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Qatar Airways starts non-stop flights to Nagpur

Qatar Airways is offering non-stop flights to Nagpur from Doha, taking the airline’s total weekly passenger flights from 95 to 102 across 13 key cities in India. Qatar Airways will operate an A320 daily between Doha and Nagpur with an average flight time of just over four hours. The aircraft will feature 144 seats in a two-class configuration of 12 seats in Business Class and 132 seats in...

Etihad Airways not interested in upgraded Airbus A380 superjumbo

Etihad Airways is not interested in a stretched upgrade to the A380, which Dubai-based Emirates airline has asked Airbus to build, according to chief executive James Hogan. The Abu Dhabi-based airline has 10 A380s together in its fleet and on order. “We think the new technology (with) two engines is operationally and economically more advantageous to us in the long term,” Mr Hoga...

Leaving on a... battery powered plane!

China's first manned electric aircraft is ready for production The RX1E aircraft is powered by rechargeable lithium batteries  The plane can fly for 45-60 minutes on one 90 minute charge It will be used to train pilots and conduct sightseeing flights The model was given approval for production on Thursday China's first manned electric aircraft has been given a...

FAA orders brief grounding of flights at Albuquerque airport

Officials at Albuquerque's international airport say planes are once again coming and going after federal aviation officials ordered a brief restriction on all flights. The order came as neighboring Kirtland Air Force Base had an area surrounding one of its access gates cordoned off due to reports of a suspicious vehicle and person. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford...

Russia, Kazakhstan to Build Common Aerospace Defense System

Moscow and Astana have agreed the terms of Russia’s use of a Kazakh radio communications center as part of Russia’s ballistic missile early warning system, media reports said on Saturday. The head of the Defense Ministry’s international cooperation department, Sergei Koshelev, said the measure would enhance Russia’s defense capability and help build a unified region...

Frontier Airlines is Considering a Rare U.S. Carrier IPO

Frontier Airlines Inc., a no-frills carrier, has held early stage talks with investment banks about an initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said. The U.S. airline is considering starting a formal IPO process as early as next year, the people said, asking not to be identified as the plans are private. There are a number of factors that could influence the decision, and F...

Airbus Helicopters promises to clarify offset offer for Poland

Airbus Helicopters has attempted to defuse an increasingly tense situation in Poland, with the selection of its H225M Caracal for a 50-unit order potentially at stake. In recent weeks, Antoni Macierewicz, appointed Polish defence minister in the wake of October elections, has criticised the selection of the H225M and threatened to reopen a tender if offset conditions were not sufficiently gener...

Indonesian president rejects AW101 purchase

AgustaWestland’s hopes of selling three VVIP-configured AW101 helicopters to Indonesia appear to have been dashed after the country’s leader Joko Widodo rejected an air force plan for their acquisition. On 25 November the head of the air force, Air Marshal Agus Supriatna, said the force had selected the UK-built 15.6t rotorcraft for the requirement, noting that there was no Indonesi...

Jail term reduction for aviation boss who offered bribe to speed up trade licence

An aviation company manager awaiting a licence to begin operating has had his one-year jail term for offering a bribe to expedite his paperwork reduced. Dubai Criminal Court convicted the 57-year-old man, who denied the charges, and ordered his deportation after the jail term, but he appealed the court’s verdict. Uzbek A Y offered US$50,000 (Dh183,658) to Emirati aviation operat...

Etihad suspends Chennai flights for two more days

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways said it will be extending the suspension of its daily flights to Chennai for two more days, until December 9 after torrential rains forced closure of the city’s airport last week. The airline operates three flights daily to the southern Indian city. Etihad initially suspended flights from Wednesday, December 2 through to Monday, December 7. Details of the...

Budget Airline Complaints in Taiwan Soar As Options Increase

The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) received 480 complaints against low-cost carriers (LCCs) from January to October this year, more than double the number during the same period last year, according to a recent United Evening News report. The budget airline industry has been booming in recent years in Taiwan, with 19 low-cost carriers now serving Taiwan and expanding their routes t...

