Jet Airways to begin Hyderabd-Dubai Service

Jet Airways is on a expansion spree to the middle east destinations of late. Following its launch of Chennai-Dubai, Mumbai-Jeddah and Mumbai-Riyadh, Jet AIrways has announced yet another international destination to add to its growing list of middle east services from India. Jet will launch Hyderabd-Dubal Services beginning August 16 2009 on its Boeing 737-800 NG planes. The timings are as follows

Flight                             DEP   ARR    Total time

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9W 550 HYD – DXB 0840 1120 4hrs 10mins
9W 549 DXB – HYD 1200 1710 3hrs 40mins

Kingfisher to start BLR – DXB

Kingfisher has announced that it will begin its Bangalore-Dubai flights starting June 25 with an Airbus A 320. This flights was originally planned to start in March 2009, but has been delayed due to poor economic conditions.

“The conditions have improved now. It is a good time to connect Dubai and Bangalore with the summer travel season starting,” said Vinay Nambiar, Kingfisher’s area manager for the UAE, Qatar and Oman.

Kingfisher also plans to start flights to Abu Dhabi and a couple of other destinations in the Gulf region, he said.

The daily Dubai services will be operated using an A320 aircraft. Flights from Bangalore will depart at 6.30pm and land in Dubai at 8.55pm local time. The return flight will leave Dubai at 11.30pm and reach Bangalore at 4.45am.

Flydubai, a new low cost airline launched in Dubai

The prevailing financial crisis has not deterred the emirate of Dubai to launch a new low cost airline, called Flydubai.

The new airline aims at offering an easy and affordable way to travel in the Middle East region, starting with two next-generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft, with 189 economy seats each.

Flydubai Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktum, speaking to reporters on Monday, said that the airline would start flights next June to Beirut and Amman. Flydubai

Flydubai will be based at Terminal 2 of Dubai International Airport and has already appointed over 60 captains, 18 first officers and 80-cabin crew.

The airline has simplified the check-in process by issuing boarding passes, instead of paper or e-tickets, which means passengers are checked-in once their booking is paid for.

Passengers will be ale to book online at flydubai.com at no charge or through the flydubai call centre. The fare includes all taxes and a 10 kg hand baggage allowance.

CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith has said that Flydubai as a true low cost airline, has look very hard at ways to make its operations more efficient and added: “If we find a cost that can be eliminated, we will – with savings passed onto our customers.” (ANI)

Jet Airways doubles capacity on Mumbai-Dubai Route

Effective April 19 2009, Jet Airways will add another daily flight between Mumbai and Dubai. The flight is expected to be operated by a Boeing 737-800 Next Generation Jet. The timetable is as follows

9W 542 BOM – DXB 0930 1105 
9W 541 DXB – BOM 1235 1710

9W 546 MAA – DXB 1245 1530 
9W 545 DXB – MAA 1630 2215

Kingfisher Airlines defers Dubai launch until June

Kingfisher Airlines has put off its plan to launch Dubai services until June, according to an airline source and Dubai-based travel agents. 

The Bangaluru-based airline had earlier decided to launch Dubai route on March 7, but has now deferred it given the current slowdown in air travel and declining airfares. 

“We would be launching a daily Bangaluru-Dubai service now sometime in June, though no specific date has been decided yet. The reason for deferring the launch is the current situation wherein airfares have dropped to very low levels,” the airline source told Emirates Business. 

At present UAE carriers such as Emirates and Etihad Airways are offering return airfares to India at below Dh1,000 levels, according to travel agents, who pointed out that Etihad Airways’ India fares recently went down to as low as Dh530. “We would have also had to join the bandwagon had we launched as planned, on March 7. There has been a drastic change in air travel in the region. So we took a decision to defer it until June when it would be a peak travel season,” said the airline source. 

He said the airline would launch one more destination out of India in June, besides Bangaluru, connecting to Dubai. “We are currently studying various options including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Ahmedabad. The Kingfisher team is working on the feasibility of the routes, after which we will decide one of these four cities to connect to Dubai.” 

Meanwhile, Kingfisher Airlines has plans to launch three to four new global destinations this year from Bangaluru, despite the economic downturn. 

Also, this is the second time Kingfisher has deferred its Dubai launch. The earlier plan was to launch flights between Bangaluru and Dubai in February 8 this year. The airline had said in January that it will fly the Airbus A320 aircraft for its daily Dubai flights with a single-class economy offering. 

“With Dubai’s daily service, Bangaluru will become Kingfisher’s new hub in India with seamless transit without any change of airports to directly connect to over 26 cities in India,” the airline said this in a memo to one of the Dubai-based travel agents. 

Kingfisher launched its international operations in September 2008, connecting Bangaluru with a daily non-stop London flight, followed by a Mumbai-London flight that commenced in January this year.

Kingfisher launches Dubai flights from Bangalore (Bengaluru) BLR-DXB

Kingfisher Airlines will launch its Bengaluru(Bangalore)- Dubai flights starting March 1.

IT 45 BLR D 1940 DXB A 2215 A320 
IT 46 DXB D 2330 BLR A 0445 A320 

Tickets can be booked through their website. The fare for March is INR 20319 including taxes.

Emirates A380 lands at JFK

Airbus’s A380 superjumbo touched down at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday, marking the first commercial arrival of the giant, double-decker passenger plane on US soil.

The Emirates aircraft, carrying 489 passengers in varying degrees of luxury, landed smoothly and on time after a 13-1/2-hour flight from Dubai.

Airport workers crowded areas near the taxiway to catch a glimpse of Emirates A380 after it landed at New York’s JFK Airport this afternoon. The flight was A380’s first-ever regularly scheduled commercial flight to the USA. Following the flight, Emirates President Tim Clark addressed a crowd of journalists and airline VIPs that were on hand for the event.

Clark says it is “very likely” that Emirates will eventually fly all of its New York flights on the A380 superjumbo. He says other U.S. cities are likely to be added by Emirates in the coming years, adding that cites such as Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth and Washington would be among a list of obvious possibilities.

The plane, fitted out with lie-flat beds, flat screen televisions and spacious, windowed bathrooms in first and business class, is set to return to Dubai on Friday evening.