Mobissimo

While the airline industry is never a cash cow and budget cutting has made it hard on employees, some are making do and pushing forward, here's more about British Airways' employee program.

 Of the 40,000-strong workforce, 6,940 employees had volunteered for unpaid leave, part-time working or unpaid work by June 24. Their actions will save the company up to £10 million ($16 million), the company said.

Of the volunteers, 4,000 workers chose unpaid leave; 1,400 workers took a switch to part-time work, and 800 will work without pay, British Airways told CNN. A further 740 staff from outside the U.K. also chose one of the three options; BA is still sorting out the numbers from this category, the press office said.

In a major blunder, Continental Airlines sent two children to wrong destination this past weekend.  Obviously the parents were not happy.

"I have never seen so much incompetence in all my life," Wendy Babineaux said in a story for the Houston Chronicle. Her daughter was headed to Charlotte, on Saturday to see her father. She was sent to Fayetteville, back to Houston and then to Charlotte.

Yes, there have been some unfortunate flying tragedies of late, but flying remains one of the safest modes of transportation with fewer casualties per number.  Read more here via Yahoo!

With the presumed crash of Air France Flight 447 over the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday and other recent airplane incidents, nerves might be set off at the prospect and risks of air travel.

But flying on a large commercial aircraft still remains one of the safest forms of transportation, and statistics suggest it has gotten even safer in recent years. There were 0.2 fatal accidents per 1 million departures in the United States in 2008, compared to 1.4 per 1 million departures in 1989, for example, and a review of the statistics in intervening years shows an improving trend overall.

No question we search the most low cost carriers, however, ultra low cost maybe the future.  Read more here.

Clearwater, Fla.-based JetAmerica said 34 nonstop passenger flights a week will start July 13 at Toledo, Ohio; South Bend, Ind.; Melbourne, Fla.; Newark, N.J.; Minneapolis and Lansing, Mich. Twenty-eight flights start or end at Newark Liberty International Airport. The carrier will add six more flights -- from Toledo to Minneapolis -- starting Aug. 14.

Perhaps these days we're getting accustomed to getting less after expecting less.  The airlines in a recent report have shown a very rare improvement in service.  That's like the sun rising in the west, but read more here.

Passenger satisfaction with airline service rose 3.2 percent earlier this year, the first increase in six years, according to a University of Michigan study to be released Tuesday.

The increase came as the number of passengers dropped and airlines reduced flying. Also passengers checked fewer bags as luggage fees became more common, making it easier for airlines to keep track of the bags that remained. Enplanements on U.S. routes dropped 1.5 percent in 2008, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

We all have pet peeves, flight attendants probably have more than others.  Repetition, when someone talks to you, they're probably unhappy, the pain of flying, flight attendants have it at least 150x.  Read how to avoid getting on their bad side.  Here's number one, click to read them all.

1. Bring your pet on the plane and then act like an animal. Over the years, I've seen a pet on a passenger's lap, a pet tucked into a seatback pocket, and a pet loose in the aisle (I nearly hit one with my beverage cart). All of this is against federal regulations. People tell me how well-behaved their pet is, but they can't follow the rules themselves! Your pet must stay in its carrier while you're on the plane. Yes, even if you've paid a "pet-in-cabin" fee.

This is a tough one, whether to or not to charge larger passengers for two seats.  It seems fair that if you take up two seats, you need to pay for two seats, but do two seats cost as much as one business seat?  This action will probably spark outrage from many groups.  Read more here.

So much for jumbo jets.

From now on, United Airlines passengers with extra-wide bodies will have to pay for an extra seat - if they want to fly the friendly skies.

Flight attendants will be on the lookout for portly passengers who can't buckle the seat belts or put their arm rests down.

Flying can be a great experience, on time, fast, luxurious.  Cathay Pacific won the title of world's best airline besting all others in a wide variety of criteria.  Read more here.

Cathay Pacific has edged out Singapore Airlines to be named the world's best airline in the annual Skytrax awards.

Qantas slipped from its position as the world's third best, but stayed in the top 10 at number six.

The annual Skytrax awards are among the most highly regarded in the industry, with the results based on surveys of more than 16 million air passengers conducted over eight months.

Ever wonder where lost baggage actually is?  Airport should have stacks of luggage sitting around somewhere, it has to go somewhere right?  40 million bags were lost in 2007, that's not a small number, so where do they go?  The EU is looking into it, read more here.

The EU's top transport official says he will look at airlines' rules for compensating lost baggage after reports that carriers lost some 40 million bags in 2007.

The European Union's transport commissioner Antonio Tajani says "strong political intervention" would be necessary if a British consumer group's report is proven true in claiming airlines are losing increasingly more bags.

Some are very attached to personal items, perhaps an heirloom keepsake or a cherished foto, here's one guy who really, really liked his XBox.

A Yale University student from has filed a lawsuit seeking $1 million from US Airways for a video game console he says was taken from his luggage.

Twenty-one-year-old Jesse Maiman, from Ohio, alleges that during a flight from New Haven, Connecticut, to Cincinnati in December, his Xbox 360 with a specialized hard drive disappeared from his luggage.

Maiman says he got what he called 'an unconscionable run-around' from the airline for weeks, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper.

Not everyone lives in a major market like New York or San Francisco.  Sometimes you live in a place like Reno, NV and flying in and out of this city can be difficult due to times and pricing, here's a list of the most expensive airports via Forbes.

Back in the 1960s there were a number of disturbing sightings in the woods outside Point Pleasant, W.Va. Hundreds of locals reported seeing a 7-foot-tall monster with glowing red eyes and giant moth-like wings. The "Mothman" was blamed for the mutilation of dozens of dogs and for the collapse of the Silver Bridge in December 1967, which killed 46 people.

If a flight's delayed, it's nice to know on the fly, or via your mobile which is even better.  Basically everyone has a mobile, so what better way to get flight data?

Based on Eyeline's patent-pending technology, ArrivedOK.mobi goes far beyond existing mobile text flight alert services by providing its subscribers with unique flight tracking and messaging features.

www.ArrivedOK.mobi works by detecting its subscriber's mobile phone in a destination GSM network when the user switches it on upon arrival. The service allows users to notify others about his or her safe landing by SMS or email. When the passenger's cell phone is tracked in the destination airport, ArrivedOK?instantly?sends text or email messages?to the list of recipients the subscriber created online.

No surprise here, as the world gets smaller and businesses more global, the need to be there and close the deal means more travel for business travelers.  Read more here.

More and more people are going to be travelling further afield on business over the next 10 years, predicts Barclaycard Business.Research for the company suggests long-haul air and rail services will see the most growth with business travel around the world likely to rise.

As we've said many times here on Mobissimo, low-cost airlines have shaken up the industry and provide a much needed service for travelers for all income levels.  While the economic slowdown has affected many airlines, perhaps now is the time to find the value of low-costs, and as always, we search the most, click here for the video.

Does everyone you know have a Apple product?  Yep, everyone I know does, Apple this Apple that, it's tough to be the only one without a sleek, cool Apple product.  Now you can use it on the airplane as well, Singapore offers plugin capability.  Read more here.

This might be of interest to those of you who travel often. Singapore Airlines has announced that passengers of their new Airbus A330-300 aircraft will have iPhone and iPod connectors, including passengers in the economy class.

Singapore Airlines already has planes that include these connectors in their all-business class but they claim the Airbus A330-300 is the first to offer the feature to economy passengers. All economy seats include in-seat power, 10.6 inch personal television screen, a USB port and the coveted iPhone and iPod connector. Not to mention they also include an independent cup holder so you won’t have to use the unreliable tray cup holder.