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Lion Air of Indonesia has placed a firm order with Airbus for 234 A320 Family aircraft, comprising 109 A320neo, 65 A321neo and 60 A320ceo. The deal sees the carrier become a new customer for Airbus. The order was finalised earlier at a special ceremony at the Elysée Palace in Paris in the presence of president François Hollande of France, who witnessed the signing of documents by Rusdi Kirana,…
German flag-carrier Lufthansa has been forced to cancel more than 500 flights today as staff take industrial action over pay and conditions. Staff are staging walk-outs at Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne airports and other locations between 05:00 and 12:00 today. Lufthansa has cancelled most of its domestic and short-haul flights during this time. However, long-haul…
Mattala, Sri Lanka; March 19, 2013: Air Arabia, the first and largest low-cost carrier (LCC) in the Middle East and North Africa, today touched down at Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Sri Lanka. The inaugural flight which landed at 11:50 am becomes the first ever international carrier to arrive in the Mattala airport. The maiden flight was marked by an official Air Arabia delegation and was…
China’s Spring Airlines Co., the nation’s biggest privately-owned carrier, is planning to start selling cars onboard its aircraft, Bloomberg reports. To complement the other items already on sale, the discount airline is in talks with several automakers about offering their cars at prices starting at $16,000. Flight attendants will be trained to provide information on the vehicles, and special…
Passengers flying Australian carrier Qantas will now be provided with individual iPads which can stream more than 200 hours of movies, TV shows and music. The new service, which supplies an iPad for use during the flight, is being offered in all classes on flights between Sydney and Honolulu on the airline’s Boeing 767 aircraft, which have also been refitted with leather seat covers in business class, new…
British Airways airline is now taking bookings for its first superjumbo Airbus A380 flight, which will travel from London to Los Angeles on October 15. From November, a second superjumbo Airbus will be flying to Hong Kong. The airline has also started taking bookings for this flight. Return bookings for the London-Los Angeles flight start at €632 for Economy and go up to €2,796 for Business Class.…
Boeing has received approval from the Unites States Federal Aviation Administration to test and certify improvements to the 787 Dreamliner battery system. Successful completion of each step within the plan will result in the FAA’s approval to resume commercial 787 flights. All 50 Dreamliner planes presently in commercial operation are grounded following a series of on board incidents in January.…
Malaysia Airlines has launched a new Airbus A380 scheduled service between KL International Airport and Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport. Paris is the second city, after London, to be operated using the A380 in the national airline’s network. Effective today, Malaysia Airlines’ capacity on the daily route between Kuala Lumpur and Paris will increase by 75 per cent, going from 282 seats from the…
Thomas Cook has confirmed it will cut further costs of £50 million and raise up to £150 million through the disposal of non core businesses as part of a wide-ranging strategy to return the tour operator to health. It comes as the tour operator outlines plans to focus its resources on online sales as it seeks to return to profitability. New chief executive, Harriet Green, is targeting sales growth of…
Low cost carrier Ryanair has released passenger and load factor stats for February 2013, during which its adjusted monthly traffic fell – as previously guided – by 3% over the same period during previous year as Ryanair grounded up to 80 aircraft. The carrier also claimed the leap year in February 2012 accounted for a further 3% drop in traffic. Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said: “As previously guided,…
Lufthansa is continuing to expand its services to popular leisure travel destinations. The new summer timetable includes five new attractive holiday destinations: Mahón, Jerez de la Frontera, Cardiff, Glasgow and Varna. In the long-haul segment, Lufthansa is launching a new service from Munich to Vancouver on the west coast of Canada in addition to the existing connection from Frankfurt. From July, passengers in…
American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia celebrate a key milestone today as fellow oneworld alliance member Finnair announces its intent to join the transatlantic joint business, established by the three airlines in October 2010. Once Finnair joins the transatlantic joint business later this year, customers in North America and Europe will have increased choice of flights and services as well as more…
Boeing has announced Air China has agreed to buy two Boeing 747-8 Intercontinentals, one 777-300ER (Extended Range) and 20 Next-Generation 737-800s. In addition, Air China Cargo, a subsidiary of Air China, has agreed to buy eight 777 Freighters. The airline plans to expand its capacity to meet growing demand in Asia-Pacific and China, the most dynamic market for commercial airplanes. The…
British Airways is rolling out the option to watch TV and movies from the moment customers board their flights to the time they arrive at their destination on even more long-haul services. Flights to Tel Aviv, Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Almaty and Baku are the latest to benefit from the airline’s extended in-flight entertainment programme. Last year, British Airways was the first UK airline to start…
Barcelona, SPAIN – High level meetings between Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker and senior officials of Catalonia have taken place in Barcelona on the back of yesterday’s announcement that the airline is to be a strategic partner of football giants FC Barcelona. Al Baker met with the President of Catalonia, the Honourable Artur Mas, and Mayor of Barcelona, the Honourable Xavier Trias, to…
Doha, QATAR – Qatar Airways has held its Annual Emergency Exercise to conduct a realistic assessment of the airline’s preparedness in the event of a real life aircraft emergency. The exercise involved a Qatar Airways aircraft experiencing an emergency shortly after take-off from one of its worldwide destinations. Almost 200 staff members including key senior executives and Qatar Airways Chief…
Sharjah, UAEL Air Arabia, the first and largest low-cost carrier (LCC) in the Middle East and North Africa, today announced that it flew a record number of passengers in January 2013 as the airline carried almost half a million passengers. Latest statistics released by the airline show that it carried a total of 492,847 passengers in the month, an increase of nearly 15 per cent as compared to a year earlier. This…
Sharjah, UAEL Air Arabia, the first and largest low-cost carrier (LCC) in the Middle East and North Africa, today announced that it flew a record number of passengers in January 2013 as the airline carried almost half a million passengers. Latest statistics released by the airline show that it carried a total of 492,847 passengers in the month, an increase of nearly 15 per cent as compared to a year earlier. This…
