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Wataniya Airways, Kuwait’s newest airline, carried over 250,000 passengers in its first year of operations, and held a special ceremony at its headquarters at Sheikh Saad Terminal to celebrate its first anniversary. Wataniya operates flights to eight destinations in the Gulf and Middle East: Cairo, Beirut, Dubai, Damascus, Oman, Bahrain, Sharm El Sheikh, and Jeddah. Chairman Abdulsalam Al-Bahar, said the…
A flight carrying 157 passengers and 13 crew members crash landed in north-eastern Iran on Sunday, injuring at least 46 people. Iran’s civil aviation spokesman, Reza Jafarzadeh, said no one was killed in the accident, but he gave no indication of its cause. Taban Air is a Russian made Iranian passenger plane. The Tupelev plane departed from Abadan airport in Southwestern Iran, despite bad weather and minimum…
Low cost carrier Bahrain Air plans to increase its passenger numbers to one million in 2010 by adding new destinations, and aims to break even in 2011. Bahrain Air’s managing director said the airline carried about 750,000 passengers during 2009, about 200,000 less than its initial forecast. Ibrahim Alhamer explained that although there is passenger growth in the Middle East, “there is a lot of capacity…
Afghanistan’s international carrier, Safi Airways, has finalized interline agreements with Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Emirates, and United Airlines effective from February 1st. The agreements mean that passenger will require only one ticket to there destinations. Passengers travelling to and from Kabul to other international destinations will enjoy single fare tickets and less lead time. US citizens will be…
Emirates Airline will start flight service from Jeddah to Dubai on the Airbus A380 on February 1st. The introduction of the A380 on this route, which initially operates four days a week, means there will be 76 more business class seats available. Currently the airline only offers first and economy class on its Jeddah-Dubai, and Riyadh-Dubai route. Travel experts believe Emirates Airlines is filling a gap in…
will begin flights to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, after an absence of almost four years, partly due to pressure from the Filipino community. Direct flight service will begin on March 28th and operate four times a week between Manila and Riyadh. PAL last offered flight service to Riyadh in March 2006 but suspended them for commercial reasons. PAL’s service to Riyadh is preferred by Filipinos because it flies…
Oman Air’s CEO, Peter Hill, said “We are delighted to be leading the field by bringing the digital age to in-flight passenger communications. From mid-February we will be unrolling full connectivity across our Airbus A330 fleet, completing the task in the summer.” The crew will control availability of the new services in order to minimize disturbance to passengers during overnight flights. Oman Air’s A330 fleet has the Airbus ALNA V2 system which uses Honeywell’s SwiftBroadband (SBB) solution.
Bahrain’s national carrier, Gulf Air, has introduced an online check-in service as part of its efforts to improve customer service. Gulf Air passengers flying out of Bahrain can now use the gulfair.com online service to check in, 24 hours in advance and up to 90 minutes before scheduled departure of the Gulf Air flight. Passengers can also use the online interactive seat map to change their seat and print their…
Kuwaiti telecom company Zain announced on Saturday it will begin offering international telephone services on Watinya flights, allowing customers to receive phone calls in mid-air. Passengers can currently send and receive SMS messages while mid-flight, but the new service means they can now also access the internet, email, and Blackberry services. Zain said “The international vocal roaming service on board…
A bu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways confirmed yesterday that a security threat on Tuesday delayed the departure of an Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok. Etihad Airways’ Chief Operational Officer Richard Hill said that while passengers were boarding flight EY403 to Bangkok on Tuesday, January 12th, a male passenger made comments threatening the security of the aircraft. Mr. Hill said “a thorough check of the…
European carrier Lufthansa Airlines is considering launching several new flights to Iraq because demand for flights into the country is increasing. Lufthansa plans to begin flight service to the capital Baghdad and the city of Erbil in northern Iraq from Frankfurt and Munich. The carrier plans to launch the new service next summer after it has obtained necessary traffic rights and reviewed infrastructure…
James Hogan, Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, said the airline will add three new aircraft to its fleet and three new routes in 2010. This will bring the Abu Dhabi based carrier’s fleet strength to 55 and its total number of routes to 57. Two of the new aircraft will be for passengers and the third will be for cargo. All aircraft are being supplied by Airbus. Two new routes will be launched in Japan…
A top official with Etihad Airways said the airline is considering charging passengers for a second piece of luggage in order to maximize revenue, as depressed yield continues to reduce airline’s profits. Chief Executive of Etihad Airways said no decision has been made yet, but “A number of US and European airlines are charging passengers for the second piece of luggage. I expect to see a similar move by the Gulf…
Germany’s largest airline, Lufthansa, will expand further in the Middle East, beginning with new routes to Iraq. Last year the airline flew 55.6m passenger in total, a 2.6 percent decrease. Figures dropped in all global markets except for the Middle East and Africa. Last month Lufthansa flew 363,000 passengers in the Middle East and Africa; sales in the region increased 9.1 percent and the load factor…
Airbus and airlines flying the A380 superjumbo are working at ironing out technical difficulties the aircraft has experienced over the last few months. Emirates Airline, the biggest buyer of the world’s biggest aircraft, had a flight delay of several hours on its Dubai to South Korea service this week because of fuel system glitches. This was one of eight incidents on A380s since September, and affected 420…
Qatar Airways announced it plans to manufacture and supply sustainable bio jet fuel. The announcement follows the carrier’s success in October at operating a commercial flight from London that was powered by a gas-to-liquid fuel blend (GTL). Qatar is entering into the joint project with Qatar Petroleum (QP) Qatar Science and Technology Park (QTSP), and Airbus. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar…
An Emirates A380 flight scheduled to depart for Dubai from Incheon, South Korea, was delayed because of fuel related mechanical problems. The carrier’s public-relations representative in South Korea, Burson-Marsteller said flight EK323 was scheduled to depart at 11:55 pm local time Sunday, carrying 420 passengers. The flight was pushed back to 7 pm local time. Emirates Airline became the first to use A380…
Three passengers aboard an Emirates Airline flight bound for Dubai were arrested for making bomb threats, as the plane prepared to take off. Armed counter terrorist officers boarded the plane and arrested the three men, age 55, 48, and 36. Metropolitan police said 55 year old Robert Fowler is accused of making a bomb hoax and being drunk on an aircraft. The second passenger, Alexander McGinn, 48, was charged…
