Singapore Airlines has welcomed the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s approval of its proposed alliance with Virgin Australia. The ACCC’s determination represents the final regulatory approval needed for SIA and Virgin Australia to proceed with their wide-ranging alliance.

Virgin Australia has commenced the sale of business class seats on routes between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for travel from January 18th next year. The cut price business seats are seen by many as an attempt to cash in on the chaos as rival Qantas, which was forced to ground all flights over the weekend as part of an ongoing dispute with unions.

Virgin America, the stylish, low-fare domestic airline, today rolls out a multi-media marketing campaign in Dallas-Fort Worth that invites local travelers to calculate their flying “fun gap” based on past legacy airline miles and make the switch to a “younger, hotter” airline – with an irresistible two-for-one flight offer.*

Officials at the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association in Australia have confirmed plans to take industrial action at Qantas following the announcement of job losses at the airline. Qantas confirmed as many as 1,000 employees would lost their jobs – principally through voluntary redundancy – as part of wide ranging reforms to the carrier outlined earlier this week.

In the cut throat world of aviation airlines rarely miss an opportunity to take advantage of a competitor’s misfortune, with Virgin Australia quick to maximise its advantage from the grounding of Tiger Airways. Also today, Air New Zealand confirmed tickets for its codeshare trans-Tasman alliance with Virgin Australia had gone live.

Pilots at Virgin Atlantic have voted in favour of industrial action in a dispute over pay. The British Air Line Pilots’ Association (Balpa) confirmed 97 per cent of its members voted in favour of industrial action, from a ballot turnout of 94 percent, a result it said was “overwhelming”.