Vijay Mallya controlled Kingfisher Airlines has announced that it intends to expand its routes in South Asia. According to sources, company's first flight in South Asia will start from January 19, which will connect Chennai and Bangalore with Colombo.

The private air-carrier (Kingfisher) has also intends to roll out a Bangalore-Dubai flight on February 8, while Mumbai-Bangkok and Bangalore-Bangkok flights are expected to launch on the February 12 and Kolkata-Dhaka flight on February 16.

Washington  - Boeing Co, the world's second-largest maker of commercial aircraft, said Friday it will cut 4,500 jobs in its commercial unit in 2009 following a drop in demand for new planes amid the widening recession.

Most of the job losses will be in Boeing's manufacturing hub in the US state of Washington, beginning February, bringing to 63,500 the number of staff in the commercial unit, the company said in a statement.

Barcelona/Madrid  - Outgoing flights were resumed at Madrid's Barajas airport Friday afternoon after more than five hours of suspending operations owing to snowfall, the airport operator AENA said.

The airport was also about to resume landings after more than 50 flights were diverted to other airports.

Only 268 of the 1,205 scheduled flights had taken place before operations were suspended.

Long queues of passengers formed at the airport, which has also been affected by an alleged unofficial work to rule stoppage by pilots of the Spanish airline Iberia.

Vilnius  - The owners Lithuania's national flag-carrier, FlyLAL-Lithuanian Airlines, have agreed to sell the struggling company to industrial holding company SCH Swiss Capital Holdings in a deal that should be completed within the next two weeks, according to a company statement released Friday.

"Negotiations with the Swiss investment fund SCH Swiss Capital Holdings have agreed on the sale of FlyLAL-Lithuanian Airlines' shares. Today an agreement was signed under which SCH Swiss Capital Holdings will purchase 100 per cent of company shares," the statement said.

Vijay Mallya-run private air-carrier Kingfisher Airlines is planning to start daily flight between Mumbai and London from Monday. The move is aimed to expand its overseas operations. The new flight would leave for Heathrow's Terminal at 1.50 pm IST from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Terminal, Mumbai and reach London at 5.55 pm GMT. The company would use brand new Airbus 330-200 aircraft which is configured in two classes namely Kingfisher First and Kingfisher second Class.

The UB Group-owned Kingfisher Airlines has announced a 21 to 65% fare cut on various routes with effect from Jan 1.  

Kingfisher chairman and chief executive Vijay Mallya further informed, “The declining price of ATF (air turbine fuel) facilitates such consumer-benefiting initiatives that will also stimulate the industry. The rate cuts are consistent with our mission to aggressively pursue increase in market share and to deliver India's only five-star experience at highly competitive fares.”