Globe Merchant Travel Blog

Travel Dates & Times for Weekend Getaway Fares

Depart anytime between Tuesday, September 30, 2008, and Friday, October 3, 2008.
Return anytime between Monday, October 6, 2008, and Wednesday, October 8, 2008.
Tickets must be purchased by this Sunday, September 28, 2008, 11:59 p.m. (CT).
Fares displayed are for round-trip coach class travel.

Round Trip Fare

Boston, MA (BOS) – London Heathrow, United Kingdom (LHR) $507
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) – Guatemala City, Guatemala (GUA) $498
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) – Monterrey, Mexico (MTY) $447
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) – Panama City, Panama (PTY) $498
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) – San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) $498
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – San Salvador, El Salvador (SAL) $578
Mexico City, Mexico (MEX) – Miami, FL (MIA) $360
Miami, FL (MIA) – Belize City, Belize (BZE) $498
Miami, FL (MIA) – Cali, Colombia (CLO) $498
Miami, FL (MIA) – Guayaquil, Ecuador (GYE) $428
Miami, FL (MIA) – Medellin, Colombia (MDE) $498
Miami, FL (MIA) – Mexico City, Mexico (MEX) $330
Miami, FL (MIA) – Quito, Ecuador (UIO) $428
Miami, FL (MIA) – San Salvador, El Salvador (SAL) $488
Miami, FL (MIA) – Tegucigalpa, Honduras (TGU) $488
Monterrey, Mexico (MTY) – Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) $404
New York Kennedy, NY (JFK) – London Heathrow, United Kingdom (LHR) $530
New York Kennedy, NY (JFK) – Zurich, Switzerland (ZRH) $681

*Taxes, fees and conditions apply.

Additional Fees and
Restrictions May Apply

Visit www.aa.com/netsaaver for additional fare offers for this weekend and other travel dates.

By Alberto Sisto
Reuters News

ROME, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Italian airline Alitalia (AZPIa.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) faced the prospect of liquidation after a business group that had mounted a rescue bid withdrew its offer on Thursday, citing union opposition.

All members of the CAI consortium voted to abandon the offer — a blow to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who had used his business connections and political sway to persuade investors to bid for the 20,000-employee flag carrier and keep it Italian.

“The situation is dramatic and we could be facing the abyss,” Berlusconi told reporters, adding that left-wing opposition and unions were to blame. Asked whether this meant Alitalia’s failure, Berlusconi said: “We’ll see.”

The breakdown came a day after Greece said it would close Olympic Airlines [OLY.UL] and relaunch it as a private-sector company. Airlines are struggling to cope with soaring fuel costs and declining revenues as the credit crunch crimps spending.

Alitalia’s government-appointed special administrator Augusto Fantozzi has repeatedly warned that if CAI’s bid fell apart, he would start liquidation proceedings.

However, Fantozzi appeared more cautious on Thursday, saying he would begin the difficult task of seeking new funds for Alitalia and “do everything possible to keep it alive.”

A 300 million euro bridge loan granted to the company by the previous center-left government is being questioned by the European Commission as possibly illegitimate state aid. CAI said it had pulled its offer after six of Alitalia’s nine unions refused to sign up for the plan, which would have seen the group snap up only the profitable parts of the carrier.

It said the airline’s troubled financial situation — Alitalia is losing 2 million euros ($2.90 million) a day — meant negotiations could not drag on any longer.

Labor Minister Maurizio Sacconi said the withdrawal “paves the way for the failure of all the companies in the Alitalia group.”

As the news broke, a leader of one of the three biggest unions said CAI’s withdrawal would be “a social catastrophe.”

“The company is dead and some of my colleagues want to be its undertakers,” said Luigi Angeletti, head of the UIL union, referring to other unions’ refusal to agree to the deal.

However, the news was welcomed with applause by many Alitalia staffers gathered at Rome’s Fiumicino airport and outside the CAI’s meeting in Milan.

