06-Sep-2015 His Excellency Mr. Sulaiman Bin Abdullah Al-Hamdan, President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), visited the new Terminal 5 in King Khaled International Airport (KKIA) in Riyadh to inspect the work in progress and the achievements made to date. His Excellency was accompanied by Mr. Yousef Bin Ibrahim Al-Abdan, Director of KKIA, Mr. Basem Bin Abdul...
Sky Angkor Airlines (ZA, Phnom Penh) has signed a five-year co-operation agreement with the Small Planet Group. Under the agreement's terms, each winter Small Planet Airlines (S5, Vilnius) will base part of its fleet in Asia to provide capacity to the fledgling Cambodian operator. From November 2015 to March 2016, four A320-200s will be used transport tourists, among o...
Jack So Chak-kwong, Chairman of Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA), recently met with Li Jiaxiang, Director General of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in Beijing. During the meeting, Mr So introduced the latest developments at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), and also visited Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) to learn about the progress of the new airport that...
With commercial airlines packing more passengers per plane, many fliers believe that the federal government should adopt minimum airline seat standards for legroom and width to ensure the safety and comfort of travelers. That is the sentiment of more than 30,000 people who signed a petition that was sent last month to Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta. The petiti...
Indonesia AirAsia X, which sells cheap flights from Melbourne and Sydney to Bali, is in danger of being grounded by Indonesian authorities next month for not meeting a regulatory requirement to have at least 10aircraft in its fleet. The move would be a blow to Australian holidaymakers and to the airline, which already damaged its reputation by selling flights from Melbourne to Bali last ye...
Honeywell Aerospace will display its HTS900 and LTS101 turboshaft helicopter engines as well as its Sky Connect Tracker III communications system at the 2015 China Helicopter Exposition Sep. 9 to 13, 2015, at booth C107 at the AVIC Helicopter - Free Trade Zone area of Tianjin Port. The exposition is the only national level exhibition for helicopters with an air flight show, which aims to prom...
A union representing Lufthansa pilots has called a one-day strike at the German airline's long-distance and cargo operations on Tuesday - the latest in a string of walkouts. The Vereinigung Cockpit union has hit various Lufthansa units with more than a dozen short-term walkouts over recent months. The dispute centers on the airline's plans to cut transition payments for pilots want...
The head of the company behind British Airways has stepped up his campaign to cut aviation taxes and reform visas for Chinese visitors, urging George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to implement the measures to boost tourism to Britain. Willie Walsh, the chief executive of International Airlines Group, has written a letter to Mr Osborne calling on him to cut Air Passenger Du...
A fast-growing Chinese travel aggregation site has teamed up with Amadeus as it bids to expand internationally. Shijie99, which targets inbound tourism to China and Chinese travellers in overseas markets, has penned a new multi-year agreement that will give it access to Amadeus' global air, hotel, car rental and rail content. It will also deploy Amadeus' Master Pricer search technology...
A bomb hoax made by a male passenger at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH) delayed Flight EU2206 of Chengdu Airlines (EU) from Hangzhou to Chengdu for nearly three hours last Thursday night. According to the airline, the Chengdu-bound flight is estimated to take off from Hangzhou at 8:10 p.m. During the boarding procedure, a middle-aged male passenger claimed that...
British leisure airline Jet2 has banned 14 passengers for life after they allegedly threatened cabin crew and forced a plane to divert to Portugal. The plane was flying from Glasgow to Tenerife when the crew decided to make an unscheduled landing in Faro, Portugal so the disruptive holidaymakers could be kicked off the plane. Jet2 claimed the unruly men were "aggressive and ve...
By acquiring its struggling rival Transaero, Russia's largest airline Aeroflot is likely to find itself in a tight spot with an additional debt burden and a fleet of ageing aircraft, analysts said. State-controlled Aeroflot announced this week its purchase of 75 percent plus one of Transaero's shares for the symbolic price of one ruble, citing the privately-held airline's...
Emirates airline has denied any connection with a new social media competition offering free airline tickets, calling it a "hoax". "The recent competition on Facebook offering free flights is a hoax and has nothing to do with Emirates," the airline said in a statement sent to Emirates 24|7. "Our competitions are always run from our officially verified socia...
Two incidents of aircraft declaring fuel emergencies on Thursday night and the diversion of 10 flights to Bengaluru have brought the fuel uplift policies of airlines into question. On Thursday, a Jet Airways ATR (Madurai-Chennai flight) and an IndiGo Airbus A320 aircraft (Kolkata-Chennai) declared fuel emergencies, after being diverted to Bengaluru from Chennai due to runway closure....
A year ago the Herald's view of Qantas tallied with a commonly held belief among business analysts, economists and, indeed, the flying public. Australia's flag carrier was on the nose, its leadership struggling and its finances shaky to the point where it wanted taxpayers to help out. Some observers even wanted to change the Qantas Sale Act to allow greater foreign investment in the nation...
The state consumer commission has slapped Emirates Airlines with a fine of 55,000 rupees for losing the baggage of a passenger about seven years ago, and said, payment of damages could not be restricted to the terms of any act, as "there is no bar to grant justifiable compensation for causing mental agony." Ashok Balasubramanian said he was doing a commercial pilot license c...
Aer Lingus chairman Colm Barrington's Fly Leasing recently supplied a Boeing aircraft to Norwegian Air, the Scandinavian operator that is attempting to set up a budget long-haul airline in the Republic. Mr Barrington is chief executive of Dún Laoghaire-based Fly Leasing, one of a number of Irish companies that finance and supply aircraft to airlines around the wor...
London's mayor, a potential successor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, said a proposal to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport was doomed to fail, complicating an already fraught issue for the government. In July, after a three-year study, the Airports Commission recommended Heathrow as the best option for an additional runway over two other shortlisted airports, argui...
A Shanghai Airlines (FM) flight from Shanghai to Bangkok was diverted to Nanchang Changbei International Airport (KHN) on Sunday evening after a foreign passenger became ill and passed away upon landing, local media reported. Flight FM855 took off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) at 3:00 p.m., and the crew of flight FM855 declared an emergency en route to Nanchang airp...
Airline Investments Limited (AIL) has announced plans to rationalize operations at its recently acquired Loganair (LM, Glasgow Int'l) and bmi regional (BM, Aberdeen Dyce) subsidiaries. Under the plan, bmi regional is to relocate its engineering facilities to one of its primary hubs, Bristol Int'l, where AIL is proposing to acquire hangar space to accom...
The Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) government's nascent national carrier, Congo Airways (Kinshasa N'Djili), has suffered yet another set back in its quest to free its second aircraft, A320-200 EI-DSN (cn 3412), currently impounded at Dublin Int'l. Prior to the aircraft's intended departure for Kinshasa N'Djili late last month, a US firm...
