Category Archives: Aviation

Thailand and Myanmar will become the latest two destinations to be added from December 2019 on flydubai. The airline will launch flights to Krabi in Thailand and Yangon in Myanmar, expanding its network to Southeast Asia. The new daily flights are codeshared with Emirates and will operate from Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport (DXB) starting from December 10, 2019. Krabi International Airport (KBV) serves as a gateway to Krabi province in southern Thailand and neighbouring regions like Malaysia and Singapore. With the launch of the daily service, which is operated via a stop in Yangon in Myanmar, flydubai becomes the first UAE national carrier to offer flights to Krabi. The new direct flights to Yangon International Airport (RGN) will also give passengers easier access to the largest city and commercial centre of Myanmar. Commenting on the launch of the two new routes, Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer at flydubai said, “Over the past 10 years we have remained committed to opening up underserved markets, enabling millions of passengers to travel with more ease from as far as Helsinki in the west to Krabi in the east via Dubai’s aviation hub.” Sudhir Sreedharan, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations (UAE, GCC, Subcontinent and Africa) at flydubai, said, “The launch of the new routes will further support the trade links between the UAE, Myanmar and Thailand. We are confident that flydubai’s daily flights will be popular for passengers not only travelling from the UAE but also from the GCC and those connecting from Europe and the USA on the Emirates network.”      

Etihad Airways will be launching a fourth year-round daily service from Abu Dhabi to London Heathrow on October 27, 2019. Robin Kamark, Commercial Officer, Etihad Aviation Group Chief, said, “The flagship Abu Dhabi to London route is tremendously popular with point-to-point business and leisure travellers, and those transiting beyond our hub and we recently boosted frequencies between the two cities to meet increased demand at peak travel times. Adding a fourth year-round flight will provide much needed capacity and optimised timings and easy connections to key destinations across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. The new service demonstrates our commitment to the crucially important UK market, and ensures we provide our customers with all the benefits of a next-generation fleet across all 42 weekly departures to and from the United Kingdom.” The new service introduces a convenient mid-morning departure from Abu Dhabi and a late evening departure from London Heathrow and follows the introduction of additional seasonal services this summer. The airline will introduce a next-generation, two-class Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on one of its four daily London services. The aircraft is configured with 299 seats — 28 Business Studios and 271 Economy Smart Seats. This complements the three other services which are operated by Etihad’s 486-seat Airbus A380s, which feature The Residence, a luxurious three-room cabin, nine private First Apartments, 70 Business Studios and 405 Economy Smart Seats. These include 80 Economy Space seats with a seat pitch of up to 36 inches. In addition to the four daily flights into the UK capital, Etihad Airways also operates two daily Boeing 787 Dreamliner services between Abu Dhabi and Manchester.

DUBZ, a baggage technology and logistics company and part of dnata, has opened a new ‘check-in station’ at The Dubai Mall. The DUBZ team checks in customers for their flights, prints their boarding passes, weighs and secures their baggage and ensures they are delivered to the airport and loaded onto the aircraft. After collecting their boarding passes and baggage tags, customers can enjoy the various shopping, dining and entertainment opportunities The Dubai Mall offers to its visitors, and then take the Dubai metro to the airport. DUBZ provides its services to the passengers of nine airlines, including flydubai, Saudia, flynas, China Southern, Kuwait Airways, Gulf Air, SaudiGulf, Royal Jordanian, and Ethiopian Airlines. The service is available from AED 99, which covers the check-in fee for one passenger with one piece of luggage. Additional pieces of luggage can be added for a fee of AED 40 each. The service price is capped at AED 249 covering up to 10 bags. Omar Abou Faraj, CEO and Co-Founder of DUBZ, said, “Travelling and shopping in one of the world’s largest malls on the same day has never been so easy. We are thrilled to be launching our popular remote check-in services at The Dubai Mall, adding more value to our offering.” Antonio Fellino, Vice President of Retail & eCommerce, dnata Travel UAE, said, “We are sure that the innovative product of DUBZ will be popular among customers, who can now take advantage of the two companies’ excellent value services at the same time and location.”

