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March 22-British Airways (BA) cabin crew’s three-day strike kicked off yesterday after talks regarding a dispute over pay and conditions collapsed, thus causing great inconvenience to passengers at the Dubai International Airport. BA has cancelled flight BA105 between London's Heathrow airport and Dubai International Airport for the duration of the strikes. Also, BA's flight BA104 between Dubai and Heathrow…
March 22- Wataniya Airways, Kuwait’s private airline, posted a loss of $37.8 million in 2009 as compared to a loss of $5.4 million in 2008, said the company’s spokesperson. The airline began travel operations a year ago and saw its assets rise to $275 million last year compared to $269 million in 2008. Meanwhile, shareholder equity dropped from $219 million in 2008 to $182.3 million in 2009. Wataniya has…
March 21- British Airways flights to Dubai were to arrive and take off on Saturday night and during the weekend as scheduled, according to the recorded automated telephone answering system at Dubai International Airport. However, no official confirmation was available from the BA offices. “We have had no official confirmation from BA regarding the strike or an alert for the weekend. Normally on serious…
March 21- Iraq's Transport Ministry is eagerly awaiting the delivery of new Boeing aircrafts since it is looking to expand the country’s national airline, Iraqi Airways, said the Minister of Transport, Amer Abdul-Jabbar on Saturday. At the moment, the airline has four rapidly ageing planes along with several leased airplanes. Jabbar said his ministry is hoping to get the first deliveries this year on an order…
March 20- British Airways has cancelled many of its flights to and from the UAE owing to an on-going cabin crew strike. Flight number BA105 from Heathrow to Dubai, due to depart at 8.40pm, will not fly for three days – Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Meanwhile, BA104 from Dubai to Heathrow, slated to leave at 11am, will not fly on Monday, although it will leave on Saturday and Sunday. The British Airways’…
March 19- Emirates Airline will give two children under 16 travelling via Emirates to Dubai free air travel, meals hotel stays and entrances to attractions this summer, said the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM). The department hopes to attract more and more tourists to the region this summer owing to this offer, it was learnt. According to calculations, a family of four from Europe…
March 19- Emirates Airline won the Gold Award at the Annual Air Cargo Excellence (ACE) Awards at a recent ceremony at the IATA World Cargo Symposium in Vancouver, Canada. The winners for the ceremony were chosen via a survey that rated airlines on customer service, performance, value and information technology. Other winners include Southwest Airlines, FedEx Express, Virgin Atlantic and Nippon Cargo Airlines.…
March 19- The Royal Jordanian (RJ) announced on Friday that it will receive the first group of Boeing 787 Dreamliners in October 2013 instead of 2011, as previously scheduled. RJ's president and CEO, Hussein Dabbas explained that owing to the delay, the carrier was forced to upgrade four Airbus 340 aircraft at a cost of $12m, in addition to the two chartered Airbus 330 that will become a part of the route.…
March 19- The government will safeguard the rights of the workers of Kuwaiti Airways Corporation (KAC) after its privatisation, said a Kuwaiti official. Manipulation of public funds will not be tolerated be it before or after privatisation, said Minister of Communication and Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs Dr Mohammad Al-Busairi at the regular follow-up session of the National Assembly…
March 17- Etihad Airways and Travelport have signed a five year full content agreement to provide travel agents connected with Galileo and Worldspan worldwide access to the entire airline’s published inventory of flights and fares. Travelport is one of the leading global distribution system (GDS) providers. Etihad Airways’ Chief of Strategy and Planning said “As a rapidly-expanding airline, we are delighted…
March 17- Emirates Airline plans to order more than 12 planes to meet the growing demand of the carrier, said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Airline. “I know that we announced something like 10 to 12 aircraft, but we are maybe looking at more than that number,” he added. Emirates will sell shares in an initial public offering, but the timeline for the sale will be decided by the…
March 17- Emirates SkyCargo, Dubai's national airline’s freight division, ships around 1,000 tons of flowers to Amsterdam every month. This is expected to increase by over 400 tons when Emirates launches its daily passenger service to Amsterdam from May 1. Currently, these flowers are shipped to Amsterdam via the SkyCargo freighters once a week. The freighters leave from Dubai, stop in Africa to ‘pick’ up the…
March 16- Flydubai took delivery of its first Boeing 737 equipped with Goodrich corporation DURACARB carbon brakes. Flydubai is Dubai’s first low cost airline. Chief executive officer of flydubai, Ghaith al Ghaith, and Goodrich Corporation officials attended a ceremony upon the crafts arrival in Dubai. This is the seventh Boeing 737 flydubai has received in its less than 10 months of commercial operations…
In a statement issued on Sunday, Emirates Airlines President Tim Clark stated that delays in the delivery of Airbus A350 were unacceptable to the airline especially since it had to wait for two years for the delivery of A380. “We have clearly told Airbus that we will not accept again what they did to us with the A380,” said Clark at ITB Berlin. Emirates has an order for 70 A350s, a long-range, mid-sized,…
Emirates Airlines has opened a lounge at the Birmingham International Airport, making it the third in the region. Spanning over an area of 7,000 square feet, first-class and business-class Emirates passengers can use the lounge while in transit. The lounge is located ay the Emirates’ departure gate in the new international pier in Terminal 1. Passengers can relax in leather seats and watch the news on…
Airbus is hoping to market about 5 to 10 corporate jets in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia this year because of the huge market potential there, it was learnt on Sunday. With the regions older Lockheed 1011, DC-10 and 707 refurbished corporate jets way past their ‘life span’, Saudi Arabia has a potentially huge market for the Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ) – the A319. This figure is expected to…
March 14- The aviation industry body IATA cut its net loss forecast for Middle East carriers to $400 million (Dh1.46bn) a substantial reduction from its initial forecast in 2009 of a $1.5 billion loss. Giovanni Bisignani said demand is causing recovery in the region but low yields on hub traffic will limit profitability. Bisignani, who is IATA’s director-general and chief executive, explained in a…
