Lufthansa

Cathay Pacific CEO Tony Tyler says when airlines last raised fares in 2008, most travelers kept on flying. But as Mideast upheavals send oil prices skyward and airlines hike fares again, the impact on the bottom line could be quite different.

Half of the Rolls-Royce engines that power the A380 Airbus superjumbo jets may need to be replaced, according to the Qantas CEO. One of the engines caught fire and caused the emergency landing of a Qantas flight earlier this month.

The European Commission has accused some 13 airlines of collaborating to set cargo and security surcharges -- and to avoid paying commission on these surcharges to clients -- to reduce competition. Eleven of the airlines face a total of $1.1 billion in fines.

It's every business traveler's dream never to fly coach again. Nicholas Kralev's On the Fly seminar promises to make that dream a reality. In four short hours, he says he'll teach attendees how to maximize the power of their frequent flyer miles to fly in luxury on a coach-class budget.

As airspace slowly reopens in parts of Europe and some airlines restart their service, the continent's aviation industry and the E.U. are trying to adjust to the historic economic disruptions brought on by ash from the Iceland volcano.

With air travel restrictions still crippling most of Europe, national governments and businesses are starting to bridle under the unprecedented shut-downs. Losses are now reaching more than $200 million a day. A U.K. pilots group says: "A number of airlines are now staring bankruptcy in the face."

Nobody enjoys sitting through other people's airline horror stories, so I'll just give a précis: I'm on a trip in Europe, and in the course of three days, Air France managed to strand me in both Paris and Tunis. I was thousands of miles from home with no way to get back. First it negated my...