This spring it's all spice and culture with the Balkans wide open for exploration! airBaltic announces direct flights to Bucharest starting March 29 – an exciting destination in its own right, this up and coming Romanian capital is the ideal gateway to all points across the Balkans. It's a great opportunity to explore the region that's thanks in part to a code-sharing agreement with Romanian airline TAROM, who will be operating flights on Boeing 737-700 aircraft. On the direct flight from Riga to Bucharest, travellers can expect a journey time of 2 hours and 15 minutes and a one way ticket priced at EUR 84, with all airport and transaction fees included.

Book now at Go4CheapFlights.com.

Source: airBaltic

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- AMR Corp.’s American Airlines will deepen ties to Japan Airlines Corp. on routes across the Pacific after Asia’s largest carrier by sales rebuffed an alliance offer from Delta Air Lines Inc. American and Japan Air will seek antitrust immunity to operate U.S.-Japan flights through a venture as early as this weekend, Daiji Nagai, JAL’s vice president of corporate planning, told reporters today in Tokyo. American’s offer to buy a stake in JAL will be declined, he said.

read more at bloomberg.com

VILNIUS, Lithuania - Budget airline Ryanair will establish a major hub in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, its first in Central and Eastern Europe, the company's chief executive announced Tuesday. Ryanair will $140 million into the project, CEO Michael O'Leary told reporters in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, adding that Ryanair would introduce 18 new routes from Kaunas and employ 150 pilots and flight attendants to serve them.

Washington – The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating violations of safety directives by Southwest Airlines, the third such probe of the Dallas-based carrier's maintenance record in two years.

The investigation, confirmed by an FAA spokesman, focuses on an issue that embarrassed the airline just two years ago: how it complies with safety directives governing the maintenance of aging aircraft. It also resembles a case from last year, when the FAA found that a Southwest maintenance contractor used unapproved parts on 82 planes.

read more at dentonrc.com

Budget airline Ryanair today announced it is to build a new hangar at a Scottish airport, bringing 200 engineering jobs to the area.

The £8 million hangar will be the airline's second maintenance, repair and overhaul facility at Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire.