Etihad Airways has received the coveted award for Best First Class at the annual Ultratravel Middle East Awards (ULTRAs) ceremony, which was held last night at the iconic Burj Al Arab Jumeirah hotel in Dubai. The award is another major accolade for the UAE national airline's First Class experience, which has repeatedly been voted best in the world. The ULTRAs are voted for by the re...
Airbus, Ctrip.com, China's largest online travel agency and VariFlight, China's leading flight status service provider jointly launched the "A380 World Travel Route Design Contest" at the Civil Aviation Communications Summit 2015 held Thursday in Beijing. The contest, themed "A Reason to Travel Around the World", intends to provide a round-the-world travel chance for...
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has issued its 2016 subsidy policy for 152 small civilian airports, which will receive subsidies amounting to 1.31 billion yuan next year, according to an announcement released on CAAC's website on Thursday. According to the announcement, 152 small airports are among the beneficiaries and each will get a subsidy ranging from 1.11 million yua...
More than 200 landing approaches made by commercial airliners over the past 15 years prompted cockpit emergency collision warnings -- the last possible alert before a crash -- yet most of the incidents weren't reported by pilots, according to global data collected by Honeywell International Inc. The hazardous approaches made up a minute portion of the more than 20 million analyzed flig...
Just when we thought it was safe to travel again and proceed with normal flight bookings, volcanic ash spewed from Lombok's Mt. Barujari (Rinjani) has got some flights cancelled again after being quiet for the past couple weeks. Both Virgin Australia and Jetstar have announced cancellations on their websites. Virgin cancelled all flights in and out of Bali and a 9:00 a.m. flight this mor...
UTair (UT, Khanty-Mansiysk) has signed two agreements with eleven creditor banks to restructure RUB43 billion (USD657.9 million) worth of debt. The first agreement involves a syndicated loan for RUB18.9 billion (USD287.2 million) for a period of seven years while the second is for RUB24.1 billion (USD366.2 million) over 12 years. However, sources who spoke to Russia's Vedomosti newspaper sa...
Members of Etihad Airways' cabin crew will represent the airline at Sunday's Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, when they walk out in front of a worldwide audience of motor-racing enthusiasts at the Yas Marina Circuit. Etihad Airways handpicked 56 cabin crew-members as ‘grid girls’ who will wear the airline’s elegant uniforms at the starting grid on race da...
The Indian air force has received its eighth and final batch of Antonov AN−32RE tactical transports to be upgraded in the Ukraine. The delivery of the five aircraft completes the total life extension, overhaul and modernisation of 40 aircraft to AN−32RE standard by Plant 410 of Civil Aviation and Antonov in Kyiv, Ukraine. The “RE” in the aircraft’s new de...
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has issued a draft ruling giving American Airlines and Qantas’s proposed expanded alliance on trans-Pacific routes the green light for the next five years. Although Qantas and American had an existing alliance that the ACCC approved in September 2011 for five years, the pair sought reauthorisation of a new agreement that included a...
Virgin Australia has returned to the top of the punctuality table, edging out Qantas as the nation’s most on-time domestic airline, government statistics show. According to figures from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE), Virgin had the highest percentage of on-time arrivals in October, with 89.8 per cent of its domestic flights reaching their destinati...
China is making the aircraft-leasing business a popular destination for mergers and acquisitions. Plane-leasing companies in China have been involved in more than US$16 billion worth of acquisitions since last year, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg. In addition, billionaire tycoons such as Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong's richest man, have entered the industry during that period. Behin...
China will mandate that its air traffic controllers use only English when communicating with pilots of any airline starting in 2017, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). According to Zhao Yun, an official at the CAAC in Beijing, "the move will improve situational awareness for foreign pilots. By ATC communicating in English pilots will be aware of the positi...
Honeywell Aerospace and COMAC have received two major communications awards recognizing their contributions to improving educational opportunities for children in rural China. The companies earned the Best Brand Innovation award from the 2015 Civil Aviation Communications Summit and the 6th Golden Flag Award from the China International Public Relations Association and China Public Relations Ne...
As many as 1.02 million air passengers traveled in and out of Tibet Autonomous Region on the flights of Tibet Airlines(TV) in January-October 2015, the Lhasa-based carrier said on Thursday. Tibet Airlines has hit the 1 million passenger mark in the first ten months of the year. The airline said it holds a 32.7% market share in the Tibetan air travel market and has carried more passengers than a...
France's provincial cities reckon they're being held back by an airport system that focuses two-thirds of passenger traffic on Paris and denies them long-haul routes. Their claims are about to be put to the test. The governm'ent is gearing up to sell 60 percent stakes in Nice-Cote d'Azur and Lyon airports, France's third and fourth largest, after disposing of Toulouse-B...
India is likely to become the third largest aviation market in the world displacing the UK by 2026, according to a forecast by global airlines grouping International Air Transport Association today. Besides, the IATA expects India's air passenger traffic to grow to 378 million passengers by 2034 with 275 new passengers likely to be added during this period. Globally, the IATA projec...
Four Middle Eastern passengers were removed from a plane after a woman claimed she saw one of them receive a text with the word "dynamite" and a code for another airport. Anti-terror officers were called to the incident just days after the Paris attacks which killed 130 people. The alarmed passenger said she became worried when a man made several phone calls in another language and...
Activists opposed to the expansion of London's Heathrow Airport blocked an approach tunnel on Thursday by chaining themselves to a parked vehicle, bringing traffic chaos to Europe's busiest airport. Police said they had arrested five people and removed three vehicles from the tunnel, used by cars and taxis to access three of Heathrow's five terminals. Heathrow could be given...
Authorities at the Mexico City international airport say the landing gear collapsed on a Boeing 737 as it landed, but no injuries were reported. The plane is operated by the Mexican airline Magnicharters and was arriving in Mexico City from the Caribbean coast resort of Cancun. Airport authorities said Thursday that some of the 139 passengers were treated for "nervous crisis,"...
Slovenian MRO Adria Airways Technika (AA Technika) has been acquired by Poland’s Linetech for an undisclosed amount. A statement released by state-owned investment fund Slovenian Sovereign Holding on Tuesday (November 24) said the sale is for 100 per cent of AA Technika. Slovenian Sovereign Holding is currently offloading companies for privatisation, with AA Technika now the seven...
AEGEAN announces Nine Month 2015 results with consolidated revenue at €792.2m, 8% higher versus 2014. Total number of passengers carried rose by 17% to 9.2m as the company invested more capacity, increasing frequencies as well as adding new destinations. Net earnings after tax increased 4% to €81.9m. During the third and most important quarter as far as demand seasonality is conc...
