Category Archives: Aviation

  Emirates gears up for a busy travel period this weekend for the Eid holiday. The busiest time for departures in Terminal 3 will be on August 9, with close to 100,000 passengers travelling through Terminal 3 at DXB. Customers are reminded to arrive at the airport at least three hours before their flight departure to avoid any delays. Peak travel is expected to start on August 8 in the evening and continue until August 10 with over 372,000 Emirates passengers travelling from Dubai. Passengers can physically check in at the airport as early as 24 hours before flight departure, and are requested to check in no later than two hours prior to departure, regardless of class of travel. Customers who present themselves less than 60 minutes prior to their scheduled flight departure will not be accepted for travel. Customers can check in online on both their desktops and mobile devices from 48 hours to 90 minutes before flight departure. Passengers can also enjoy Emirates’ Home Check-in service which allows customers to check-in for their flights from anywhere in Dubai. In addition to online check-in services, Emirates also offers convenient car park check-in facilities. Customers can use these to check-in and drop off their luggage. Alternatively, customers heading to Emirates Terminal 3 can choose to drop their luggage at one of the 46 dedicated bag drop counters in Economy Class or separate counters in First Class and Business Class from six hours to 90 minutes prior to departure.

A state-of-the-art Etihad Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner touched down in Lagos on August 1, 2019 after its inaugural flight from Abu Dhabi. Etihad Airways flight EY673 took off from Abu Dhabi at 2.35 am and arrived on schedule at 7.10 am local time. The return flight EY674 departed Lagos at 8.30 am and touched down back in the capital at 7.10 pm on August 2. The two-class B787-9 Dreamliner features Etihad Airways’ next-generation Business and Economy cabins configured with 299 seats — 28 Business Studios and 271 Economy Smart Seats. Robin Kamark, Chief Commercial Officer, Etihad Airways, said, “We are delighted to upgrade to the Dreamliner aircraft on the Lagos route to further enhance the guest experience and to meet the needs of the growing numbers of business and leisure passengers travelling to and from Nigeria’s largest city. Today’s modern traveller is constantly searching for comfort, innovation and convenience, and we aim to provide the highest standard of hospitality and technological advancements to make any journey a memorable one.” Etihad Airways’ service to Lagos was inaugurated in July 2012.  The route has proved very successful for the airline, recording consistently strong demand to and from both cities.

Travelport announced that it is actively working with multiple airlines and industry partners to offer Next Generation Storefront (NGS) capability. Industry partners working with Travelport to pioneer NGS development are WhereTo, an online booking tool, and Travel Technology & Solutions (TTS), a global player in the development of innovative solutions for the travel and tourism industry. NGS is an industry initiative to enable travel agencies to display airfares just like airlines show their branded fares on their own websites. Developed by industry body ATPCO, it aims to deliver a richer and more informed shopping experience for travellers. The storefront allows users to compare and choose between multiple branded fare offers and across different airlines’ flights — all on one screen. As the ATPCO standards continue to evolve, Travelport will facilitate exact comparisons across airlines’ full range of products, whether for online agencies, corporate booking tools or Travelport’s own travel agency desktop solution, Smartpoint. Jeff Lobl, Managing Director Global Distribution Strategy at Delta Air Lines, said, “GDSs have a critical role to play in the retail transformation of our industry, and Next Generation Storefront is central to that effort. We applaud Travelport’s commitment to elevating the shopping experience for our customers.” Stephen Shurrock, Chief Commercial Officer, Travelport, commented, “Whether through Rich Content and Branding, NDC or NGS, Travelport is committed to providing the broadest range of content and will continue to lead change. NGS will be key in driving a shift from ‘cheapest fare’ to ‘best value’”  

Adding more countries to its portfolio, Turkish Airlines latest destination is the addition of the Republic of Congo’s second biggest city, Pointe-Noire to its flight network as its 58th destination in Africa. The national flag carrier will operate three weekly flights to Pointe-Noire with a connection in Libreville. With Pointe Noire, the port city next to Atlantic Ocean, Turkish Airlines expanded its flight network to 125 countries and 313 destinations. During the press conference held for the opening of Pointe-Noire frequency, Kerem Sarp, Turkish Airlines Senior Vice President for Sales (2nd Region), said, “With this inaugural Pointe-Noire flight, we increased our destinations to 58 in the continent of Africa. As the flag carrier of Turkey, we cement our position as the airline that flies to more destinations in Africa than any other airline in line with our growth strategy in this continent. Our new flights will offer new opportunities for us to increase our existing cultural connections in the Republic of Congo. We will continue to spread the Turkish hospitality and the continuous travel experience to a wider area in the future.”

Etihad Guest, the loyalty programme of Etihad Airways, has signed a frequent flyer programme agreement with Booking.com, one of the world’s major digital travel platforms. This agreement will enable Etihad Guest customers to earn Etihad Guest Miles when booking accommodation through Booking.com on a special co-branded version of the website. Depending on the accommodation booked, customers will earn between three and six Etihad Guest Miles for every USD 1 spent, starting August 1, 2019. Yasser Al Yousuf, Etihad Airways Vice President Commercial Partnerships, said, “We are always looking for new ways to add value to our loyalty programme and now through this partnership with Booking.com, we are delighted to give travellers the ability to earn Etihad Guest Miles not only when booking flights, but their accommodation as well.” “We are constantly exploring new collaborations that enable us to help connect even more travellers with their ideal stay, whether that’s a 5-star resort, a cosy B&B or chic city apartment,” said Ripsy Bandourian, Vice President of Partnerships at Booking.com. “We’re delighted to be partnering with Etihad Guest and providing additional value to our mutual customers that truly enhances their overall shopping and trip experience.” Etihad Guest Miles will automatically be awarded 8 to 12 weeks after the guests complete their stay and can be redeemed for flights and upgrades with Etihad Airways, over 20 airline partners globally, as well as electronics, fashion items and gifts from a range of over 3,000 leading brands available at Etihad Guest’s Reward Shop.

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.