The number of airline passengers who are reported for disrupting commercial flights has been dropping for several years. But the decline may have more to do with social media than any improvement in fliers’ manners. In 2015, the incidents of “unruly passengers” reported to the Federal Aviation Administration fell to 82, from 145 in 2014, a 43% drop. Federal law says passeng...
Dubai International kept its position as the world’s busiest airport for international passengers for the second year, after traffic exceeded 78 million in 2015. Aided by 100 airlines that connect the airport to 240 destinations around the world, the airport traffic increased by 10.7 per cent in 2015 over the 70.4 million recorded in 2014. In December alone, passenger numbers reached 7...
Qantas has further expanded the range of points-earning opportunities for its ever-growing frequent flyer membership base through a new partnership with Vodafone. The tie-up allows Qantas’s frequent flyer members to earn points on eligible Vodafone mobile plans, while Vodafone will sell prepaid products on board some of the Flying Kangaroo’s international flights. The Vodafone in...
Airbus’s flagship A380 has ended a three-year drought for new orders with confirmation Japan’s ANA and Iran Air will be new operators of the world’s largest airliner. On Friday, ANA Holdings (ANA HD) confirmed it would take three A380s that were earmarked for Skymark Airlines, with first delivery is due in 2019. ANA said the A380, which will be powered with Rolls-Royce Tren...
Tigerair Australia chief executive Rob Sharp says events such as the volcanic ash cloud and Jakarta terrorist attacks have not dampened demand for the low-cost carrier’s proposed Bali flights due to kick off in March. The Virgin Australia-owned airline has completed the reconfiguration and repainting of the first of three Boeing 737-800s, VH-VUB, that will be used to operate Ade...
Ryanair, Europe’s favourite airline, today (Feb 1) announced Q3 profits of €103m, a 110% increase on prior year. Traffic grew 20% to 25m as ave. fares fell 1% to €40 (load factors rose 5% points to 93%) while unit costs fell by 5% (ex-fuel down 1%). Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, said: “We are pleased to report that our low fares policy delivered stron...
An unexplained incident that forced a plane to land after six people fell ill has led campaigners to call for toxic air detectors to be installed in cabins. The captain of an American Airlines flight to Los Angeles returned to land at Heathrow after two passengers and some flight attendants complained of light headedness. American Airlines said a subsequent investigation found no evidence of...
Passenger numbers at Abu Dhabi International Airport rose by 17.2 per cent in 2015, with more than 23 million travellers passing through its terminals during the past year. Much of the increase was thanks to the concurrent growth of Etihad Airways which carried 17.4 million passengers in 2015, up 18.4 per cent on the previous year. The airline was responsible for nearly three-quart...
Iran expects to finalise within days a deal to buy up to 40 planes from ATR, the European manufacturer of turboprop aircraft, a deputy transport minister said Saturday. “We discussed the deals in Italy and France and ATR officials are expected in Tehran in the coming days to complete the agreement,” Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan said. “There will be 20 firm and 20 optional orders,...
Diehl Aerosystems, a first-tier supplier and partner for avionics and cabin integration to the big aircraft manufacturers and a retrofitting specialist for aircraft operators, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for establishing a partnership with Regent Aerospace, Valencia/USA. The partnership aims at joining forces for the aircraft cabin retrofit and refurbishment markets in order to...
American Airlines reported a record profit for the fourth quarter and all of 2015 as a sharp drop in fuel prices more than offset lower revenue. The world’s biggest airline said Friday that its earnings were the highest ever for any carrier. American Airlines Group Inc. posted net income of $3.28 billion in the fourth quarter, but the results were inflated by a huge accounting gain fro...
Qatar Airways is starting 2016 with an expansion programme across Eastern Europe, enabling passengers to benefit from a wide range of additional flight options via Doha’s Hamad International Airport. The further expansion adds a further level of choice for passengers travelling between Croatia, Hungary and Azerbaijan and anywhere in the airline’s extensive global network. Flights to...
easyJet has launched a new industry team that will focus on further development of the travel management company (TMC) sector throughout Europe. easyJet continues to evolve into markets such as Germany and with team-members located in strategic markets across Europe, the airline aims to enhance its partnerships with the corporate travel sector, which now represents more than 20% of the airlines...
The $400 billion economy is the second-largest in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia. Less than a fortnight after a decade of crippling economic sanctions on Iran ended, President Hassan Rouhani is being treated to red carpets, dinners with top CEOs and billion-dollar deals in Europe. In Italy, accords worth $22 billion covered industries from natural gas to high-speed rail, while in France...
Two TransAsia Airways pilots caused a 2014 plane crash that left 48 people dead by flying too low as they attempted to land on an island during a typhoon, Taiwan’s aviation authorities said Friday. Taiwan’s aviation body said the pilots flew below the minimum altitude required in poor visibility caused by Typhoon Matmo on July 23, 2014, in its final report into the airline’s s...
The war of words between Arabian Gulf airlines and their American rivals over open skies has been turned up a notch following allegations of declining traffic between the US and the Middle East. The US airlines – American, Delta and United – claimed that bookings from Orlando, San Francisco and Chicago to the region and beyond were down by as much as 13.3 per cent following the entr...
Boeing Co. on Friday completed the first test flight of its new 737 MAX 8 passenger jet. The MAX 8 carries a list price of $110 million per copy, with other members of the re-engined MAX family selling for $90.2 million for the MAX 7, $112.9 million for the MAX 200 and $116.6 million for the MAX 9. At the end of December, Boeing had 409 orders for the MAX family of jets, the largest an order fo...
AirAsia Bhd will introduce four Airbus A320neo aircraft to its fleet in the second half of this year and 200 more by 2028. The new A320neo aircraft are powered by CFM International’s new LEAP-X engines and will fly all routes operated by the budget airline. Group Chief Pilot Technical and Efficiency Rajesh Gill said the A320neo aircraft will deliver fuel savings of up to 20 per cent an...
Reported By Passenger I just heard from a friend of mine (who reads the blog) that the pilot on her British Airways flight today pulled off a pretty remarkable feat. In the words of Nicole: I’m on this flight linked below and I though if you had a space to fill in an upcoming post you could give a shout out to the amazing crew. I honestly would have never known we landed with 3 o...
Boeing has won a contract to start preliminary design work on a new fleet of Air Force One presidential aircraft based on its 747-8 commercial airliner, the Pentagon said on Friday. The US Air Force awarded Boeing an initial contract worth $25.8 million (£18.1 million) to start work on the program by looking at the tradeoffs between the requirements for the new plane and its design, accor...
Turkish Airlines and Boeing, building on their 70-year relationship, today signed a collaboration agreement that will strengthen Turkish Airlines’ long-term industry leadership, as well as Turkey’s aerospace and technology capabilities. In the agreement, Turkish Airlines and Boeing identified several potential areas of new cooperation, expanding on Boeing’s already-significant in...
