Category Archives: Aviation

Dubai-based flydubai marks the start of the winter travel season in Russia with four new destinations and increased frequencies on existing routes. The airline’s first flight to Makhachkala landed on October 31 and was greeted by a traditional water cannon salute. The carrier also inaugurated flights to Voronezh, resumed services to Ufa and announced the launch of flights to Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow from 29 November. Jeyhun Efendi, Senior Vice President Commercial (UAE, EU, ME, CIS) at flydubai, said, “It has been seven years since flydubai entered the Russian market and we continue to expand our footprint in the country. With four additional routes and increased frequencies, we’re offering more options to explore Russia for travellers from Dubai and across our network.” These new routes, together with the increased frequencies from mid-December, will expand flydubai’s footprint in Russia to 11 points and 52 weekly flights. The carrier continues to explore new opportunities to service the market while continuing to operate direct airlinks to the remaining points in Russia including Kazan, Krasnodar, Mineralnye Vody, Moscow (Vnukovo), Rostov-on-Don, Samara and Yekaterinburg. All flights to Russia offer the option of a more personalised travel experience with flydubai’s Business Class. The premium offering provides priority check-in, comfortable spacious seating, a range of inflight entertainment, delicious meals and a dedicated 24-hour Business Team to assist with bookings and enquiries throughout the journey. Passengers can relax before the flight at flydubai’s dedicated Business Lounge in Dubai and access business lounges in Voronezh and across the airline’s growing network.

Etihad Airways announced the suspension of its Abu Dhabi – Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) route effective March 25, 2018, as it will become commercially unsustainable following American Airlines’ unilateral decision to terminate its codeshare agreement with the airline. Peter Baumgartner, Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways, said, “The unfortunate decision by American Airlines to terminate a commercial relationship that benefited both carriers has left Etihad with no choice but to suspend flights between our Abu Dhabi home and Dallas/Fort Worth. We are open to American Airlines reversing its decision to cancel our codeshare agreement so that Etihad Airways can continue the route and together support global connectivity while driving commercial value for both airlines.” The route commenced with three flights a week and was upgraded to a daily service in February 2017, providing travellers in the US and across the airline’s network with access to more US cities through American Airlines’ primary hub. Almost half of Etihad Airways’ DFW customers connect on US codeshare flights operated by American Airlines.

Turkish Airlines introduced a new programme ‘Istanbul Bosphorus Experience’, especially designed for its Business Class passengers who have a transfer time of seven or more hours in Istanbul. The aim was to enable its transfer passengers to closely experience the beauty of Istanbul and the Bosphorus, before continuing their trip to their target destination. “We always strive to offer our passengers the best flight experience possible – on board and on the ground. With the addition of the Istanbul Bosphorus Experience, we continue to improve our wide range of activities and services including our worldwide known ‘Turkish Airlines Lounge Istanbul’, which earned the top spot in the category ‘World’s Best Business Class Lounge’ within the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2017, or our innovative Miniport service, etc. Passengers can now discover and enjoy the cultural facets of Istanbul at first hand. Besides further diversifying our unmatched offerings to passengers with this service, we can also indirectly contribute to the Turkish tourism economy,” said Ahmet Olmuştur, Chief Marketing Officer, Turkish Airlines.

Abu Dhabi Airports welcomed airBaltic’s first flight arriving from Riga, Latvia on October 30. The maiden flight marks the commencement of a direct service four times a week between Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) and Riga International Airport (RIX) by airBaltic. On board the first flight arrived Hanan Al Aleeli, UAE Ambassador to Latvia accompanied by members of the embassy and representatives of the airline. The guests were hosted at VIP Terminal and greeted by Astra Kurme, Latvia Ambassador to the UAE and members of the embassy in the UAE, in addition to representatives from Abu Dhabi Airports, Etihad Airways and Air Baltic. Flights will arrive from RIX at 7:25am and depart from AUH at 9:45am on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Hanan Al Aleeli, UAE Ambassador to Latvia, commented, “Our two governments witnessed the maturity of our bilateral relations into full capacity this year, with the operation of two fully fledged embassies in both countries, which was translated to many achievements and milestones.”

Emirates is set to add an extra daily flight to its service between Dubai and Algiers from December 13. The new flight will depart Dubai as EK757 at 8:10hrs and arrive in Algiers at 12:40hrs. The return flight EK758 will depart Algiers at 15:10hrs and arrive in Dubai at 00:40hrs on the following day. The launch of the additional flight will complement Emirates’ current six flights a week, and further boost inbound and outbound passenger traffic and cargo flows between Algeria and Dubai. The new service will operate every Wednesday with an Emirates Boeing 777-300, in a three-class configuration offering eight seats in First Class, 42 in Business Class and 310 in Economy Class. “We are pleased to introduce an additional service to Algiers which will offer our customers even more choice and convenience to connect to Dubai and onward destinations particularly in the Middle East, Far East, West Asia, Indian Ocean and Australia,” said Orhan Abbas, Emirates Senior Vice-President Commercial Operations for Africa.