“The offer didn’t make any sense,” said an Alitalia steward in Rome who asked not to be named. “Why would anyone accept having their pay halved and ridiculous hours and conditions? People would rather go and find jobs as waiters.”

Pilots’ union ANPAC, which had staunchly opposed CAI’s plan to slash thousands of jobs and cut salaries, said more talks could have led to a compromise.

“It’s a shame. In my opinion the conditions were there for a deal. Now they (CAI) are off and we’re still here with our extremely serious problems,” Fabio Berti told reporters.

NATIONAL SYMBOL

Alitalia, a national symbol for more than 60 years, has long suffered from political interference and union unrest and, more recently, from soaring fuel costs and an economic downturn stinging the travel sector worldwide.

Even Pope Benedict, who like his predecessors flies Alitalia on trips abroad, said he was praying for the airline last week.

CAI’s rescue plan was the third attempt in less than two years to sell the state’s 49.9 percent stake in the airline, which last posted a profit in 1999.

Under the former center-left government last year, Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) agreed to buy Alitalia. But that bid was blocked by unions and opposed by Berlusconi, then leader of the opposition. He ran a successful election campaign in April vowing to keep Alitalia alive and Italian.

Sources close to Fantozzi said he was in contact with Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHAG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Air France-KLM and British Airways Plc (BAY.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) — which he said had all expressed interest in a minority stake in Alitalia if CAI’s bid had succeeded. ($1=.6894 Euro) (Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and Gavin Jones; Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Sue Thomas)

Both trade unions and opposition groups in Greece vowed on Thursday to continue fighting the decision of the conservative Greek government to liquidate the national air carrier, Olympic Airlines.

The groups announced that they would be staging demonstrations and sit-ins and pursuing legal avenues in a fight they are calling “a mother of all battles,” in order to stop the sell-off of the airline.

The transport spokesman for the opposition, Nikos Sifounakis, in calling the sell-off plan a crime against the people of the country, said: “It is a huge mistake … 6,500 employees stand to lose their jobs because the conditions of this scheme are so painful. We will give our support to all these protests.”

A restructuring of airline, which has operated at a loss almost from the time it was bought by the Greek government from Aristotle Onassis in the 1970s, is being viewed as a key element in the effort of the centre-right government to modernize the country’s economy – and could help end years of strife with Brussels.

Olympic is the last airline in the EU that is wholly-owned by a government, and is thought to be losing approximately 500 million euros annually. Attempts over the years by a series of Greek governments to privatize the carrier have always run up against resistance by the 17 unions representing employees of the airline.

On Thursday night, the 490 pilots employed by Olympic vowed to strike. Over this past year, the pilots have read proclamations during flights that speak out against plans to privatize the airline.

Monsters and Critics
Athens – More than 200 workers at Greek state carrier Olympic Airlines blocked the taxiway at Athens International Airport for more than 20 minutes Thursday over plans to shut down and privatise the airline.

The demonstration ended up blocking the runway but did not affect any flights, officials at the airport said.

The European Commission on Wednesday certified the death of Greek carrier Olympic Airlines and the birth of a new airline in its stead by endorsing privatization plans while ordering the old company to pay back more than 1 billion dollars in illegal state aid.

Wednesday’s decision was expected to reverberate in other European countries that are struggling to save their flagship carriers at a time of high oil prices and slowing economic growth.

The more than 8,000 employees at Olympic oppose the government’s plan to privatise the airline, despite promises of early retirement payoffs and transfers to other public sector jobs.

The fate of Olympic Airlines follows that of other European carriers such as Belgium’s Sabena, which reincarnated as Brussels Airlines and is now being taken over by Germany’s Lufthansa.

It could also set an example for Alitalia, which is estimated to be losing around 2 million euros a day.

Trade unions representing some of Alitalia’s cabin crew have gone on strike in Italy over a government-backed rescue plan for the state- controlled airline. The plan involves the airline’s takeover by a group of Italian investors, CAI, and at least 3,000 job cuts.

