British Airways abandons Zimbabwe route

British Airways is to halt direct flights between Harare and London next month as the route is no longer profitable. The last flight on the London Heathrow-Harare route would be on October 28.  The route between Harare and Heathrow has been making a considerable loss over the past few weeks. British Airways follows a number of international airlines that have pulled out of the Zimbabwe route such as Swiss Air, Lufthansa, KLM, and Air France.

Air Berlin to buy airline from Thomas Cook

Budget carrier Air Berlin PLC said Thursday it wants to buy Condor — a part of travel operator Thomas Cook that is owned by Arcandor AG — in a share swap deal, but must overcome regulators.The Berlin-based carrier, which is No. 2 behind the country’s biggest airline, Lufthansa AG, said it would engineer a share swap with Arcandor, formerly known as KarstadtQuelle, to take control of Condor Flugdienst GmbH.

Malaysia Airlines To Order New Jets

Malaysia Airlines said it will decide whether to order more than 100 jets by December and whether a code-share agreement with a Chinese partner has been finalized, the company announced. Airbus and Boeing have both submitted proposals to supply as many as 55 narrow-body jets, but the airline is expected to ask for new proposals for long-haul wide-body jets. As part of a major expansion, the carrier said in May it was considering purchasing up to 110 aircraft.

AirTran adding Florida flights

AirTran Airways will add flights from Pittsburgh International Airport to Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, Fla., starting in November.  The carrier will begin Saturday-only flights to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Nov. 15 and will offer service to Fort Lauderdale daily starting Feb. 14.  AirTran will also start offering Saturday-only flights to Tampa International Airport on Feb. 16.

Silvejet expands service to Dubai

Silverjet, an all business class airline will expand its route map by adding a new route to Dubai from London. The service will commence on 100 seater Boeing 767. This new service will start on November 19, 2007.

AirAsia X to launch flights in October

Malaysia’s long-haul budget carrier AirAsia X said today it would launch inaugural flights to China and Australia in October with the arrival of its first A330 aircraft. Gold coast and Shenzhen are expected to be the carrier’s first two destinations.  The ambitious budget carrier also hopes to acquire another two leased A330-300 aircraft in the middle of 2008. The new aircraft will allow the carrier to launch flights to the United Kingdom. Destinations considered are London and Manchester.

Low cost long haul aviation is finally here in Asia.

Extra Middle East flights for Sydney

The number of tourists coming to Sydney from the Middle East is expected to rise, with Etihad Airways announcing an additional four flights a week. Etihad will now operate 11 flights per week, with hundreds on thousands of passengers already having flown the Sydney-Abu Dhabi route since it began six months ago.

Norwegian launches a new route from London Gatwick to Stavanger

Norwegian, Scandinavia’s largest low fares airline, will start a new route from London-Gatwick to Stavanger from the 2nd of November. The route will be served with four weekly frequencies and is Norwegian’s sixth route from London.

Ryanair launches new route between Malta and Venice Treviso

Ryanair announced a new route from Malta to Venice Treviso, its 8th new route since starting services from Malta in October last year.  With the addition of today’s route, Ryanair said it expects to deliver some 300,000 passengers to and from Malta over the next year.

British Airways to suspend Detroit-London flights

 British Airways today announced that it will suspend its daily flights between Detroit Wayne County Metropolitan Airport and London Heathrow Airport effective, Sunday, March 30, 2008.  BA has been unable to make any reasonable profits on this route.

Qatar Airways Upgrades Aircraft On Doha-KL-Bali Route

Qatar Airways has upgraded the aircraft on its popular Doha – Kuala Lumpur – Bali route to an Airbus A330. All 10 weekly services between Doha and the Malaysian capital will be served with the long-range aircraft non-stop. The aircraft will also operate on all four weekly flights on the Kuala Lumpur – Bali sector, a route launched in March this year.

AirAsia expands in China

 Low-cost carrier AirAsia said Wednesday it plans to add a second daily flight between Malaysia and Shenzhen in southern China starting next month as part of its regional network expansion.  AirAsia said it will also launch a new daily service from Malaysia’s Kota Kinabalu on Borneo island to Shenzhen.  AirAsia’s sister airline, Thai AirAsia, is already flying daily from Bangkok to Shenzhen.  AirAsia, Asia’s largest budget airline by fleet size, has said it expects to carry 11 million passengers for the year ending June 2008, up from 8.7 million in 2007 fiscal year. 