In a bid to celebrate Bahrain’s 46th National Day, a special one-off A380 service by Emirates will be operated on December 15, 2017- EK 835 and EK 836, departing from Dubai at 12:55hrs and arriving in Bahrain at 1:10hrs. The flight will then depart from Bahrain at 3:50hrs and arriving in Dubai at 6:05hrs. The Emirates A380 flying to Bahrain will be set in a two-class configuration, featuring 58 flatbed seats in Business Class and 120 Economy Class seats on the upper deck with another 437 seats in Economy Class on the lower deck. Premium class passengers travelling on the A380 can experience Emirates’ Onboard Lounge where they can socialise, network and enjoy complimentary beverages, canapés and other special delicacies. Emirates has been flying to Bahrain since 2000, developing its operations by increasing its services based on growing demand, and today operates four daily flights to the Kingdom, connecting Bahraini travellers to over 150 global destinations, including key commercial and leisure centres in Europe, the US and Far East.

According to traffic report issued by Dubai Airports, passenger traffic at Dubai International (DXB) reached 7.2 million in September. The airport for international passenger traffic welcomed 7,215,182 passengers in September as compared to 7,094,738 recorded in the corresponding month last year, symbolising an increase of 1.7 per cent. The softening of the growth was mainly due to the splitting of seasonal rush of travellers during Eid holidays which started in August and ended in September. The year to date traffic continued a strong upward trend with 66,568,550 passengers, a growth of 5.8 per cent compared to 62,945,886 recorded during the first nine months of 2016. Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said, “DXB’s growth throughout the first nine months of 2017 has been very satisfying and we are now well set for a great finish to the year; thanks to the internationally popular entertainment and sports events lined up for the upcoming winter season here in Dubai.”

Passenger traffic at Sharjah International Airport grew by 4 per cent during the third quarter of 2017, compared with the same period of 2016, handling 2.996 million passengers. Summer travel drove Q3 growth with the airport handling 1 million passengers during July and 1.1 million passengers during August. Performance during the three months also beat that of Q1 and Q2 this year, which registered 2 percent and 3 per cent growth respectively. July and August were the first months of this year that exceeded one million passengers, with growth being supported by airline promotions, additional summer flights and the Sharjah summer tourism promotion campaign. Last week, Sharjah International Airport received its first Rossiya Airlines flight from Saint Petersburg and Ekaterinburg in Russia. The airline will operate two Boeing 737-800 flights weekly from October 2017 until March 2018. Sharjah Airport Authority recently appointed US engineering consultancy Parsons Overseas Limited to oversee its US$400 million (AED 1.46b) expansion.

With its recent announcement of strengthening more flights to Russia from November 29, flydubai will further increase their network to Sheremetyevo. This will increase the airline’s frequency to the Russian capital to double daily with the existing service to Vnukovo International Airport. Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer, flydubai, said “We are excited to offer our passengers more options to access two different points of the Russian capital. The launch of our new daily flights to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport is based on the increase in demand for more affordable and reliable direct links to the UAE and beyond.” Jeyhun Efendi, Senior Vice President Commercial (UAE, EU, ME, CIS) for flydubai said “Russia continues to be a very important market for flydubai. Our commitment is demonstrated by the increase of our operations to 11 points and 47 weekly flights to the Russian market. We are also looking forward to increasing our frequency to 52 weekly flights from mid-December to provide our passengers with more convenient options for travel to and from Dubai.”

The latest partnership of Etihad Airways and Alibaba’s Tmall and Alitrip for the Global Shopping Festival 2017 includes five specially-branded exteriors of aircrafts which will depart from Abu Dhabi to four destinations in China – Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Hong Kong. In the coming month, the aircrafts will carry this unique branding to over 40 cities across Etihad Airways’ global network. Tmall’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival has quickly become the largest and most influential online shopping festival in China. The partnership executes China’s ‘Belt and Road’ initiative, facilitating economic ties and cultural exchange between China and UAE. At the same time, it takes Chinese culture to Europe, the US and Africa via the Abu Dhabi hub. Etihad Airways continues to build its long-term relationship with Alibaba Group. With access to nearly 200 million registered Alitrip users, the online store has significantly enhanced Etihad Airways’ digital reach in the Chinese market. By seizing the opportunities presented by the Tmall 11.11 Global Shopping Festival 2017, the two parties will expand their innovative partnership across the ecommerce arena.