Category Archives: Aviation

Sabre Corporation is supporting Emirates airline with industry-leading technology that personalises the travel experience for consumers by enabling them to easily purchase a range of customised fares. Sabre and Emirates have also signed a new long-term global distribution agreement to make the airline’s fares available to travel agents globally who use Sabre. Emirates, the world’s largest international airline, operates more than 3,600 flights per week to over 150 destinations across six continents. Sabre’s technology will enable the airline to effectively market and sell its expansive roster of fares globally through the Sabre Travel Marketplace, reaching more than 425,000 travel agents across the world. Sabre’s technology enables travel agents to meet a growing demand and expectation from consumers for more personalised products and services. Using Sabre’s enhanced solution, travel agents can now provide travellers with Emirates’ range of branded fares, which enable passengers to choose fares based on what is most important to them – such as purchasing a budget fare, earning the most air miles or having the greatest degree of flexibility. “Emirates airline is a brand that invests significantly in differentiating the traveller experience, and personalisation plays a central role in this strategy,” said Dean Bibb, interim senior vice president EMEA at Sabre. “The airline’s new range of branded fares offers passengers more choices and greater control over their travel experience, which often means happier travellers and higher satisfaction. Helping our airline customers put travellers at the heart of their operation is a major focus for Sabre and our investment efforts.” Travel agents using Sabre can now offer clients more informed choices and a higher level of customer service, while also driving upsell opportunities based on enhanced visibility to …

Emirates, the largest international airline in the world, has announced that it will introduce a third daily flight between Dubai and Kenya’s capital Nairobi from June 1, 2017. The additional flight will increase the number of scheduled Emirates flights between the two cities to 21 a week and give customers greater flexibility and choice when planning their travel. It also underscores Emirates’ commitment to Kenya and confidence in the route, which has grown to become one of the airline’s busiest routes in Africa since it first launched services to the country in October 1995.As with its other two daily flights between Dubai and Nairobi, Emirates will also operate its popular Boeing 777-300ER in a three class configuration. The aircraft will have eight private suites in First Class, 42 lie-flat seats in Business Class and 304 spacious seats in Economy Class. Flight EK717 will become the first of the three daily departures from Dubai and leave at 0140hrs and arrive in Nairobi at 0540hrs, enabling customers arriving on Emirates’ flights from India, the UK and many European countries such as France, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Netherlands and Italy to connect to the Nairobi flight within three hours. The return flight EK718 is also conveniently timed and will depart Nairobi at 0710hrs and land in Dubai at 1315hrs, ahead of Emirates’ afternoon European flights and its fourth daily flight to New York, a popular destination for Kenyan travellers.

Africa’s largest airline group Ethiopian Airlines will begin the first five months of the new year with a rapid network expansion plan to launch seven new destinations from February to June 2017. They envisage to reach 120 international destinations worldwide by 2025. The new destinations from February to June, will launch new service to Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), Antananarivo (Madagascar), Conakry (Guinea), Oslo (Norway), Chengdu (China), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Singapore (Singapore). With the addition of these stations, Ethiopian will have service from Addis Ababa to 98 different international cities located across the world and just 22 to reach their goal of 120. Group CEO Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde GebreMariam, said: “Africa’s share of the Global Aviation is the smallest which is only around 3%. As the largest airline group in the continent, we are highly concerned on the low base of air connectivity in the continent and we are setting record expansion to enable Africans enjoy safe, reliable and economical air connectivity both within the continent and between the continent and the rest of the world. Looking beyond the current economic slowdown especially in the oil export dependent economies of Africa, we firmly believe that the continent will become the magnet for foreign direct investment, trade and tourism, which are the engines of air travel growth and in turn efficient air connectivity also drives socio economic development and we are happy to contribute our share in the 21st Century African Transformation. In the just ended calendar year alone, new flights to Moroni (Comoros), WindHoek (Namibia) and Newark (United States) were launched, as well as three cities in Ethiopia: Hawassa, Kebridahar and Dembidolo. Ethiopian is one of the fastest growing airlines in the …

Sharjah International Airport registered a 10 percent year-on-year increase in passengers, handling 11 million passengers from January to December 2016. The airport passed the 10 million passenger mark for the first time in 2015, showing 5.5 percent growth. Since then, the airport has continued to show strong growth. Airport passengers increased 12 percent during the first quarter of 2016, 11 percent during Q2 and 13 percent during Q3, reaching one million passengers per month for the first time in August 2016. Aircraft movements at Sharjah International Airport increased by 6 percent to 75,900 scheduled and non-scheduled movements in 2016 compared with 71,426 in 2015. Sharjah International Airport’s growth has been driven by its strategic location, the success of Sharjah’s in-bound tourism industry and the expansion of Sharjah-headquartered Air Arabia. The airport’s ideal location, close to Sharjah city, Dubai city and the main highways connecting the country’s seven emirates, has made it a convenient hub for both business and leisure travelers.Whilst Air Arabia hasn’t yet announced overall figures for 2016, the airline served over 2.27 million passengers during the first nine months of 2016, a 14 percent increase compared to the 2 million passengers during the same period of 2015. The airline currently operates a fleet of 46 Airbus A320 aircraft offering flights to over 120 destinations in 33 countries from five hubs across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Flynas, Saudi Arabia’s leading low-cost carrier, has signed an agreement with Airbus for 60 A320neo family aircraft. In addition to the 60 aircraft, Flynas has converted 20 A320ceo from a previous order to A320neo bringing the airline’s total firm order to 80 A320neo. The deliveries are scheduled to take place during 2018-2026. The agreement was announced in Riyadh in the presence of Ayed Al Jeaid, Chairman, NAS Holding, Bander Al Mohanna, Chief Executive Officer, NAS Holding Group and Fouad Attar, Managing Director, Airbus Middle East. Flynas, an all Airbus operator, currently has 26 A320ceo in service. Ayed Al Jeaid, Chairman, NAS Holding Group said, “Flynas has come a long way to establish itself as a highly reputed airline in Saudi Arabia. With the introduction of the new aircraft technology, we are confident of our ability to provide best services to our customers. We also look forward to being the first airline in the Kingdom to be successfully listed on the Saudi Stock exchange, which will offer equity ownership to the public and be a part of a great journey.”

