Mobissimo

In a change of events, US Airways has withdrawn its hostile bid for Delta.

ATLANTA - US Airways Group Inc. dropped its $9.8 billion hostile bid for Delta Air Lines Inc. on Wednesday after a key group of the bankrupt carrier's creditors said Delta would be better off emerging from Chapter 11 on its own.

With the dual decisions, Atlanta-based Delta cleared a big hurdle in its effort to exit bankruptcy by the middle of this year as a stand-alone company.

But it isn't out of the woods yet. Smaller creditors could ultimately vote not to approve Delta's reorganization plan, and some have already filed objections to the disclosure statement to the Delta plan.

A major development, we'll keep you updated on any news as it happens.

The cut-throat London to New York corridor is potentially getting another entrant. Zoom Airlines, the Canadian low-cost carrier applied for approval Jan 22 to start flying between Gatwick and JFK June 6th. From the Travel Weekly article about Zoom airlines flying between London and New York:

Zoom Airlines was established as a Canadian carrier and still offers scheduled service from eight Canadian cities to five U.K. destinations, including London (Gatwick), and from four Canadian cities to Paris.

But last August the Bank of Scotland acquired a minority stake in Zoom for about $11 million, and the company said it planned to use the money to establish Zoom U.K. to fly to non-Canadian destinations, such as the U.S.

We have to admire Northwest's attempt at helping their employees save money, but you have to wonder if they thought this one all the way through. According to CNN Money, Northwest readied thousands of employees schedulated for termination layoffs by giving them a nifty pamphlet entitled "101 Ways to Save Money." This landmark in employee severance packages includes all sorts of valuable tips include:

The advice includes dumpster diving ("Don't be shy about pulling something you like out of the trash"), making your own baby food, shredding old newspapers for use as cat litter, and taking walks in the woods as a low-cost dating alternative.

Read more on CNN Money. Via Gadling.

The majors, United, Delta, and American have increase their domestic fares by $5.  Not a lot, airfares have not increased much in the past decade or so, even though oil prices and other costs have increased.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines said on Monday that they raised fares by $5 one way on some flights longer than 900 miles, the second ticket price increase this month.

Higher fares, along with cost-cutting and resurgent demand, helped the long-suffering U.S. airline industry post profits in the 2006 after years of losses.

But special deals and more cheap seats could limit the impact of the fare increases on earnings as carriers seek to keep planes flying at record capacity.

Imagine a 747 has 450 seats, that's and extra $2,000 to spend on booze for the flight crew.

A Continental pilot died mid-flight, luckily his co-pilot was able to land the plane.

McALLEN, Texas - The pilot of a Continental Airlines flight became ill after takeoff and was later pronounced dead after the plane made an emergency landing Saturday, a company spokeswoman said.

The 210 passengers on the flight, which departed from Houston, were never in danger and the co-pilot landed the plane safely, Continental spokeswoman Macky Osorio said.

The article says he died of natural causes, we wish his family the best during this time.

Because we love you and want you to travel, we now make our MobiDeals available via email. Wow, look at Mobissimo harnessing the power of the interweb? Our work on your behalf, MobiFans, never ends. Never. To subscribe, use the simple form below:

Subscribe to RSS headline updates from:
Powered by FeedBurner

If you feel strongly about letting Virgin fly in the United States, then head over to LetVAfly.com. You can send automatic emails to members of congress, state politicians, Gov. Arnold, and the DOT voicing your support for Virgin to fly in the United States. The website is also full of information on Virgin including videos and pictures of the interiors of their new planes. Here is a video tour of one of Virgin's new planes:

They offer, for a limited time, the readers of Seventeen Magazine a deal if they book through a Special URL. The reader gets $17 off each way on a roundtrip booking. The deal lasts from January 13, 2007 to Febuary 14, 2007.

The special code is SEVENTEEN.

EADS and Airbus are fighting an uphill battle to keep the European aerospace project afloat.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - European aircraft maker Airbus will later this week announce a significant slump in its market share last year as arch-rival Boeing leapt ahead in terms of orders, the Financial Times Deutschland reported.

Quoting figures that would officially be published on Tuesday, FT Deutschland said that Airbus, a unit of the European Aeronautics Defence and Space Company, saw its market share by value fall to 40 percent last year from 45 percent the year before.

Airbus received orders for just 800 aircraft in 2006, down from 1,055 in 2005, the newspaper said.

A good example of where national cooperation can work well (the inception of the project and governmental subsidies) and not (each EADS country wants a part of the process).  EADS is a microcosm of why the EU on some levels just doesn't work.

Midwest Airlines, famous for their fresh baked cookies in First Class, is under attack by AirTran.

MILWAUKEE - AirTran Holdings Inc. raised its hostile bid for rival Midwest Air Group Inc. on Thursday by almost 18 percent to about $345 million in cash and stock after the regional airline rebuffed an earlier offer last month.

This time AirTran, based in Orlando, Fla., took the offer directly to shareholders, bypassing Midwest's board of directors.

"We thought we would get no more consideration than we've gotten so far. We thought we'd let the owners decide," AirTran Chairman and Chief Executive Joe Leonard said during a visit to Milwaukee.

$345m is not a lot of money, but then again, Midwest is not a huge airline. An 18% increase is quite a raise, AirTran must be serious. We'll keep you updated. Mobissimo of course searched both, find there here at www.mobissimo.com.

If you saw the blockbuster last summer, Snakes on a Plane, you were one of 300 people who watched that cinematic Hindenburg. A real event involved a scorpion on a plane.

MONTPELIER, Vt. - A scorpion stung David Sullivan on the back of his right leg, just below the knee, then continued up that leg and down the other, he believes, before getting him again in the shin.

It wasn't what he was expecting on a flight from Chicago to Vermont.

Sullivan, a 46-year-old builder from Stowe, was aboard the United Airlines flight on the second leg of his trip home from San Francisco, where he and his wife Helena had been visiting their sons. He awoke from a nap shortly before landing and noticed something strange.

There you go. You can't have more than 3oz. of liquid, but you can carry onboard a scorpion.

Chances are you fly a lot if you're coming to Mobissimo to search for fares, and that's cool.  Virgin Airlines, that arbiter of cool wants to find out if you're really kewl, and they give you the 11 commandents of being a Jetrosexual.

Do you, or a friend or colleague abide by these commandments? Maybe they are part of the new jetsetters:  the people that leave terra firma behind each day to move business and culture forward.  We call them jetrosexuals and in honor of their achievements we have created our very own award for the most exceptional.  If you think you know one, or you think you are one yourself, tell us in no more than 200 words why you/they should be nominated. Let us know and we will decide if they really are the ultimate jetrosexual. And if they are, they'll win two roundtrip Upper Class tickets to London on Virgin Atlantic.

Think about it.  Do you go to Rio for a weekend to go to a birthday party?  Are you away from your home city more than in it on the weekend?  Are you 1k or Elite halfway through the year?  Are your miles mostly for pleasure?  Well then, you may be a Jetrosexual.  Ever the leader in cool, Mobissimo of course searches Virgin for your transatlantic fix.

'Our partnership with Virgin Airlines ensures that our users are always on the edge of coolness when it comes to flying.'  says Mobissimo's Director of Cool. 'When it comes to defining what is cool and hip in travel, Mobissimo is always the undisputed leader, the other search companies are non-svelte and indeed the picture of what is not hot.'