A lot of the talk in travel circles at the moment is about reducing carbon emissions and this is particularly true when you consider flying. The recent trend of donating some money to offset your own carbon emissions when you travel somewhere demonstrates that plenty of travelers are aware of the environmental damages arising from flights and want to do something about it.

So the newly-announced attempt by Virgin Atlantic to fly a plane using a bio-diesel fuel should make plenty of us happy. During February, Virgin is going to fly one of their 747 aircraft from London to Amsterdam using a biofuel that they describe as being “truly sustainable” (without telling us quite what it is). The test flight will take place without any passengers and will contribute to Virgin’s research program into finding ways to minimize the carbon footprint of the airline.

Sir Richard Branson, president of Virgin, seems to be leading the way amongst airlines in the area of environmental responsibility. Green travel is a focus for the company and all of the profits from its transportation companies are being used to attempt to develop clean energy. As well as being a “good thing” for the future, it probably helps boost the company’s image, but at least it’s all for a good cause.

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An almost-unprecedented $100/barrel price of oil has led United Airlines to raise rates between $10 and $20 for domestic fares. And other airlines are following suit.

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There’s probably no particular country around the world where travelers are blessed with consistently punctual airline departures - but if there is, please me about it and I’ll move there right away!

This week in the news there has been plenty of discussion about the punctuality of flight departures in Britain, after the official statistics for January to September of 2007 were published.

BMI Regional most punctual airline

The airline that came out looking best of all from these statistics was BMI Regional, a budget airline that flies mostly around Britain, and 91% of its flights departed on time, with average delays of six minutes - that’s the kind of delay I can live with. The parent company, BMI, was also a good performer, being the most punctual airline to fly out of Heathrow Airport, which is notorious for delays and problems. BMI flies all around Europe, the Middle East and Africa and is looking to open up routes to the USA after a recent rule change.

If you’re trying to pick an airline flying in or out of Britain that minimizes your delays, you can always check the FlightOnTime.info website which is full of facts and figures to help you make your decision.

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Good news for travelers - especially anxious ones - comes as the statistics get added up for 2007. Whether you knew it or not, such an office as the Aircraft Crashes Record Office exists, and over in Geneva they’ve been busily calculating the figures for the air crashes during 2007.

For the record, the ACRO considers an incident to be an accident if the plane is damaged enough that it has to be written off and not flown again - regardless of whether or not any passengers are harmed. Personally, I’m much more concerned about the crashes that present a risk to me, and the great news is that the number of crashes dropped to the lowest level since 1963.

The total number of crashes according to ACRO was 136, but 56 of these had no fatalities. If you’re a nervous flier, then think of these facts: a total of only 965 people were killed in plane crashes in 2007, compared with 1,000,000 in road crashes. If only 965 passengers out of 2.2 billion passengers carried are victims of fatal crashes, our chances of survival are still extraordinarily good.

It’s also useful to note that only 3 of the air crashes in 2007 had fatalities of more than 100 passengers, so it’s definitely true that those kind of crashes happen a lot more often on the cinema screen than in real life.

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JetBlue has been getting a lot of media attention these days for its decision to make inflight email available. If you’re interested in the perks JetBlue has to offer, maximize your flying experience by joining the airline’s loyal travel discount program, TrueBlue.

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Some travelers still don’t feel comfortable without that paper ticket in hand, but an e-ticket comes with some extra benefits.

With an e-ticket you can print out your information on paper, if it makes you feel better, but the information stays safely tucked inside the computer’s memory. If you lost your paper ticket then you’d most likely have to pay a small fee to get another copy. If you lose your e-ticket you can simply reprint it from any computer. And security is still maintained as only people with the proper identification can use the e-ticket.

In the long run using an e-ticket may save you money. One airline industry source says the industry could save $3 billion annually if everyone used e-tickets. By doing your part and leaving the paper behind, you’ll not only help the environment, but you’ll also help the airlines save money, which may lead to cheaper tickets overall.

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Discount airlines hit the market with a resounding slap that is still being felt by the big air travel providers, but how do you know which discount airlines are the best ones?

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So you want to fly around Europe on the cheap, or hop from Singapore to Thailand and back through Indonesia? There are so many budget airlines these days that can make your worldwide vacations incredibly cheap, but you have to do your homework and be prepared. Here are some tips.

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It’s taken towin the approval of the US regulators, but Virgin America has finally taken to the skies to the delight of travelers seeking an upgraded travel experience for less money.

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The low-fare carrier got top marks in the Conde Nast Traveler’s 2007 Readers’ Choice Awards for the sixth year in a row.

The no-frills airline got top billing despite its well publicized problems with delays earlier this year. The award comes at a good time for the company, which had a generally bad week. The airline was fined by the US Department of Transportation for those infamous delays and received a stock downgrade from a Goldman Sachs analyst.

Conde Nast Traveler’s annual Reader’s Choice issue, which comes out in November, polled more than 30,000 travelers. Singapore Airlines took the top award for international carriers. SIA has won that distinction 19 out of a possible 20 times.

