The global financial crisis has adversely impacted the Indian aviation sector and it has posted 5 per cent decrease in domestic air traffic for the calendar year 2008. About
411 lakh people used air services in 2008 as compared to 433 lakh in 2007. Number of air travelers posted negative growth rate first time in last six years.

High air fares and low customer spending affected the airline industry during the period. Almost all leading air lines posted negative passenger growth rate except low cost carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet and south-based Paramount.

London - The

Berlin  - Frankfurt's Hahn airport has cancelled plans to introduce a three-euro departure tax, the finance minister of the German state of Rhineland Palatinate, Hendrik Hering, announced Monday.

As a result, Irish budget airline Ryanair, which had threatened to withdraw from Frankfurt Hahn if the proposal went ahead, has confirmed that its 11 aircraft will remain stationed at the airport.

Ryanair lists 50 destinations departing from Frankfurt on its website, including flights to Italy, Morocco and Slovakia.

Vijay Mallya controlled Kingfisher Airlines has announced that it intends to expand its routes in South Asia. According to sources, company's first flight in South Asia will start from January 19, which will connect Chennai and Bangalore with Colombo.

The private air-carrier (Kingfisher) has also intends to roll out a Bangalore-Dubai flight on February 8, while Mumbai-Bangkok and Bangalore-Bangkok flights are expected to launch on the February 12 and Kolkata-Dhaka flight on February 16.

Washington  - Boeing Co, the world's second-largest maker of commercial aircraft, said Friday it will cut 4,500 jobs in its commercial unit in 2009 following a drop in demand for new planes amid the widening recession.

Most of the job losses will be in Boeing's manufacturing hub in the US state of Washington, beginning February, bringing to 63,500 the number of staff in the commercial unit, the company said in a statement.

Barcelona/Madrid  - Outgoing flights were resumed at Madrid's Barajas airport Friday afternoon after more than five hours of suspending operations owing to snowfall, the airport operator AENA said.

The airport was also about to resume landings after more than 50 flights were diverted to other airports.

Only 268 of the 1,205 scheduled flights had taken place before operations were suspended.

Long queues of passengers formed at the airport, which has also been affected by an alleged unofficial work to rule stoppage by pilots of the Spanish airline Iberia.