…sort of. In late March, 2008, the Norwegian low-cost carrier will begin flying between Oslo and Longyearbyen, Svalbard‘s main settlement. Svalbard, an archipelago roughly half-way between Norway and the North Pole, has emerged as a big, and very expensive, eco-destination over the last few decades. The cheapest Norwegian Air Shuttle round-trip we found was just » Read more

Apologies to Lil’ Chris for the steal. We’re sleepy. It’s the end of a long week, after all. On our radar screens… 1. Following leads in the German media (like this one we came across in the Rheinische Post) Airscoop tells us that Ryanair might just be interested in buying some Air Berlin shares—just under » Read more

It’s the start of the month, which can mean only one thing: passenger totals and load factor comparison time! Yeehaw! In June 2007, Ryanair’s load factor decreased though not necessarily the number of seats occupied. Will promotional fares nudge any of these numbers up in July? Stay tuned.

We purchased a Belgrade-Ljubljana one-way JAT ticket on Sunday night, for travel in late July. We were, as the Brits say, chuffed. The ticket came to just RSD5,942 (€74; $99). The JAT search engine worked fine, and we were approaching that magic, banal moment that drives all online air travel purchases: the invitation to print » Read more

Neville Walker’s ode to Vienna in this past weekend’s Financial Times is gorgeous and plaintive. Writing about Vienna in the newspaper’s “What I Love About…” series, Walker compellingly nails Vienna’s eccentric character. Walker writes that Vienna was “once a cul-de-sac on the edge of the Eastern Bloc” now “learning to be hip and modern.” Yet » Read more