Low-cost carrier

A Germanwings airliner with 148 people on board has crashed in the French Alps.

The Airbus A320 was carrying 142 passengers and 6 crew, according to France 24. Neither Germanwings nor French aviation safety authorities have so far given any account on what led to the incident.

It was flying from Barcelona, southeast Spain, en route to Düsseldorf in Northern Germany.

Budget airline Ryanair has revealed its plans to launch transatlantic flights in four to five years, with fares that will start from £10, as part of its new growth strategy.

"European consumers want lower cost travel to the USA and the same for Americans coming to Europe. We see it as a logical development in the European market," a Ryanair spokesman said.

Shares in AirAsia, Southeast Asia's biggest budget airline, lost almost eight percent in Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 29 after one of its jets disappeared with 162 people on board.
      
The firm slumped 12 percent to 2.60 ringgit at the open but recovered slightly to sit at 2.71 ringgit, still down 7.82 percent, at 0600 GMT.
      

By Kari Lundgren

Ryanair Holdings Plc will submit a non-binding offer for Cyprus Airways on Friday as Europe’s No. 1 discount carrier seeks to extend its footprint eastward to an island increasingly popular with Russian and Israeli visitors.

Croatia's first low-cost airline company, Dalmatian, starts functioning on June 30 after long years of preparation.

The direct flights between Sofia and Malta started on Friday. 

The route is operated by the low cost carrier Wizz Air. 

The flights from Sofia are on Monday and Friday and the return flights from Malta are on Tuesday and Saturday.

Wizz Air, the biggest low-cost carrier in Central and Eastern Europe, on Wednesday said it would halve its Belgrade operations and close low-fare services entirely from Belgrade to Oslo's Torp and Brussels' Charleroi airports as of May 6.

The company said it was also planning to reduce its flights to other destinations from Belgrade.