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.”

Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines has finally slashed its domestic basic fares by up to 65 per cent, indicating an average reduction of around 20 per cent in overall fares.

Last week, Kingfisher had declared a range of fare cuts without indicating the quantum of cuts across sectors.

The company's announcement follows moves by rival Jet Airways and Air India, the country's national carrier to trim their basic fares by an average of 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

Washington, Jan 3 : A US airline has apologized to nine Muslim American passengers from the Washington area who were removed from a flight out of Reagan National Airport.

But a Muslim civil rights group has said that it intends to press a discrimination complaint against the airline for its treatment of the passengers, The Washington Post reported.

Sydney - The autopilot on a Qantas Airways Airbus A330 suddenly disconnected 500 kilometres after taking off from Perth in Western Australia last week, a news report revealed on Saturday.

Copenhagen/Stockholm  - Shares in SAS, the operator of the joint-carrier Scandinavian Airlines, surged Friday on a report that Lufthansa is interested in the Scandinavian market and is in talks with SAS.

A Lufthansa executive quoted by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, however, did not say if a possible merger was being considered.

SAS shares climbed some 15 per cent in late afternoon trading on the Stockholm bourse.

Kathmandu  - An investigation into air crash near Mount Everest in October blamed pilot error for the accident, a government report said Thursday.

The crash at Lukla airport, about 175 kilometres north-east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, on October 4, 2007, killed 18 people, including 12 Germans, two Australians and four Nepalese nationals. The only survivor was the plane's captain.

A report submitted to the government said the primary cause of the accident of the Yeti Airlines Twin Otter aircraft was misjudgment by the pilots while landing at the airport.