Photo by temp13rec.

Parents! Don’t forget to take Mieze Katze, Bello der Hund, and Petzi Bär along, because the kids are flying too.

Austrian Airlines is adding another Aktion to its summer repetoire by offering free flights to all children under the age of 11. Mothers and fathers who want to bring their tots along can book through the end of June to take advantage of the Kids for Free program. The promotional fare is valid from June 30 until August 31 to destinations across the European Union, Russia, and Ukraine.

Flights can be booked online. Taxes and fees are included and booked flights count toward frequent flyer program credit.

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Ryanair announced today that they’ll fly three new routes from Stockholm’s secondary Skavsta airport: Skavsta-Marseille (as of May 7), Skavsta-Venice (as of May 23), and Skavsta-Alghero (as of May 24.)

In line with their expansion/contraction move last week, the airline will eliminate three current routes in and out of Skavsta as well: Skavsta-Brussels (ending May 22), Skavsta-Gdansk (also ending May 22), and Skavsta-Kaunas (ending May 23).

Though the last of these cancellations doesn’t really surprise us—we flew between Skavsta and Kaunas in January on half-empty flights, both ways—we’re missing those rapacious Ryanair route expansion announcements.

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Ryanair announced today that as of May 7, they’ll fly four new routes: Frankfurt Hahn-Faro, Frankfurt Hahn-Fez, Frankfurt Hahn-Marrakech, and Marseille-Bournemouth.

The shuffle isn’t all about expansion, however. May 7 will also see the end of 11 Ryanair routes, including Barcelona-Faro, Liverpool-Tampere, Marseille-Rome, and Frankfurt Hahn-Krakow.

Meanwhile, there’s a buzz and a half in the LCC blogosphere surrounding Michael O’Leary’s announcement that Ryanair expects to fly between the several secondary airports in the US and its European bases by the turn of the decade for as little as $12 for a one-way flight.

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We opened up our stuffed email inbox this morning to read emails from low-cost carriers Monarch and Volare touting cheap new fares. In Monarch’s case, the airline boasts £38.99 one-way journeys. Volare brags about its offer of 10,000 €52 fares from Milan Linate to Paris and six destinations in Italy.

We used Monarch’s “Bargain Hunter” search engine to locate the airline’s cheapest fares. The very cheapest fare we found, after tooling around with a variety of depature airports, was £43.26 once taxes had been taken into account. We should note, however, that few flights showed up at this fare.

Our price check of the fares championed by Volare turned up no evidence of €52 fares. The closest we got was a €67.87 flight from Linate to Bari. We wonder if the airline’s 10,000 seats have already sold out.

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Malaysia Airlines continues to tout its New York City-Stockholm route, which takes off three days a week and then continues onto Kuala Lumpur.

Through Spring 2007, round-trip fare on this direct flight is only US $199. Sure, taxes add on at least another $180 and the offer doesn’t extend into Sweden’s sunny summer season…

But $390 is an unparalleled deal for an eight-hour, transatlantic flight, and we think Stockholm is fantastisk most any time of year.

Tickets must be purchased by March 9th, 2007.

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photograph courtesy of acampm1

UK low-cost carrier Jet2 today announced the launch of what they’re calling their “Stress Less” check-in system.

This new set-up will allow passengers to pre-select seats on all flights. The check-in option is only free on 11 routes, however, including flights between Leeds and Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, and Paris; flights between Manchester and Amsterdam and Paris; and Newcastle-Amsterdam flights. On other routes, seat reservations will cost from €4 (for standard seats) to between €15 and €23 for seats with extra legroom.

Additionally, passengers traveling between UK airports and Amsterdam will be able to check-in online from 28 days to five hours before departure.

Advance seat selection is an especially nice perk for families and groups traveling together. Along with Jet2’s new handheld device, it’s another way that Jet2 is setting itself apart from the low-cost pack. 

But a whopping €23 for a seat with extra legroom to Tenerife? That’s how low fare flights turn into average fare flights, buddy.

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German budget air carrier Condor has just announced a hurry-up-and-buy special deal that seems too good to be true. This promotion is designed to allow consumers to snap up cheap flights in time for Valentine’s Day.

Here’s the deal: Condor is basically giving away 100,000 one-way flights. Within Europe, these flights will go for €29; long-haul flights are priced at €99. Short-haul destinations include Mallorca, Barcelona, Madrid, Naples, and Rome. €99 one-way destinations include Dubai, Fort Myers, Las Vegas, Mombasa, and the Seychelles.

Best, even improbably, of all: taxes and surcharges are included in these special fares. Makes those “free” flights on Ryanair seem altogether less appealing…

The catch: special-fare tickets are only on sale from 10 a.m. Thursday through midnight Saturday, Central European time. We can’t tell you how many seats are available on any given flight, but we can tell you that seats for this fare can be booked for travel through July.

Condor flies to and from 21 airports in Germany.

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