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Swiss International has confirmed it is one of the few, major airlines in Europe who are currently profitable. It has posted a pre-tax profit of Euro 335 Million for 2008, with revenue for its operating activities rising by 7.6% to Euro 3.4 billion.

The airline, Swiss International was bought four years ago by German airline Lufthansa and appears to have benefited from the savings it has been able to make by being a member of the Lufthansa Group.

Swiss International operates 31 flights daily from the UK from Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham and London City. The airline offers a number of competitively priced, cheap flights from the UK to Switzerland and beyond, with return flights from Birmingham to Zurich starting from £136. Single fares from London City to Basel start at just £49.00

If you are looking for a cheap long haul flight then the tip below may save you £100 against your booking with British Airways.

British Airways are currently offering to knock £100 of the price off a long haul flight if you book on-line and enter the following promotional code: BAUK-ESCAPE.

This offer is available to passengers who book and economy flight ticket in British Airways World Traveller cabins on flights between 1st July and 31st August 2009. These cheap British Airways flight tickets need to be booked by 31st May so you have no time to lose.

British Airways fly to around 70 long haul destinations around the globe and their inclusive on-line fare includes the often hidden extras such as taxes, fees and charges plus in flight food and refreshment.

Two of the worlds major airlines, Lufthansa and Quantas, are reacting to the slowdown in air travel and declining passenger numbers by delaying orders for new aircraft and ground parts of their existing fleet.

Germany’s largest airline Lufthansa has increased its grounded aircraft to 24, which represents 10% of its fleet. Lufthansa Cargo is also seeing a decline in demand for its services and has introduced shorter working hours for all staff and its managers have taken a 10% voluntary pay cut.

Lufthansa flights from Germany to the UK have been affected by some of these cutbacks. London City has lost its Lufthansa flight to Berlin, as the airline has switched the route to London Heathrow (to allow it to use an Airbus A319 aircraft on the route). However, there are some positives for the UK, for example a third daily service between Edinburgh and Frankfurt is being added, plus there will be a new Inverness to Düsseldorf service for summer 2009.

Australian national carrier Quantas has revealed plans to defer delivery of four Airbus A380 aircraft by around 12 months. 12 Boeing 737-800 aircraft have also been deferred by up to 14 months. The airline is also grounding 10 aircraft, which will result in a 5% capacity drop on domestic routes. Staffing levels will also be adjusted, with the airline expecting to make 1250 full time staff redundant.

Turkish Airlines has revealed highly impressive profits for 2008, in a climate where many airlines are struggling to even break even. The net profit for 2008 was $712 million USD, and this is up more than four times against the figures posted in 2007.

The increased profit is, in part, due to an increase in passenger numbers, which stand at 22.6 million – an impressive increase of 15%. The first part of 2009 also saw a rise in passenger numbers with 3.1 million travelling in the first two months alone,

Turkish Airlines now has a fleet of 127 aircraft and is planning further expansion. Its newest long haul route operates from Istanbul to Sao Paulo, Brazil via Dakar.

Turkish Airlines has an impressive destination list with long and short haul flights serving 152 cities, 116 of which are abroad.

Turkey is proving to be a popular holiday destination for many British holidaymakers, who are searching for cheap flights and deals to the sun in regions outside the Euro Zone.

If you are looking for flights within the Middle East then you may want to consider booking with low-cost airline Jazeera Airways.

The Kuwait based airline is well known in the region for offering cheap flights and in a bid to secure even more passengers the airline has introduced what it calls “Happy Hour”.

Jazeera passengers looking to book their flight tickets online should wait until 1pm. For one hour until 2pm the airline will offer a different special offer on certain routes every day for at least the next 12 months, so you could grab yourself a real bargain flight.

The airline’s Chief Commercial Officer, Steven Greenway, is quoted saying “We remain committed to constantly giving our passengers even greater freedom to fly within the region and beyond…The launch of Happy Hour is one way that we can drive value back to our passengers.”