French airline’s services are severely disrupted after pilots begin four-day walk out in a row over retirement age. Passengers are facing severe delays today after Air France announced the cancellation of around half of all its medium-haul and long-haul flights following the start of strike action.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Moody’s Investors Service on Friday placed all of British Airways’ ratings, including its Baa3 corporate family rating, on review for possible downgrade. The review was prompted by the continued weakness in the company’s operating results, largely due to the impact of significantly higher fuel prices.

Airline passengers flying to the USA are being advised that from January 12th they will need to apply at least 72 hours before their departure time for permission to enter the country under the new ESTA scheme.

It might only run two flights a day out of Australia, but British Airway’s launch of a mobile phone check-in option is still a welcome harbinger for more airlines eventually making it possible to check-in ahead of time without a PC and a printer.

Virgin Nigeria, in its usual tradition of rewarding loyalty with its customers, has announced an exciting sales promotion for the month of November on its domestic routes. In the three-pronged promotion offer, customers flying the Lagos to Port-Harcourt route or Port-Harcourt to Lagos will be offered a discount that will afford them a return trip for 32000 naira and a double air miles reward.

Emirates Airline’s first half profits have been hammered by record jet fuel prices, falling by 88 per cent to US$77 million. The airline, which flies four times daily from New Zealand, said profit for the six months to September 30 last year was US$643 million.

Air France has introduced a €50 supplement for passengers who want to sit in the exit row when travelling in economy on long-haul services. Patrick Roux, Air France vice president marketing, said: “Customers consulted on the introduction of this new service have shown they are interested in an option that guarantees they can travel with extra legroom and allows them to choose their degree of on-board comfort with no fuss and in a totally open seat allocation system.”

British Airways - the UK’s flagship carrier which operates 28 weekly flights from the UAE to London Heathrow - has reduced its fuel surcharge for World Traveller (economy) and World Traveller Plus (premium economy) customers.

The new cabin, based on extensive research, with the customer in mind, offers a wider and more comfortable bed, which for the first time has a ‘z’ bed position, which increases from six feet to six and a half feet, supporting the knees and the back and is perfect for lounging, working or watching the in-flight entertainment.

A British Airways stewardess who stole £100,000 in donations made by passengers to a children’s charity was given a 50-week suspended jail sentence and fined £13,000 yesterday. Gillian Paterson, 36, who worked for BA for ten years, handed out envelopes to collect money for the Unicef campaign, Change for Good, but then kept the cash. In what the judge described as a series of “despicable” and “spiteful” acts, Paterson played passengers a short film showing children in need, before gathering their loose change.