European budget airline

European budget airline Ryanair has apparently been mulling over the possibility of a "Fat tax" following the results of an online poll in which the airline asked passengers to come up with a winning "cost reduction" idea. Ryanair has been known in the past to use things like this as free publicity. For those who are interested, the results are as follows:

1. 29% - Excess fees for very overweight passengers
2. 25% - €1 for toilet paper – with O’Leary’s face on it
3. 24% - €3 to smoke in a converted toilet cubicle
4. 14% - Annual subscription to access Ryanair.com
5. 8% - €2 “corkage” fee for passengers who bring their own food onboard

Another way to spoil your pet: Pet Airways

Even though you'd think that now would be a lousy time to start an airline, it's no secret that pet owners are spending more and more on their pets these days. So a couple of pet-loving entrepreneurs have come up with "Pet Airways", "a pet-only airline dedicated to pet-friendly travel" where "your pet will be safe and comfortable flying in the main cabin - not in cargo!" According to their website, you drop your pet off at the airport and they board the plane, where they're looked after by "Pet Attendants" who check up on all the pets every 15 minutes. Then you pick up your pampered dog or cat at the destination airport, "knowing he or she has traveled comfortably and safely in the main cabin of our plane."

Pet Airways will initially be serving New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles (although none of the big airports at these cities are used; they'll be using smaller, "executive" airports around the cities instead). But those pet owners who have visions of dogs sitting on seats in a Boeing 737 will be disappointed; pets will be flown on the distinctly less-glamorous looking Beech 1900 with the seats stripped out and replaced by "private pet carriers". The flights will be operated by Suburban Air Freight (Pet Airways certainly does sound better, doesn't it?).

American takes delivery of new 737s

American Airlines has taken delivery of its first new planes since 2006 - seventy-six additional Boeing 737-800s. AA plans to use them to phase out out about a quarter of their MD-80 fleet, which are older, less efficient, and more prone to maintenance issues than the 737s. The new 737s will also carry more passengers (160) than the airline's previous 737s (sometimes as low as 134); this will be accomplished by a thinner divider between first class and coach and using thinner seats, which AA claims are more comfortable than the old ones. The galleys in coach class are also gone, since meals aren't served anymore in coach.

American is also going to base some of the new 737s out of its Chicago hub. Previously, it had kept almost all of its 737-800s flying out of its Dallas and Miami hubs, and kept the MD-80s at Chicago. But when the MD-80faced serious mechanical issues last year , the airline was forced to scrub hundreds of flights at O'Hare. The introduction of 737s there should lower their reliance on a single aircraft type for the bulk of their domestic flying.

Continental gets approval to join Star Alliance

Continental Airlines yesterday received a tentative OK to join Star Alliance, although the US Department of Transportation will require Continental, United, Air Canada and Lufthansa to release an 'annual report' on the alliance. Star Alliance is already by far the largest airline alliance, and the addition of Continental just makes it even bigger. As such, the US government has expressed concern about the impact on competition - and so has Delta, Continental's current partner in the SkyTeam alliance, which has complained that the impact on US domestic routes would be too large, given that United and US Airways are already members.