iPads replace TVs- A smart move towards more fuel economy

Fuel is a major concern for any airline since it accounts for roughly 40 percent of the operational costs. For this reason, airlines strive to adopt an operational methodology which is as fuel efficient as possible. Being fuel efficient makes it possible for the airlines to meet the demand of cheapest air tickets from the customers. Reducing the weight of the aircraft, either by using light weight but robust materials in its manufacture or by careful selection of the in-flight fitments, airlines strive to achieve maximum fuel economy.  A recent smart move by one of the budget airline to make use of the iPads instead of the LCD or LED TV screens is further aimed at reducing the weight of in-flight fitments for more economical operations by saving more fuel. Interestingly, the airline was able to cut the weight of aircraft by about 7 percent even after adding 40 percent more seating capacity. 

The use of iPads, which would be loaded with the music, videos, games and other multimedia products, will help airlines in two specific ways. While it will help improve the fuel economy since total weight of TVs amounting to tons of kilograms would be shed, it is also going to help the airlines raise crucial add-on revenue by way of charging a fee for its usage. So, while the flight tickets would be cheaper, it will also rake in more revenue for airline. Since iPads are quite popular among the people, these are likely to see good demand in the flight as an entertainment device.

With increasing aviation fuel prices, it is becoming increasingly incumbent upon the airlines to devise innovative measures of achieving operational efficiency. With demand for cheap international flights also increasing and many low-cost carriers seeking entry into new markets using their USP of providing low cost international flights, smart moves like the one of replacing the TVs with iPads would save more fuel, enable operation of longer haul flights and generate more revenues. 

Benefits of real time international flights tracking

There are many benefits of real-time tracking of airplanes right from their source to the destination and all through their flights. This tracking is made possible using satellites which keep tracking the changing coordinates of airplane as it moves from one point to the other. This tracking can be done within the domestic airspace of a country or even for the International flights, provided there is required level of cooperation and collaboration between the countries. Such a real-time tracking mechanism has many benefits, some of which are:

1. More safety: This helps in increasing the safety of airline since the position of airplanes is known in real-time and this can be used for averting collisions and disasters. At the same time, it will also help reduce the time wasted in searching for the airplane if something goes wrong with it.
2. More fuel savings: Presently, due to lack of mutual cooperation between the countries on satellite-based tracking systems, the airplanes have to take routes which can keep them in touch with the nearest ATCs. Satellite navigation will make this a thing of past since airplanes would be able to take direct routes rather than taking routes which keep them within the communication range of ATCs. International flights constitute a good proportion of total flights and by soliciting international cooperation for satellite based navigation major fuel savings can be done. Savings on fuels can result in providing cheap international flights to the customers.
3. More flights: Besides safety and fuel-saving aspects, satellite based tracking can also help in determination of distance between two airplanes. It can help in reducing the margins of distance between two airplanes when these are flying, thereby freeing up air space for more flights. In the absence of support from such system, the airplanes currently maintain liberal distances for safety.

International cooperation on using this system for tracking international flights is not easy to achieve due to political and security issues between the countries. 

• 
  

The Best Ways Of Remaining Informed About The Deals On Cheapest Air Tickets

How do you find the cheapest air tickets? Well, making the online searches for these on various web resources is definitely one of the most popular ways of finding the tickets for your cheap international flights. You would scan through the websites of the airlines and travel agencies to find the deals on offer for international flights as well as other travel products such as hotels and holiday packages. However, there could be times when you do not have the time to make extensive searches or might even not have internet connection. This could lead to you losing out on some of the deals which are on offer temporarily. So, how to stay in tune with the latest offers on cheapest air tickets for the international flights so that you always remain informed of these?

At first, you need to select some of the most reliable web-resources which offer the most exciting and genuine deals. Once you have done that, you need to determine the best of their travel products. Some websites might be good at offering international flights while some others might be good at hotels or holiday packages. After determination of the best products for each selected website, you can bookmark their respective web pages on which these deals are featured. Bookmarking these will save you time searching for these specific sections of website when you visit it next time.

Another way of keeping informed is to set up the mobile alerts. The facility of setting up the mobile alerts for the lowest fares is provided on any of the websites. This feature makes it possible for you to be alerted through the SMS mobile alert when the airfare on a particular segment has reduced to a particular level on one or more airlines. This way you can keep a tab on the cheapest air tickets.

Some online travel companies and airlines also provide information about the latest and best deals to people by way of newsletters. These are delivered to the email IDs of people, obviating the need to check the websites time and again for finding cheap international flights or best deals on hotels and holidays.