Each Way From To

Philadelphia, PA London, United Kingdom (LHR) $240
Washington DC (DCA) London, United Kingdom (LHR) $240
New York, NY (LGA) London, United Kingdom (LHR) $250
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) London, United Kingdom (LHR) $340
Pittsburgh, PA London, United Kingdom (LHR) $345
Philadelphia, PA Mexico City, Mexico $150
New York, NY (LGA) Mexico City, Mexico $150
Boston, MA Mexico City, Mexico $150
Charlotte, NC Mexico City, Mexico $190
Phoenix, AZ Mexico City, Mexico $190

More International USAir e-savers……

* David Gow and John Hooper
* The Guardian,
* Thursday September 18 2008
* Article history

The European commission yesterday reshaped the EU’s aviation sector by forcing Olympic Airlines to repay to the Greek government €850m (£671m) in illegal state aid before it is privatised.

Plans to liquidate Olympic, which was founded by Aristotle Onassis 51 years ago, and sell some of its assets at market prices to private sector investors by the end of next year were approved yesterday by Brussels. The new company, codenamed Pantheon, will be granted Olympic’s name and famous five-ring logo. It will also acquire 65% of its capacity, including its landing slots. Two other new companies will acquire ground-handling and maintenance assets.

Yesterday’s deal ends 15 years of litigation between the EC and successive Greek governments which pumped billions of euros and drachmas into the perennially loss-making Olympic to keep it afloat and buy off union resistance to restructuring.

Antonio Tajani, EU transport commissioner, said Brussels wanted a “definitive break with the past” while Greek transport minister Costis Hatzidakis said privatisation would finally resolve “an issue that has beset Greek society and politics for some 30 years”.

Lawyers said the transaction, which resembles the liquidation of Belgian national carrier Sabena and its re-emergence as Brussels Airlines, set an important precedent for aviation privatisations. But so far no private investors have emerged.

The deal came as the head of the consortium planning to take on Italy’s bankrupt flag carrier, Alitalia, said it would withdraw its offer today if the unions failed to accept its terms. Roberto Colaninno said that after two weeks of talks “there is nothing more to argue about”.

The representative at the negotiations of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said responses from Alitalia’s nine unions had to be received before a meeting of the consortium’s shareholders this afternoon.

It brings closer the emergence of three dominant players in EU aviation: British Airways, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa. BA is seeking to take over Spain’s Iberia while AF-KLM may yet acquire part of Alitalia.

Lufthansa, which agreed this week to buy Brussels Airlines for a maximum of €250m by 2011, already owns Swiss and could take over BMI, Austrian and SAS.

Tajani, who approved the Olympic privatisation plan because it involved no state aid, said the transaction avoided bankruptcy and meant the new owners would take on none of the airline’s liabilities or debt.

His senior officials admitted that the Greek government was unlikely to recover all the illegal aid it had paid out.

ATHENS, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Greece said on Wednesday it would shut down ailing state carrier Olympic Airlines [OLY.UL] and relaunch it under a new structure, ending years of failed efforts to find a buyer. “In a little while, there will be an announcement on the agreement between Greece and the European Commission for the creation of a new Olympic,” Greek Transport Minister Kostis Hatzidakis told reporters.

Greece’s conservative government had pledged to either find a buyer or re-establish the loss-making airline as a new entity by the end of 2008.

Sources close to the company said the European Commission would approve on Wednesday a Greek government plan to shut down Olympic and transfer its valuable landing slots and trademark to a new company called Pantheon, which would be privately owned.

“(The new) company will keep the name, the symbols of Olympic, and it creates the conditions for dynamic growth of Olympic in the future,” the minister said.

Some 8,000 employees are expected to lose their jobs but Hatzidakis said they would be taken care of. (Reporting by George Hatzidakis; editing by Sue Thomas)