Plane crashes in south Thailand; 100 feared dead

A passenger plane filled with foreign tourists crashed Sunday as it tried to land in heavy rain on the island of Phuket, splitting in two as it was engulfed in flames. At least 100 people are feared dead.  The budget One-To-Go Airlines was carrying 123 passengers and five crew members on a domestic flight from the Thai capital of Bangkok to Phuket.

Chaisak Angsuwan, director general of the Air Transport Authority of Thailand. said “The visibility was poor as the pilot attempted to land. He decided to make a go-around but the plane lost balance and crashed”.

SAS Blue1 Flight Turned Back In Finland

Scandinavian Airlines’ Finnish unit Blue1 said a domestic flight from Helsinki to Kuopio in eastern Finland turned back on Friday after problems with the hatch of the landing gear. The incident follows two crash-landings this week involving the landing gear of SAS Dash 8-400 aircraft. The Nordic carrier has grounded its fleet of the Canadian-made planes, which make up 10 percent of its aircraft.

An SAS turboprop made by Canada’s Bombardier made an emergency landing on Wednesday in Lithuania. Another SAS Dash 8-400 crash-landed in Denmark on Sunday in a similar incident.

Delta introduces non-stop service to St. Kitts

Delta Air Lines will be commencing a new non-stop flight from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to St. Kitts. The flight will operate once a week on Saturdays, beginning on February 16, 2008. To start this weekly service, Delta will use a 150 seat, 737-800 Boeing aircraft with 16 first class seats and 134 economy seats.

Delta to launch non-stop service between Atlanta and Bonaire

Delta Air Lines, will launch a weekly non-stop flight from its Atlanta hub to/from Bonaire from February 9,2008. This service will be operated with a 150 seat, 737-800 Boeing aircraft with  16 first class seats and 134 economy seats.

Ryanair expands in Milan as Alitalia cuts flights

Ryanair said it will base 12 aircraft at Milan Malpensa and launch 50 international and 10 domestic routes from the airport in response to Alitalia’s plan to nearly halve its 340 daily flights from Milan Malpensa.

Jet Airways to fly to the Middle east from Jan 1, 2008

Jet will become the first private Indian carrier to start its operations to the Middle East. Jet has procured rights to fly to several destinations in the gulf region including Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Doha. Its request to fly to Abu Dhabi and Dubai are still pending approvals. This means a whole new market for Jet Airways which is a very margin market traditionally. Jet is expected to begin most of these flights in January 2008. The passengers will have a new choice to fly to the gulf with a extremely professional airline and will compete with the established carriers on these routes.

Passengers Rejoice!

Govt opens up Gulf, Middle East sky; Jet set to fly

The Indian government on Friday opened up the lucrative Gulf route to domestic private airlines, with Jet Airways becoming the first private airline to get the nod to fly to the region from January 1 next year.  Until now, only Air India and Indian Airlines were the designated Indian carriers to the gulf region.

Jet has been permitted to carry 3,682 passengers to Kuwait per week from three destinations in India. Of the 3,682 seats, 1,582 would be from the Delhi-Kuwait route while an equal 1,050 on Trivandrum-Kuwait and Kochi-Kuwait routes. Jet can also fly 3,150 passengers to Oman per week on three routes Kochi-Muscat and Trivandrum-Muscat and Calicut-Muscat.  The airliner has been given permission to connect Calicut and Mumbai to Qatar’s capital city Doha, where it can carry a maximum of 2,100 passengers per week.  Jet can operate 2,100 seats to Bahrain, of which 1,050 can be on the Mumbai-Bahrain and 1,050 on Kochi-Bahrain route.

Beijing shows off new airport terminal

Beijing showed off its new multibillion-dollar airport terminal Wednesday — a huge glass and steel structure with a gracefully sloping roof that the is meant to impress visitors to China’s capital for the 2008 Olympics. Terminal 3 at the Beijing Capital International Airport is a centerpiece project for the Olympics designed to relieve the overloaded airport’s other two terminals and accommodate the city’s torrid growth for the next seven years.