Bio-fuel and Solar Energy based cheap flights: The Future of Aviation

Aviation is undergoing fundamental transformation in the wake of increasing concerns for environment and developing feasible commercial alternatives. The recent, trans-continental flight of a solar powered plane and some experimental flights using bio-fuel as an alternative indicate that the future of aviation will be powered by alternative fuels which are eco-friendly and sustainable. For the consumers this would usher in an age of cheapest air tickets where the proportion of fuel cost is reduced to insignificant levels.

The maiden flight of solar powered plane might still be far off from commercial use but it has been demonstrated that airplanes can be flown day and night on solar power.  The solar airplane made use of about 12000 solar cells on its dragonfly-like wings to power the flight which operated day and night. This means that the price element of fuel will be replaced with that of the depreciation of the capital investment done on the solar cells and their maintenance. However, this experimental flight is not being considered as a precursor to cheap flights of future on a commercial scale since the present flight was on a single seat plane and the aircraft weight was about that of a family car. Commercial planes are of altogether different dimensions in size. But, it did amply demonstrate that day and night flights are possible on solar power.

Bio-fuels, on the other hand, are the only feasible and sustainable alternatives at present which can be used for commercial purpose. There have been many experimental flights using this fuel type. However, these would require large tracts of lands for growing the plants which provide bio-fuel. With EU bringing aviation sector within the emissions trading program, there is a likelihood of making a shift towards using bio-fuels. Though marked reduction in the prices of flight tickets might still not be possible due to less usage of these fuels initially, the costs of tickets are expected to go down after attaining optimal levels of usage. 

Different travel applications for mobiles

Mobile applications have transformed the way people use these dev ices for their benefit.  Convergence of communication and information technologies with the use of internet has facilitated the use of mobiles for a variety of purposes other than merely communicating. You can use these for remaining in touch with your social and professional networks and perform e-commerce transactions. Development of various applications for mobiles has been done for providing information as well as facilitating e-commerce transactions. There are some travel-related mobile applications to aid you in various aspects of your travel.

1.  Search and book: By installing the search-cum-booking engine provided by various travel companies, you would be able to search cheap international flights and book cheap air tickets from that company. Even price comparison sites also provide their mobile applications for a comparative study of air fares across different providers.
2.  Information-providing applications: For travel you would need to know about the prevailing weather conditions, what time is it in different parts of the world and might even need to convert foreign currency into local currencies. The tools which provide this information can be easily downloaded in the mobiles.
3. Travel Planners: These are one of the most famous travel-related applications being used for planning your travel in a better way. Since these are carried in your mobile, you can plan every aspect of your next conveniently at any time and from any place.
4. Flight Trackers: You can also use your mobile for finding the flight status of a particular flight by using the tracker applications which provide real-time information. Often, use is made of the Global Positioning Systems and devices to locate flight and this information can be accessed using the mobile applications.

There is another way in which GPS can be used for travel related purposes. If your own mobile had the built-in GPS, then location of your position can help in finding what all medical, transport and other services, or, even the closest sight-seeing facilities are present. There are mobile applications which can help you find these services which might be required while you are travelling. Further, there are mobile maps applications which can be used for locating any place and to know which routes can take you there.

So, present day mobiles help in better planning of trips with all information being available on-hand thanks to mobile applications which help you find and book flight tickets in the wake of latest information updates.

Cheapest air tickets pitted against refunding facility

There are no universal principles to be applied in different aviation markets of the world. What could lead to profits for airlines in one market might not be beneficial for airlines in a different market. It has been widely accepted that the best way for the growth of airlines, budget or full service, is by of offering cheapest air tickets. Low fares have led to the opening of new markets and generate more business for airlines. The facility of getting the refunds for cancellations along with the low airfares has worked well in most of the markets of the world as the consumer has intended to travel more often on the scheduled time. But, in certain other markets of the world, cheapest air tickets along with the facility of refunds has resulted in airlines going into losses.

The Russian aviation market is one example where the issue of refunding of tickets after flight booking has pitted the airlines against the Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS). Airlines question the wisdom of offering refunds low fare flight booking is being offered to the customers. The low cost carriers of Russia contend that the refunds facility needs to be done away with in order to remain profitable in the Russian market.

Since FAS sought mandatory refunding facility by airlines, even the prices of low-cost airline tickets has not remained low since the airlines do have to factor in refunds in ticket pricing. The airlines have also resorted to over flight booking hoping that some passengers might not show up. Many experts believe that the low cost carrier model has not worked fully due to this issue. By allowing non-refundable cheapest air tickets, airlines can mark their prices down further and do not allow overbooking to protect against having a negative brand image. 

Ways and Means to Know the Flight Status

Two terms, flight schedule and flight status, are often used interchangeably despite these being different. Flight schedule is fixed information on day, time and arrival and departure points of a particular flight. It is an advance time-table brought out by the airline to provide information to people about the times and days of various flights operated by it between two destinations. This information helps people to plan their travel in a better way. Flight status, on the other hand, is the information about the location and condition of flight at a particular point of time. It is not fixed and is determined on real-time basis. So, flight schedule is something which you generally seek to know before proceeding with flight booking whereas status is generally enquired for after doing the booking.

