Saint-Exupéry in Alghero: The French author landed in Alghero-Fertilia in 1944

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of all-time bestseller The little prince, landed 1944 on Alghero Fertilia airport as part of the French troops in World war II., just two months before he died in an accident.
Saint Exupéry, along with his navigator, André Prévot, crashed in the Libyan Sahara desert en route to Saigon in 1935. The team was attempting to fly from Paris to Saigon faster than any previous aviators, for a prize of 150,000 francs. Both survived the landing, but were faced with the prospect of rapid dehydration in the Sahara. Saint Exupéry's famous fable The Little Prince, which begins with a pilot being marooned in the desert, is in part a reference to this experience.

In 1944, however, the French author spent some time at Fertilia airport before being transferred to the French Island of Corsica. Saint Exupéry's final assignment was to collect intelligence on German troop movements in and around the Rhone Valley preceding the Allied invasion of southern France. On the evening of July 31, 1944, he left from an airbase on Corsica, and was never seen again. A woman reported having watched a plane crash around noon of August the first near the Bay of Carqueiranne off Toulon. An unidentifiable body wearing French colors was found several days later and buried in Carqueiranne that September.

The Exma museum in Cagliari dedicates an exposition to Saint Exupéry's stay in Sardinia until January, 31st 2009

Read full article (Italian)

Airplane crash in Sardinia: desaster simulation at Alghero airport

A Boeing 737 from Italian carrier Air One, 50 staff on board, fire, emergency and all aiport staff trying to cope with an emergency situation: Allghero airport was the setting for an emergeny training of an airplane desaster at Sardinia's second largest airport Wednesday night. The “Full Scale Exercise” was prepared during emergency trainings during tha last year.
Read full article on Algheronotizie

Finding Spain in Alghero, Sardinia

It all sounds so romantic now. But as is often the case, this picture- postcard
Spanish enclave is the result of violent conquest. Originally peopled by native
Sardinians, Alghero was later ruled by the Doria shipping magnates of Genoa
before being conquered by the Spaniards in 1353. Spain so thoroughly stamped out
its previous occupants, today the town's language, food and culture are
considered more Catalan than Sardinian or Italian. In fact, Alghero was
primarily settled by people from Barcelona and Valencia. It's truly one of the
most authentic Spanish experiences in Italy.

Finding Spain in Alghero, Sardinia on Examiner.com

Ryanair appeals against EU decisions in the Commission’s ongoing State Aid investigations

Ryanair lodged appeals against eight separate EU decisions to block Ryanair access to documents in the Commission’s ongoing State Aid investigations against tiny regional airports - Hamburg (Lübeck), Berlin-Schönefeld, Tampere, Alghero, Pau, Aarhus, Bratislava and Frankfurt (Hahn).
Read the whole article on peanuts.aero

Air Malta launches winter schedule of operations and offers flights to Alghero

Air Malta launches winter schedule of operations, The Malta Independent reports:

Air Malta has launched its new winter schedule of operations running till 28
March, 2009. The schedule presents Air Malta customers travelling from the Malta
base with a choice of 30 direct destinations with over 110 flights every week.
(...)
Apart from its direct flights, the Maltese airline is also offering
other destinations and connections through its main code-share partners,
Lufthansa and Air One. Code-shares are a key initiative that the airline has
taken and are increasingly connecting Malta to offline markets. Through its
code-share partners Air Malta is now offering over 200 destinations in 85
countries and is synchronising its timetable with other carriers.The agreement
with Air One signed in August 2007, with whom Air Malta code-shares on Rome
Fiumicino, is giving Maltese passengers access to various Italian domestic
airports including Alghero, Bari, Brindisi, Cagliari, Genoa, Milan Linate, Turin
and Venice, via Rome.

Ryanair charges: Passengers still misled over hidden charges

The Telegraph reports today that Ryanair Passengers are still misled over hidden charges:

"Airlines will always quote the cheapest possible fare available at some point
during the dates specified – chances are that this price will not be available
on the day you want to fly,"

said Catriona Bright of What Consumer to Telegraph.
This is what the Irish low Cost Carrier commonly adds to ticket prices:

- Debit/credit card charges (per adult fare, per one-way flight): £4

- Seat allocation/priority boarding (per one-way flight): £6

- Airport check in (per one-way flight): £4

- Checked baggage (per bag, per one way flight): £8.00

- Infant fee (per infant, per one way flight): £16

- Sport equipment/musical instrument (per item, per one way flight): £25

- Call centre charges: 10p per minute

Read the entire article

Ryanair flight to Rome Ciampino cancelled today.

The runway at Rome Ciampino is still closed and will not reopen this evening, Ryanair reports.

Customers who are booked to travel on the below cancelled flights can rebook their flights free of charge, subject to availability, by clicking on the web link below. Customers can access this link up to the 17/11/2008 for travel on flights up to the 24/11/08.
https://www.bookryanair.com/SkySales/FRManageBooking.aspx?culture=EN-GB&pos=MYFLIGHT
Alternatively, customers booked on any of the below flights, who wish to cancel and claim a full refund on their unused flight(s) can click on the link below and enter the required details. Refunds will be processed in 14 working days back to the form of payment used to pay for the booking.
http://schchng.ryanair.com/refweb.asp

AP reports on the accident at Rome Ciampino airport earlier today:

Birds force Ryanair jet emergency landing in Rome
ROME (AP)
— A Ryanair flight from Frankfurt made an emergency landing at a Rome airport
Monday after birds hit the aircraft, aviation and airline officials company
said.
Three passengers and two crew members were taken to hospital with minor
injuries, Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said.
The aircraft "suffered
multiple bird strikes" as it was approaching Ciampino airport, McNamara said.
Ryanair spokeswoman Pauline McAlester said the birds were sucked into the engine
as the aircraft was coming in to land.

Read more

Ryanair's airplanes planned to be hosted at Forlí will now fly from Trapani (Sicily)

Ryanair announced that from May 2009 it will base two aircraft at Trapani and confirmed that it will not open a base at Forli after the airport withdrew the agreement it had reached with Ryanair. Despite the decision not to operate from Forli, Ryanair's new Trapani base will create 2 new domestic and 3 new international routes to/from the island of Sicily.
Ryanair’s Forli routes were due to operate to/from Alghero, Bari, Cagliari, Lamezia, Olbia and Palermo from December. Passengers who were booked on these routes will receive a full refund.
More Info on peanuts.aero

Airone has to land in Olbia for the lack of radio controls in Alghero

An Airbus of the Italian company Airone had to be detoured to Olbia on Saturday, L'Unione Sarda reports. The couse for the detour were poor weather conditions and the lack of a radio control system that permits airplanes to land in Alghero in foggy conditions. The plane coming from Rome Fumicino airport tried to land twice, then decided to risk no further and asked landing permissions in Olbia. The radio control system in Alghero is out of order since spring 2008 and is only needed in scarse visibility conditions.