that there is also no transparency as to how these surcharges are calculated by the airline companies.

Salt Lake Tribune - Delta to fly direct to Europe from Salt Lake City, USA - by Paul Beebe

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Delta to fly direct to Europe from Salt Lake City, USA - by Paul Beebe

Delta Air Lines said Friday it will start direct flights from Salt Lake City International Airport to Europe next year - a route state officials say will end in Paris.

"We plan on having an announcement about our 2008 international flight [from Salt Lake] in the next couple of weeks," Delta spokesman Anthony Black said Friday. Black refused to disclose the international destination on the grounds that the company does not discuss details of negotiations on new routes. But on Friday, the Governor's Office of Economic Development board approved a request from Delta for $250,000 to help fund the startup of nonstop transatlantic flights from Salt Lake to Paris, possibly in the spring.