A query for knowing the status of a flight would be for knowing whether it is delayed or not, its location and condition and whether it has already landed or is still flying. For getting the correct information on the status of flight, use is made of the satellite-based GPS flight trackers, the communication channels between airline crew and Air Traffic Controllers and of the radar systems. These are helpful in determining coordinates, speed and point towards which airplane is headed.

For people who want to know flight status, the same can be known from the websites using the trackers for real-time information on flights. You would require input of the name of the airline or its code and the flight number in most of the flight-tracking web resources to know its status. The websites of airlines, independent tracking service providers and even the search engines can tell the status of a particular flight. Besides using the websites, use can also be made of the mobiles for receiving the status information using the SMS services. Alternatively, you can always make call to the airline office or airport to check the status. 

New Application Allows Using Social Media for Seating

It was quite common for the fliers to make use of social media resources to seek views, tips, suggestions, feedback and review of friends and contacts for planning your travel better. Similarly, there have been many useful mobile applications which have been developed for making your travel easier. There are the GPS route finders, trip planners, linguistic aids and many other applications which can be helpful for meeting your travel needs. The intervention of technology and social media has added altogether different dimension to your travel. Right from flight searches and flight booking to getting information on almost anything that you need, technology and social media have impacted the way you travel.

Social Media and Airplane Seating

Social media is also being used by the airlines in an innovative way. There has been development of applications which allow the passengers to utilize their social media profiles (such as Facebook and LinkedIn) to get seated to next to their friends or with someone who shares common interests. The procedure of using the application is quite simple as it involves logging into your social media profiles from the airlines website and then specifying your interests and flight details. The application will search for any person in your network of friends who shares same interests and find out whether that person is also flying on the same flight. If you do find any such person, you can opt for seating next to him or her. This innovative application shows the picture of the person who is on same flight and his or her seat number. You can also check the seat map of airplane and choose your preferred seat.

So, social media resources can be used for preferred seating after identifying whether any friend is travelling on same flight or not. Therefore, there would no longer be surprises to find that your friend was travelling on the same flight. You would know it in advance when you do booking of flight tickets and use the application to search for friends flying on same flight.

While this application gives users a good way of utilizing their in-flight time by engaging in conversation, it will also help airlines to get more customers since passengers are likely to flock to the airline which uses this application.

How to use Social Media to find the cheap air tickets?

When you want to find cheap air tickets, the most common internet resources which you are most likely to turn to are the search engines, the websites of airlines and travel agencies. However, there is one more category of web-based resources which can also be used for finding domestic or cheap international flights. These are social and professional media resources which permit a greater degree of interaction among the people. Using these resources, you can know from where to get cheap air tickets and how. Some of these avenues that can be used for finding information are:

1. Seek answers from general public: There are some online resources where you can pose your query to general public. Yahoo Answers is one such platform where queries are put up to the general public. Any person from public can answer your query. The benefit of using these resources is that you get a good deal of information and advice from a number of different people. However, while using this medium, it is important that you keep a check on the credibility of given answers
2.  Initiate forum discussion: You can also make use of travel related forums for either participating in flights or travel related discussion threads or initiate altogether new ones. You can get information relating to the cheap air tickets for travelling to some particular sectors using these forums. This is particularly helpful when there are a series of questions that you have to ask for finding cheap international flights. 
3.  Use social and professional networks: These networks include your friends and contacts and even the friends of your friends. Since they are in your network, these form more credible sources of getting reliable information on air  tickets.
4.  Read and comment on expert blogs: There are expert bloggers who provide great deal of information on t travel products including destinations, accommodations and even the transportation methods, especially for select places. You can read through their posts and post your comments on them and even put up your queries.

Social media resources are also a good source of getting customer reviews and feedback which can be used to your advantage for better planning of your travel. 

Why use fare comparison websites for finding cheapest air tickets?

There are three internet-based resources which can help you in looking for the cheapest air tickets. These three resources are the websites of the airline companies, the travel agencies and the airfare comparison website. The last ones are also called the aggregators as these take the data from the airlines and agencies and make available all the flight information including their prices to the customers. The fare comparing sites are helpful in more than one ways to people looking for cheap air tickets.

Reduces the number of searches

Air tickets price comparison sites make it possible for you to be at a single resource and get the required details from a number of sources. If it were not for these sites, you would require visiting websites of the airlines and the travel agencies and make efforts to note fare prices and then compare these. All this is done for you by these websites which are integrated with different airlines and agencies to show their flights and prices information when a user makes searches for a particular flight. So, it does save a lot of time and effort which would have otherwise been expanded in doing searches on a number of websites.