In partnership with Al Naboodah Travel, GoAir will launch its first flight from Dubai to Kannur on July 26, 2019. The first flight will leave Kannur on July 25 at 19:05 and reach Dubai at 21:55, thereafter the first flight from Dubai will take off at 00:20 and reach Kannur at 05:35. Speaking at the press conference,  Arjun Dasgupta, Vice President International of GoAir, stated that according to their research there are 2.5 million Indian nationals working in the UAE and one million of them are from Kerala, apart from that the destination itself offers many attractions to the tourists, who are locals and expats living in the UAE. Dasgupta reiterated, “There are three basic pillars at GoAir which are convenience, punctuality and affordability. Currently the starting price for one way is AED 385. We will be adding two more routes in the GCC which is Kuwait and Dammam in KSA. The international destinations currently include Muscat, Phuket, Male and Abu Dhabi and the two to be added are Bangkok on July 25 and Dubai on July 26. “ Nasir Jamal Khan, CEO of Al Naboodha Travel stated that the partnership will help to ensure that the travel and tourism sector in both countries will benefit by this alliance as Kannur is both a business and leisure destination. “The launch of GoAir from Dubai to Kannur means that it will connect to some of the most popular destinations in India and we look forward to better serving our travelling customers.”

It was the second consecutive year that RwandAir sponsored the EmQuest Cricket Mania event recently with other partners such as Turkish Airlines, Seychelles Tourism Board, Millennium Hotels Dubai, Flexible Autos etc. The two-day event saw a total of about 800 participants from the travel trade which included players, spectators etc. EmQuest Cricket Mania is a large scale event that witnesses the coming together of travel management giants in the industry to compete against each other for the ever rolling trophy. Built on the success of the previous year, EmQuest, a division of Emirates returned with their annual cricket championship tournament EmQuest Cricket Mania 2019 for all Sabre users across the UAE. With Turkish mega carriers, Turkish Airlines as the platinum sponsors and the fast rising giants in the aviation industry — RwandAir as the gold sponsors of EmQuest Cricket Mania 2019. Kanoo Travels were announced as the winners of EmQuest Cricket Mania 2019 and dnata emerged as the runners up. Timothy Njihia, Area Manager, RwandAir,  stated, “RwandAir has been a consistent sponsor of EmQuest’s Cricket Mania tournaments for the last two years, as the T-Shirt Sponsor and in 2019 as the Gold Sponsor. We sponsor the tournament during the event days, that is, the two  weekends that the tournaments last.  This partnership is very important to us as it is a top-of-mind brand awareness to the travel trade, with trade engagement through sports, that is, cricket in order to strengthen partnerships between stakeholders RwandAir, EmQuest & the travel trade.

Abu Dhabi Airports has welcomed GoAir’s launch of two new daily flights, the first between Mumbai International Airport and Abu Dhabi, and the second to Delhi International Airport, further connecting the UAE capital to the two major Indian cities. GoAir’s inaugural flights from Delhi, India’s capital and Mumbai, the financial capital of the world’s sixth largest economy to Abu Dhabi, was received with warmth and fanfare on July 22, as the Indian subcontinent remains one of the most popular destinations for travellers departing from Abu Dhabi. Maarten De Groof, Chief Commercial Officer of Abu Dhabi Airports, said, “The new daily flights to Abu Dhabi reflect the capital’s status as a key destination and a transit hub for business and leisure, which forms a part of our strategy to attract new airlines to our network, and support the growth of tourism in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.” Jeh Wadia, Managing Director of GoAir, said, “Our daily flights from Mumbai and Delhi to Abu Dhabi is a manifestation of GoAir’s vision for the Middle East. In less than six months, we have introduced a new set of routes that supports business and leisure, and reinforces the strong relations between India and the UAE.”  

