JetBlue officially got out of the cargo business about a week ago, and one of the factors leading to that business line’s cessation was the airline’s move to place — some would say cram — 15 additional seats into its fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft in the coach section starting in the second half of 2016. The multiyear project to increase the A320 seat numbers to 165, up f...
Happy customers alone don’t make airlines profitable, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has found. During a special session on Cabin Trends during the recent IATA World Passenger Summit in Hamburg, Tim Jasper Schaff, Director Marketing and Sales for IATA, presented the results of a comprehensive passenger study, but could not prove any correlation between making pass...
Demand at Heathrow has continued to grow, with traffic up 2.3 per cent to a record 56.9 million passengers. Service quality was also ahead of other European hubs during a record summer, with five separate days where Heathrow welcomed over a quarter of a million passengers per day. Robust financial results saw revenue up 4.1 per cent to £2.1 billion and EBITDA up 4.4 per cent to £...
Gulf Air has announced the successful roll out of its new generation iPad Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs), utilizing Jeppesen FliteDeck Pro as its EFB solution, to all the airline's pilots in a move that provides them with fully digitized, real-time access to all operational information inflight, enhancing efficiency while reducing paper usage and delivering cost savings. Jeppesen, a part of...
Textron Aviation is to debuts its Cessna Citation Latitude midsize business jet at the Dubai Airshow next month. The Citation Latitude features the most spacious cabin of the Cessna aircraft at 77 inches wide and six feet tall, and carries up to nine passengers. At the show, Textron Aviation will also be showcasing its defence and special missions products.
A Jetstar Airbus A320 has been given a makeover in the lead up to the Australian summer. The narrowbody, VH-VFV, operated its first commercial service on Wednesday afternoon featuring the “Elevate Your Summer” livery, departing Melbourne Tullamarine at 2015 as JQ780 bound for Adelaide. Jetstar is no stranger to having aircraft with special liveries. Over the years Jetstar has unv...
The peak bodies representing the aviation sector in Australia say they are concerned with the slow pace of change at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and cost of compliance with new regulations. The Australian Aviation Associations’ Forum (TAAAF), which comprise the peak representative bodies in the local industry, says although there is some good work being done at CASA, the or...
Hainan Airlines' subsidiary Capital Airlines has opened two international routes - Zhanjiang-Bangkok on Oct. 26 and Beijing-Male on Oct. 27. The Beijing-based carrier has accelerated its international expansion pace as the Chinese economy grows, which has increased outbound travel for China's citizens. Capital Airlines operates 54 aircraft, comprising 22 Airbus A319s, 31 A320s and...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's VIP jet landed at Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) on Thursday morning. It is Merkel's eighth visit to China in her decade as chancellor. At Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's invitation, Merkel is making an official visit to China from Thursday to Friday. As Merkel exited her exclusive jet, she was greeted by a military honor guard at...
China and Germany signed a deal on Thursday for purchase of 30 Airbus A330 aircraft. The deal for 30 A330s, valued at about EUR17 billion at list prices, was announced during during a meeting in Beijing between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel's VIP jet touched down at Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) on Thursday mornin...
When two Allegiant Airlines pilots couldn't control their plane and scrubbed a takeoff from Las Vegas in August, the carrier discovered that a critical piece of equipment in the tail had come loose. Allegiant ordered inspections of its other Boeing Co. MD-80s to ensure that all similar connections were secured. Eight days later, Allegiant said in response to questions from Bloomberg th...
A UN aviation panel Wednesday rejected a ban on rechargeable battery shipments on passenger airliners, despite evidence they can cause explosions and unstoppable, in-flight fires, aviation officials told The Associated Press. The International Civil Aviation Organization panel on dangerous goods voted 10 to 7 against a ban, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren&#...