Govt Removes Major Obstacle to PIA Sell-off

President Mamnoon Hussain on Saturday promulgated the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Corporation Conversion Ordinance, paving way for the privatisation of the national flag carrier under a condition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme. The government chose to issue the ordinance on a day when all eyes were on the final phase of local government elections in Punja...

Alaska Airlines Plane Strikes, Kills Deer on Runway, Sonoma County Airport Officials Say

An Alaska Airlines plane arriving from Seattle struck and killed a deer on a runway at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport near Santa Rosa Wednesday evening, airport Manager Jon Stout said Friday. The plane had not yet touched ground and was only a few hundred feet along the 6,000-foot runway when it clipped the deer just before 6:00 p.m., Stout said. The impact from the deer's...

Rain-Hit Chennai Airport Resumes Technical Flights

Technical flights have started from rain-hit Chennai airport where operations were suspended on Wednesday following flooding but it will take a few days to resume commercial flights, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma said on Saturday. "We started technical flights from Chennai airport. But we are unable to resume commercial flights as the basement of the airport is still waterlogged and po...

Arabia Maroc A320 Near Amsterdam on Dec. 5, 2015, Other Crew Saw Oil Trace from Aircraft in Flight

An Air Arabia Maroc Airbus A320-200, registration CN-NMI performing flight 3O-128 from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Tangier (Maroc), was climbing out of Amsterdam's runway 24 on a southerly heading, when a KLM crew reported they had just seen an aircraft with quite an oil trace behind them, a few minutes later ATC queried what colour that aircraft had. The KLM crew reported the aircraft in...

Nepal Quake Tough Test for "World's Most Dangerous Airport"

Flying into Nepal's Lukla airport -- the gateway to Mount Everest -- demands courage and precision, thanks to its tiny, treacherous runway perched on a steep cliff. For half a century, pilots have needed to navigate snow-capped peaks and endure erratic weather to land on a runway just 500 metres long, which has been carved into a mountain ridge and sits by a perilous three-kilometre (t...

Electric Planes Aim to Soar High for Cleaner Aviation Sector

Ultra-light, fast and cheap: more than a century after the Wright brothers flew the world's first powered aircraft, a small Slovenian company now hopes to revolutionise the aviation industry with its award-winning electric planes. Pipistrel's pioneering Taurus Electro is seen as a breath of fresh air in a sector responsible for 13 percent of CO2 emissions from all transport sources....

Morgan Freeman's Plane Crash Lands in Mississippi After Tire Blowout

A plane that Morgan Freeman was on crash landed in Tunica, Mississippi on Saturday. The 78-year-old actor has not suffered any injuries. Freeman told TheWrap in a statement: "I was on my plane on the way to Texas to shoot a segment for The Story of God." "Sometimes things don't go as planned and a tire blew on take-off which caused other problems. But thanks to my excel...

The Bermuda Triangle: Whatever became of the myth

Seventy years after the disappearance of five planes in the Atlantic, Giles Milton investigates one of the world’s most enduring aviation mysteries The message picked up by the control tower was as bizarre as it was alarming. “Everything looks strange,” said the pilot. “It looks like we’re entering white water. We’re completely lost.” There were a fe...

easyJet launches Glasgow - Milan route

easyJet has expanded its Scottish network with the launch of a new route from Glasgow to Milan Malpensa. The new year round service, which is expected to carry 26,000 annually, is Glasgow’s first direct connection to Milan. Flights operate twice weekly on Wednesday’s and Saturday’s with fares starting from £25.49 one way per person. The airline already flies to Milan...

Flight Bans to Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine to Cost Moscow Airports $74M

Moscow airports will lose 5 billion rubles ($74 million) annually due to the ban on flights to Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine, the TASS news agency reported Friday, citing the Domodedovo Airport Official. The destinations affected by the ban account for around 20 percent of the total number of destinations processed by Moscow airports, Domodedovo Airport's acting director Denis Nuzhdin said, TAS...