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Airline vouchers can be a terrific way to get a discounted rate on your airfare. In some cases, you can even get free air travel because the cost of the voucher covers the full cost of a ticket somewhere. And it’s nice because vouchers can be used at virtually any time (before they expire, usually one year after they’re issued) so you can choose to take a spontaneous trip with a voucher that you wouldn’t have otherwise been able to take.

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In the ever-changing world of what we can and can’t take on a plane, August 4, 2007, brought a reversal of one rule, so that most kinds of cigarette lighters are now again allowed to be taken on to airplanes. The TSA has reversed its previous decision to ban them in accordance with its focus on more dangerous and risky objects.

Apparently, enforcing the ban on lighters was taking a huge amount of resources: can you believe that during the ban, 22,000 lighters were surrendered each day at airports across the country (the peak day reached a total of 39,000!). Of course, high workload alone is not the reason the ban has been lifted: it has been decided that lighters are not a serious threat to safety, and that’s clearly in agreement with the rest of the world, since the US was the only country ever to ban lighters from being taken on board.

So to those travelers who contributed their lighter to the 11.6 million lighters confiscated during 2006, sorry. But now that they have been declared not to be a serious threat, you can keep your lighter with you, ready to light up as soon as you reach an area where you’re allowed to smoke.

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If you’re flying on Royal Dutch Airlines KLM during the next few months, make sure you take advantage of their free text messaging service. Because they’re introducing a revamped in-flight entertainment system, KLM has a special promotion in which the normal $2.50 cost per text message has been axed. Text messaging is available on all their A330 and 777 aircraft and some of the 747s too. It sounds like during August, September and October you’ll be able to send as many text messages as you want without paying a cent, but check the fineprint on board to be sure.

With their new system you’ll also be able to learn languages on board - Berlitz is supplying beginning language courses for 23 different languages to be incorporated into the in-flight entertainment system. And there’s quite a bit of potential for language learning if you’re on a long flight in or out of Europe. They’re also adding audio books to the system which could possibly reduce the need for you to bring your own book, but we see two problems here - first, most audio books would be longer than a flight, and second, it’s really just two easy to fall asleep while you’re listening to an audio book. Then again, perhaps that’s an advantage if you usually have trouble sleeping while in the air.

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Until now, the Qantas Aussie AirPass was always the best deal for travelers visiting Australia and wanting to see a few different parts of this huge country. The deals vary, but you usually get two or three cities or stops in Oz included in your ticket, and you can buy extra legs for $123. But wait: things are changing.

Low cost carriers are old news in North America or Europe, but they’re just getting started Down Under. And while Qantas and its latest rival Jetstar have admittedly been getting the costs of flying from city to city a little lower in recent years, nobody can tell me that a $400 airfare from Perth to Melbourne is really a budget flight, when I can fly from one side of Europe and back again for a quarter of that.

But now Tiger Airways Australia (nearly half of it belongs to Singapore Airlines) has announced what I’d call authentically budget-priced fares, and that’s such good news. From December they will fly from Perth to Melbourne for A$59.95 (that’s just over U$50), including taxes and charges. For a flight that can take around four hours, that’s a price I’m truly happy to pay. Visitors from abroad can now probably afford to shop around for the best fare into one Aussie city and then hop around on budget flights when and how they want. It’s not quite the heaven of European skies and there probably won’t be any one dollar flights, but it does mean people will find it more affordable to see more of Australia - even the oft-abandoned west coast.

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1. The best time to snatch up a cancelled or unpaid airline seat, is to book online shortly after midnight. Most airlines update their computers at midnight, so this is when they reopen last minute seats that customers have reserved but not paid for or cancelled.

2. By rule of thumb, flights that depart and arrive during the daytime on a weekday are cheaper.

3. Airlines are in constant competition – remember this and use it to your travel advantage! This means that as soon as Delta Airlines announces a 2 for 1 seat sale, you bet American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines will introduce a similar deal days later.

4. Students and seniors can take advantage of discount fairs on air travel within the continental U.S. via airfare coupon books – which are sold in books of 4 coupons. Ask airlines about their availability before booking and you could save as much as 45% off of your flight.

5. Flying courier when traveling internationally between major cities like New York and London, England, will typically cost you half of the regular airfare.

6. The internet is your best friend when it comes to last minute vacations. Start with the major airlines’ websites.

7. Also look for your best discounts mid-week (so on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) for the following week.

8. Look to the smaller and newer airlines like Delta Express and Metro-Jet for severely discounted air.

9. If you’re flexible take advantage of overbooking. This means that you can volunteer your seat when a flight is overbooked and earn free flights or cash back from the airline.

10. If you plan to fly out of a major city hub – like New York City or Toronto – try looking at smaller nearby airports for cheaper flights – like always compare prices for flying into nearby Newark or Hamilton instead.

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Everyone loves a family vacation but traveling with children can be challenging, especially if air travel is involved in getting to your vacation destination. Lugging all the extra “stuff” that children need can be a drag and even on short flights any child is bound to get bored so you will need to think up ways to entertain and relax them. As with anything else, it’s best to be organized and prepared in order to make your flight a pleasant one.

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