The head of Irish discount airline Ryanair says he expects some seats on the company's flights will soon be free as airports and carriers share revenue from concessions sold in flight and on the ground. Michael O'Leary said Tuesday that by 2026, he expects his airline to sell some tickets on its flights with a $0 base fare. "I have this vision that in the next five to 10 years that the air fares on Ryanair will be free," The Guardian quoted him as saying, "in which case the flights will be full, and we will be making our money out of sharing the airport revenues — of all the people who will be running through airports, and getting a share of the shopping and the retail revenues at airports." Although it sounds farfetched, O'Leary was quoted by the Guardian and other British press as saying that the ground work has already been laid in the form of some of the deals his company has been pitched from smaller regional airports to start offering flights there in exchange for drastically reduced landing fees. "I think it will happen," he said, "it ... won't happen at Heathrow or those big hub airports but most of the other airports who are looking for big traffic growth, that process is already starting to happen, lowering airport fees and some of the charges."<br/>
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Alaska Airlines is staking out a claim as a major player on cross-country routes from the US West Coast. Alaska Airlines will add non-stop service between San Diego and Baltimore/Washington International (BWI), launching one daily round-trip flight on March 15. The carrier says BWI will become its fourth new East Coast destination from San Diego in any as many years. More broadly, Alaska Air’s San Diego-BWI service comes as the airline has been steadily increasing its presence on cross-country routes. Alaska Air has long been one of the largest carriers on routes between West Coast cities, but has added a number of high-profile coast-to-coast routes since mid-2013. Alaska Air could soon gain an even larger cross-country presence with its acquisition of Virgin America, which was announced in April. Virgin America operates numerous cross-country routes from its hubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles.<br/>
Budget carrier Air Arabia, the UAE’s only publicly-listed airline, said Wednesday it has confirmed options for five Airbus A320 jets. The additional aircraft, valued at $485m at list prices, will enter into service from the second quarter of 2017, Air Arabia said in statement. It is common for airlines to receive discounts on aircraft orders. The options were part of a 2007 firm order for 44 A320s. The delivery of the original contract of the 44 firm orders and 5 options will be completed in 2017.<br/>