Sharjah Airport recently received Air Peace’s inaugural flight from Lagos. The Nigerian airline’s first international airport outside Africa, Sharjah Airport offers the advantages of Sharjah’s geographic location and the level of service that the Airport provides to airlines and travellers. The fact that Air Peace chose Sharjah Airport underlines the importance of the growing travel market and tourism and economic activity in the Emirate of Sharjah. The company has appointed Sharjah Airport Travel Agency (SATA) as its exclusive agent in the UAE market. After the plane landed, it was received by a number of officials from the airport’s management and a delegation from Sharjah Commerce & Tourism Development Authority and Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The passengers and crew were welcomed with authentic UAE hospitality. HE Ali Salim Al Midfa, Chairman of Sharjah Airport Authority, said, “We welcome the arrival of Nigeria’s Air Peace, which operates flights from Sharjah Airport as a hub and destination.” His Excellency emphasised that the airport is keen to provide the best services and facilities to Air Peace and all airlines operating from Sharjah Airport to ensure their success and enable them to provide services to passengers efficiently. Allen Onyema, Air Peace’s Chairman and CEO, said, “We thank the officials of Sharjah Airport Authority and the employees at the airport for the great support they have provided to Air Peace and for facilitating all procedures necessary to start operating flights to Sharjah.”  

Indonesia’s Bali is one of the most favoured destinations by the Middle Eastern traveller, hence Turkish Airlines has now made it part of its network by adding direct flights from Istanbul. Global carrier’s Istanbul-Bali direct flights will be operated as seven frequencies per week. Flying to more countries and international destinations than any other airline in the world, Turkish Airlines inaugurated its direct flights between its home base Istanbul and world-renowned tourist destination, Bali (Indonesia) on July 17, 2019. Having operated with the airlines’ first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, which joined to its ever-expanding fleet a few weeks ago, TK 066 coded first flight conducted with 84 per cent load factor and carried 250 passengers. Introductory flight fares are available from Istanbul to Bali starting at 748 US Dollars (including taxes and fees). Commenting on newly commenced Istanbul-Bali flights, Kerem Sarp, Senior Vice President Sales (2nd Region), Turkish Airlines, said, “With our new generation aircrafts continuing to join our fleet, we feel highly encouraged to launch new direct flights to farther destinations in the world. By inagurating direct flights to Bali, our second destination in Indonesia, we keep strengthening our mission to reach all corners of the world.”  

Emirates has announced a daily service from Dubai (DXB) to Mexico City International Airport (MEX), via the Spanish city of Barcelona (BCN). The flight will commence from December 9, 2019. Emirates’ Mexico City flight will be a linked service with Barcelona. Citizens from Mexico, Spain and the UAE only need their passports to enjoy visa-free travel to respective countries.  The new route will be operated with a two-class Emirates Boeing 777-200LR which offers 38 Business Class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration and 264 seats in Economy Class. The new 777 flight will also offer up to 14 tonnes of cargo, opening up access to more global markets for Mexican exports such as avocados, berries, mangoes, automotive parts and medical supplies.  Emirates SkyCargo has been flying freighters to/from Mexico City since 2014 already and in the last year carried over 22,500 tons of cargo on the route. Sir Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airlines, said: “The availability of high-quality, daily international air services is essential for the development of tourism, business and cultural ties. Trade, especially in high-value and time-sensitive products, will be facilitated by the ample cargo capacity on Emirates’ Boeing 777 aircraft. We also expect tourism to receive a major boost from the daily flights on our newly-refurbished Boeing 777-200LR. Due to the high altitude of Mexico airport, it is not possible to operate a non-stop flight from Dubai, and Barcelona was a natural choice for a stopover.” “Mexico supports the launch of the long-awaited flight Dubai-Barcelona-Mexico City, which responds to Mexico’s Government tourism policy towards opening new markets and strengthening connectivity between the Middle East and Mexico. We are eager to receive tourists from this part of the world,” said …

Dubai International (DXB) welcomed Air India’s inaugural flights from the cities of Indore and Kolkata on the evening of July 15. The thrice weekly service from Indore is the first international flight out of the city, which is the commercial capital of the state of Madhya Pradesh. Air India’s Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani was among the 150 passengers who arrived on the inaugural flight and was given a warm welcome by representatives of Dubai Airports and its service partners. Air India will operate three weekly flights between Kolkata and Dubai providing needed capacity on the route. Following the new additions, DXB is now served by four Indian carriers operating 382 weekly flights to 20 destinations across India. India is the single largest destination country in terms of contribution to traffic volumes at DXB with 12.3 million passengers recorded in 2018.