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Qatar Airway’s four Airbus A340-600’s will have their lounges removed and replaced with 44 economy class seats. When the Airbus A340-A600’s were put into service almost three years ago the lounges were proudly highlighted as a five star amenity for first class and business class long haul travelers. Qatar Airway’s chief executive said they are making more efficient use of the airplane and other Qatar officials…
Qatar Airways, Emirates Airlines, and Etihad Airways all won awards at the Skytrax World Airline Awards last week in Hamburg. Qatar won the award for best Airline in the Middle East and best economy class. Emirates won the award for best in-flight entertainment. Etihad, for the first time, won the award for best business class. Skytrax is a UK based consultancy and based its results on an eight month survey of…
Royal Jordanian (RJ) resumed flight services to the Belgium capital of Brussels on Tuesday. It has been six years since services have operated between the two countries. Services were suspended for commercial reasons, and RJ CEO says they are now resuming again for commercial reasons. Mr. Samer Majali said the flights are resuming following the signing of the open skies policy by the two counties last July. This…
Air Arabia plans to invest $50 million in its second hub to be set up in Casablanca, Morocco. The airline’s chief executive told reporters the hub in will have 20 to 25 aircraft and will fly to at least 60 airports within a five hour radius. Adel Ali said they have aircraft in Morocco now and they are ready to operate. He expects Air Arabia to fly to Italy, France, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, and North…
Qatar Airways is ordering new airplanes in June and plans to add an average of seven routes a year for the next five years despite the slowdown in the global market. Qatar also plans to double its current coverage of US cities from three to six, and begin its first South American destination next year. Qatar is the second largest Arab nation carrier. The airline’s chief executive said the current economic…
Air Arabia negotiated an earlier deliver date for its order of A320 aircraft from Airbus. Sharjah based Air Arabia is the regions low-cost carrier and currently operates a fleet of 17 aircraft, all of them Airbus. By November of 2007 they had ordered an additional 44 A320’s from Airbus. The orders were originally scheduled to be delivered starting in 2012, but now the first A320 will be delivered from mid…
India’s leading airline, Jet Airways, announced on Monday it is launching a new direct, daily flight service from Mumbai to Kuwait. Jet Airways will operate the new service aboard a state of the art Boeing 737-800 aircraft. This is the airlines second India to Kuwait flight. The existing service is from Kochi to Kuwait. Jet Airways also has services from India to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Muscat and Bahrain.
Bahrain Air started nine new weekly flights to Abu Dhabi International Airport. Later the service will increase to twice daily. The new flights will operate using A319s and A320s in two class configurations. Including the new services to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain now flies to 16 destinations in North Africa, the Middle East and Indian sub continent. Bahrain Air Chairman said the addition of the Abu Dhabi services is…
Both Etihad Airways and Emirates Airlines have added new regional flights to meet increasing demand. International Air Traffic Association released new statistics showing demand for services in the Middle East increased 3.1 per cent in January 2009 even as the global economic downturn continues. Emirates Airlines added three weekly flights to Beirut and two weekly flights to Damman, and Tehran. Etihad…
Peter Larson has been appointed Director of Flight Operations for Silver Air, the airline that specializes in charter aircraft. The airline also made other appointments including Tim Lee as Commercial Director, Paulo Rodriquez as Director of Ground Operations, and Lars Sondergaard as Director for Training and Standards. Chief Executive Steffen Harpoth said the diverse background and experience of the new…
Abu Dhabi based carrier Etihad Airways on Sunday launched an expanded summer season programme. The summer flying program is 20 per cent larger with new destinations, new aircraft, and better flight connections. 900 flights will operate weekly compared to 750 flights last year and five new international services are being added including Melbourne this week. The five new international services will increase…
Emirates Airlines is increasing weekly flight services to Beirut, Tehran, and Damman from 1 May 2009. There will be two additional weekly flights to Damman and Tehran, and three more for Beirut. Emirates Senior Vice President for Commercial Operations in the Gulf and India, Ahmad Khoory, said the Middle East is an integral part of Emirates operations and one of the most active aviation markets in the world.…
Geneva based International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Tuesday that air travel demand in the Middle East will increase 1.2% this year. However because of current overcapacity, airlines will post a loss. Capacity has increased 3.8% this year. The IATA just revised its projected loss estimate for the coming year at $800 billion, four times their initial forecast . IATA said that the airlines in the…
Low cost carrier Flydubai announced a fresh new approach to air travel in the region. Check in process has been simplified with the elimination of e-tickets and paper, instead a boarding pass will be issued. In effect this means passengers will have already been checked in once they have paid for their booking. For a small fee, passengers will be able to book flights at the new flydubai.com website, which will…
Budget carrier flydubai confirmed it will charge passengers a separate fee for checking in their bags when it begins service this summer. Checked-in baggage weighing between 10kg and 32 kg will be added to the bill, while baggage weighing less than the 10kg ticket price will be included in the ticket price. The airline will also charge additional fees for seat selection, food and drink. The airline is…
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) revised forecast projects the regions airlines are likely to see a $900 million loss in 2009 due to falling revenues, high fuel hedging positions, and overcapacity. The $900 million projected loss is more than four times higher than IATA’s original projected loss of $200 million for Middle Eastern airlines in 2009. IATA revised its forecast due to the strength…
Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways expanded its existing codeshare agreement with Brussels Airlines of Belgium, providing its customers access to Spain for the first time. The agreement is effective from 29 March 2009. The two letter code “EY” will appear on Brussels Airlines flights form Belgium to Madrid Spain, and Barcelona, Spain. The agreement also covers Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Under the agreement,…
Amadeus, a major booking system provider for travel agencies, reported a steep drop in the number of business travel bookings. In January and February bookings fell 20%. Liesure travel bookings for the same period fell 12%. Airlines and travel agencies expect that the slump in business travel bookings will continue because the global economic slowdown will keep budgets tight. At the ITB Traveler fair,…