Multiple product comparisons

It is not just the cheap air tickets, but also hotels and car rentals which can be compared and booked right away. The different products or services can be bought from different providers after ascertaining who is offering best deals.  So, you need not remain hooked to one provider and book all products from it. Rather, you have greater flexibility with respect to choosing products from more than one provider.

When you are using fare-comparing websites for making searches, you need to ensure that the website makes use of only the credible service providers, be it the travel agencies or the airlines.  

What is the Best Day to Buy Airline Tickets and Why

Most of us will correspond that weekends are the bulk expensive days for paying for airline tickets. Most airlines are retained to their size on weekends, thereby directing to enhanced fares. Although there is close to no distrust that Fridays and Sundays are the bulk expensive days for flying, there is fairly a lot of ambiguity after it arrives at the cheapest day to pay for airline tickets. Some say Saturdays, where numerous vouch for Tuesdays and Wednesdays. In sighting, if you want to know after is the best time to pay for airline tickets, afterward Tuesday night time or early Wednesday morning could be your answer. Why? Simply because a 'not so fair' fare war commences on Fridays and dies down by Tuesday afternoon or after dark, taking in Tuesday night time the best time to clinch a deal. Here is how the every component of thing works.

Most expanded airlines report a surge in airline ticket fare round object Friday. In a bid to attract airline travelers, a fare war is substantially produced by the slightest airline or the weakest competitor. By Monday, fairly a diagram of airline businesses appears at the fare war and report their modified smaller fares. Around Tuesday afternoon, close to all the businesses enter the fare war, thereby resulting in drastic reduction in ticket rates. This is right away after you ought save a watch on all the airline rates for your route. An hour or couple past midnight (at the home foundation of the airline) is the best time to presently pay for your tickets. Why? There is an explanation to this as well.

Most airlines upload novel knowledge into their computers at midnight every day. They set free all the reserved but un purchased tickets for the flight. You have to pay for a ticket within 24 hours later reserving it, to avail the discount rates. The airline simply creates an exception in the covering of corporate or Government travelers any person who can retain tickets until terminal very small for the negotiated routes.

Tips to Purchase Airline Tickets

The Tuesday night time trade may not be fruitful in every case. Although, it is an discerned trend, there is no warranty that it will task in your case. Hence, pursue these sure shot tips to pay for airline tickets at low-castrates.

• Buy your tickets at least 3 to 4 months in enhance if your get-away or bodily plan is in place. This is right away after you receive the best deals!
• Do not wait until the terminal very small to pay for your tickets, unless you are a finance traveler.
• Book the tickets for one passenger first and afterward for the unwind, where condition for a group.
• Book early morning or late night time flights (fondly known as red-eye flights) to receive cheaper deals.
• Book low-cost airline tickets for a stop-over flight if it suits you. Non-stop flights are more expensive.
• Last but not the least, regularly be on your toes and retain as quick as you can.

Even later reporting novel low fares, an airline is simply wanted to sell a minimum of 10% of their total seats at this modified rate. Hence, conduct as speedy as you can to avail this limited offer.

To Increase Or Not To Increase The Air Tickets Prices-That Is The Question

If Shakespeare had been into air tickets pricing, he would not have said “to be or not to be”. Rather, he would have always been befuddled by “to increase or not to increase”. Indian aviation is a perfect stage of Shakespeare play where different quarters are mooting their own reasons for increasing or decreasing the prices of the flight tickets.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation is trying to find ways of reducing the prices by cutting down on Central and State level levies on the aviation fuel so that the sector remains financially viable for the airlines to operate the flights by rationalizing the policy and taxation measures. While these cuts are not going to lead the airlines to offer cheap air tickets to the customers immediately, it will help the airlines improve profitability by controlling the effects of fuel price-rise.

Interestingly, the airlines have been demanding the same from the government but when it comes to taking the advantage of situation arising out of the poor condition of competitor airlines, the prices of the flight tickets are increased. Be it the requirements of yield management or making the most of the seasonal high demand for air travel or call it simple opportunism, the airlines take advantage of even a slight chance of making the profits.

And, there are influencers outside the airline-government-customer triad which suggest that the cheap flights need to be taxed so that the funds can be used for social sector. The recent advocacy of some minor levy on flight tickets by UN for aiding the purchase of AIDS drugs for the poor is an example of how the pricing of cheap air tickets gets influenced by various bodies and motives.

Since there are many pulls and pressures on the pricing of flight tickets and most of these have resulted from the extremely dynamic environmental factors, the attempts to achieve a rationalized, simple and perhaps more predictable system of flight prices determination have not been totally successful. The riddle “to increase or not to increase” the fares of flights continue for the modern Shakespeare.