Turkish Airlines will now add Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, to its extensive flight network from March 30, 2017. Kharkiv flights will be operated 4 times weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and will increase to 7 times per week as of May 30th. Round trip fares are available from Istanbul to Kharkiv starting from $109 (including taxes and fees). Additionally, for the first six months of operation to the new destinations, there is a special offer for Miles&Smiles members, with a 25% reduction in the miles needed to redeem either award tickets or upgrades.

Qatar Airways has announced it will commence four times weekly, non-stop service to Las Vegas, Nevada, starting 8 January 2018. The new route will be the airline’s 11th to the United States, connecting McCarran International Airport to Hamad International Airport in Doha, making Qatar Airways the first Gulf carrier to provide regular scheduled service to Las Vegas. “Las Vegas is a thriving leisure destination and adding the city to our route map has been long overdue. Growing our western United States network is important to the airline as we are seeing exponential growth in passenger demand from the East via our state of the art hub in Doha,” said Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker. “Our passengers appreciate the glamour, style and allure of Las Vegas and beginning in 2018, we are going to give our passengers from around the world direct and convenient access to this unique capital of entertainment.” The new route also provides US-based flyers with an additional point of departure, when travelling abroad to Qatar Airways’ global network of over 150 destinations. It will be Qatar Airways’ second route from the American west, after the airline launched their popular Los Angeles to Doha route, in January 2016.This year, Qatar Airways is celebrating its 10th anniversary of serving the United States, having started serving New York/Newark in 2007. Qatar Airways currently serves 10 American cities. Las Vegas will join Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City/JFK International Airport, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. The new route will operate with a Boeing 777-200LR.

Emirates will resume its flagship A380 service between Dubai and Narita from March 26, 2017. This follows the airline’s recent A380 deployment to Moscow, and will take place after the upcoming launch of A380 services to Johannesburg. It will also coincide with the launch of A380 services between Dubai and Casablanca. Emirates will deploy its three-class A380 on the Narita route, offering a total of 489 seats, with 14 private suites in First Class, 76 mini pods with lie-flat seats in Business Class and 399 spacious seats in Economy Class, increasing capacity per flight by more than 135 passengers compared to the current Boeing 777-300ER. Flight EK318 will depart Dubai at 02:40 and arrive in Narita at 17:35 daily. Return flight EK319 will depart Narita on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 22:00 and arrive in Dubai at 04:15 the next day, while on Tuesday and Wednesday, it will depart Narita at 21:20 and arrive in Dubai at 03:35 the next day. All times are local. Narita will join more than 40 destinations on Emirates’ extensive global network served by its A380 aircraft, including Paris, Rome, Milan, Madrid, London and Mauritius. Emirates currently operates a three-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on its daily flights between Narita and Dubai. The resumption of Emirates’ A380 service to Narita makes it possible for Japanese travellers to fly only on A380s to their final destinations, particularly when travelling to European cities, via Dubai.

Dubai Airports, operator of Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bureau Dubai Expo 2020 to ensure a world-class experience for the millions of guests that will visit Dubai during the event. Following the signing of the MoU the airport operator is now an official supporter of Dubai Expo 2020. As part of the agreement, Dubai Airports will engage with the Expo 2020 team and airport stakeholders to create an ‘expo experience’ inside the airport which will set the tone for visitors and entice transfer passengers to return or stopover. Additionally, as part of its DXB Plus programme and service strategy, Dubai Airports will work with airport stakeholders to ensure minimal queuing and fast and convenient passage through both airports. Dubai Airports recently launched two major projects that will provide the capacity required for Expo 2020 and onwards. The first, DXB Plus, is designed to deliver a consistent and differentiated customer experience while boosting capacity to 118 million by 2023 without adding any additional significant infrastructure. Capacity gains and service enhancements will be achieved through streamline, customer-centric processes and new technology. The second, also currently underway, will see DWC’s passenger terminal building expanded from the current 5 million passengers per year to 26 million by the end of next year.  As part of the DWC expansion programme the check-in area, baggage and immigration halls, as well as security screening areas, will be substantially expanded while the forecourt will be improved to ensure easier access to the parking and drop-off areas. Once complete the passenger terminal will provide a total of 24 boarding gates, 7 baggage reclaim carousels and 104 check-in desks.

The 2017 edition of Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature will be held from March 3-11, and will see 160 authors from more than 30 countries conducting 250 sessions. The Festival is held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President & Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and in partnership with Emirates Airline and the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated Authority for heritage, arts, and culture. The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is the Middle East’s largest celebration of the written and spoken word. In nine short years the Festival has grown into the UAE’s premier literary festival, hosting international and regional writers, poets, thinkers and speakers from around the world.