In this week’s Q&A Kehlan talks with Dave O’Flanagan of Boxever. Boxever helps travel companies better understand their customers by helping them understand the data their clients generate. It recently raised $12m (€10.74m ) in venture capital funding.

An Irish start-up firm is eyeing global airline and travel markets for its predictive marketing software, writes Trish Dromey.

Qantas Airways says it will shed 5,000 jobs as it posted a first-half loss of AUD $235m (€153m) amid tougher competition, sending its shares down more than 7%.

New Zealand’s national airline unveiled a giant image of the dragon Smaug on one of its planes to celebrate the premiere of the second film in the Hobbit trilogy.

A New Zealand airline is hoping to run flights to Antarctica that would land on an ice runway.

Air New Zealand has named former Unilever executive Christopher Luxon as its new leader.

Air New Zealand plans to cut hundreds of jobs after a 71% drop in its half-year profit.

Australia’s air safety authority cleared Qantas Airways to resume flying today, after it grounded its entire fleet amid a bitter union dispute.

The sky is the limit for Cheryl Cole after she was voted the nation’s favourite fantasy companion on a long-haul flight.

THEY’RE forbidden words — unless you’re an official sponsor, of course.

THE smiles returned to Ireland’s players yesterday as a difficult pre-season campaign was forgotten amid an enthusiastic welcome to their Rugby World Cup base on New Zealand’s South Island.

A 51-year-old engineer working at a New Zealand aircraft testing centre was sucked into an engine and killed.

Airlines started flying a backlog of thousands of stranded passengers to and from Australia’s second-largest city today after an ash cloud from a Chilean volcano began to clear.

A series of strong earthquakes shook the quake-weary New Zealand city of Christchurch today, briefly trapping two people inside a church.

Thousands of passengers in Australia and New Zealand were affected when airlines suspended flights today as an ash cloud from an erupting volcano in southern Chile spread, threatening to damage engines.

Three airlines have reached financial settlements with a New Zealand regulator for participating in a price-fixing scheme in the global air freight market, the regulator said.

RYANAIR has been named as one of the worst airlines for customer satisfaction in a survey conducted by a leading consumer watchdog.

AS THE Ireland squad jetted in through the South Seas squall enveloping Auckland yesterday, it was a good thing they chose Singapore Airlines rather than the country’s host carrier, Air New Zealand, for the mammoth journey.

Cheryl Cole flew back to Britain today to face her marriage crisis – again with no wedding ring in sight.

A pall of red dust blown in from the Outback clogged the skies over Sydney today, diverting international flights, disrupting public transport and prompting a spike in emergency calls from people suffering breathing difficulties.

Searchers today found the flight recorders of an Airbus A320 passenger jet which crashed off southern France, killing two people and leaving five missing.

Hopes were fading today of finding survivors from the seven crew on an airliner that plunged into the Mediterranean during a training flight.

A jumbo jet was forced to follow another airliner across the Pacific after its weather radar failed today.

Air New Zealand has frozen salaries of senior executives, halted bonus payments and is considering slashing jobs to compensate for soaring fuel costs and sliding passenger demand, according to an internal memo leaked to the media.

A knife-wielding woman stormed the cockpit of a New Zealand domestic flight, stabbing both pilots and threatening to blow up the plane before she was subdued.

A knife-wielding woman stabbed the pilot of a small commuter plane in New Zealand and threatened to blow it up in an apparent hijack attempt today, police said.

ABBEY Travel has released the latest selection of high-quality holidays to Dubai and Oman, with an additional destination to Abu Dhabi. That’s not surprising since the relatively recent start-up of flights from Dublin with Etihad to Abu Dhabi and beyond.

Airlines which do not allow men to sit next to unaccompanied children - apparently over fears of abuse – could be guilty of unlawful discrimination, New Zealand’s Human Rights Commission said today.

THE country’s biggest trade union plans to make the future of Aer Lingus “a major political issue”.

New Zealand and Britain have signed a landmark open skies deal, allowing New Zealand’s airlines to operate unlimited flights into and out of the UK.

Nearly one in three Air New Zealand international flights will be cancelled over six days from July 18 if the majority of the carrier’s long-haul cabin staff goes on strike, the company warned today.

Australian flag carrier Qantas is likely to form some kind of alliance with another airline in the future, Chief Executive Officer Geoff Dixon said today.

CRANKY — the unavoidable state one finds oneself in after travelling from Cork to Auckland, New Zealand.

THE Gleneagle Hotel, Killarney, and River Apartments will be available on limited offer for the attractive price of €99 per person sharing for two nights bed and breakfast deals throughout this year.

Aerospace group Rolls-Royce said today it was teaming up with the Japanese to build an engine for Boeing’s new Dreamliner jet.

Two jets carrying a total of 268 people narrowly avoided a collision over Indonesia after an apparent blunder by air traffic controllers, Air New Zealand’s chief pilot said today.

State-owned carrier Air New Zealand has announced a cost-cutting plan that will cost 1,500 jobs, including around 300 compulsory redundancies, and save an expected NZ$245m (€124m) annually by 2007.

An air fare price war was launched between Australia and New Zealand today after an alliance between the region’s two major airlines was banned.

Australia’s competition watchdog has rejected a proposed alliance between Qantas Airways and Air New Zealand, saying the partnership would raise air fares and would not be in the public interest.

Australian airline Qantas has posted its first half-year loss since 1995.

The Chief Executive Board of Star Alliance today unanimously approved the application of US Airways to join the world’s largest airline alliance.

Qantas is confident a plan to link the airline with Air New Zealand will go ahead despite opposition to the plan from Australia's competition authority.

Richard Branson said Virgin Atlantic plans to commence flights between Australia and Hong Kong in 2003.

Australian airline Qantas today said negotiations on a partnership which would see it acquire up to 25% of Air New Zealand were "fruitful".