Singapore Airlines Will Operate New Daily Flights to Munich and Manchester
September 1st 2010, Singapore Airlines (SIA) will operate new daily flights for the route Singapore-Munich-Manchester, with two new weekly routes available in addition to the five existing for European destinations.
Air travel, made on B-777/300ER planes in the largest city of Southern Germany, was inaugurated on March 28th 2010, and, until now, was offered for five days a week.
The enhancement in the frequency of the flights to Munich is due to the imminent 200th Oktoberfest, the famous beer festival that will take place from September 18th to October 3rd, 2010.
Munich is the second German destination reached by Singapore Airlines; to Frankfurt are already available two daily flights, one of which does an intermediate stop here and then goes on to New York.
Starting from tomorrow, with the increase of flights to Munich, the Asia’s leading carrier will reach the number of 21 connections per week.
source : Avionews
German Airlines Company, Lufthansa and Ethiopian Expand Flight Services
Lufthansa passengers now have a choice of four new codeshare destinations in Africa.
The increase in services is due to the expansion of the German carrier’s partnership with Ethiopian Airlines, which with immediate effect will operate several onward flights from Ethiopia under a Lufthansa flight number. These include flights from Addis Ababa to Kigali (Rwanda), Entebbe/Kampala (Uganda), Nairobi (Kenya) and to the Tanzanian airports Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar. Nairobi and Dar es Salaam will also continue to be served on a codeshare basis by SWISS.
Likewise, Ethiopian Airlines will be able to book its passengers under its own flight numbers on Lufthansa flights from Frankfurt to Amsterdam, Geneva, Stockholm, New York (John F. Kennedy and Newark), San Francisco and Los Angeles.
On existing codeshare flights between Frankfurt and Addis Ababa, which Lufthansa and Ethiopian Airlines have been operating since April 2008, customers will be able to book seats in First Class with immediate effect. This is because Lufthansa will in future deploy the Airbus A330-300 with three travel classes on its four-times-weekly flights.
The codeshare flights, which can be booked now, provide customers with greater flexibility and a wider choice of connections. As both airlines’ frequent flyer programmes have been linked since October 2007, members of Lufthansa Miles & More and Ethiopian Sheba Miles can collect and redeem miles on any of the partner’s flights.
Discounts on Air Tickets and Freight Charges for European Flights
The Syrian Arab Airlines announced a 15 percent discount on airline tickets and a 50 percent discount on air freight charges to and from Europe starting by the end of this month.
The Syrian Airlines at an earlier time announced operating its Falcon 20 aircrafts (7 passengers) on hourly rental basis for all domestic flights.
It also continues running its new ATR 72 aircrafts which include 12 seats (VIP class) and 54 seats (tourist class) for domestic and regional flights.
Over the first three quarters of 2010, Syria Air planes carried 502, 376 passengers out of the total number of passengers arriving and departing at the Syrian airports who count 3,363,907.
Emirates Airlines No Delay Delivery Airbus A380 This Year
Airbus is on track to deliver six to seven A380 planes this year to Emirates airlines, its biggest customer for the superjumbos, an Airbus Middle East executive said on Wednesday.
Dubai government-owned Emirates, among the fastest-growing carriers in the world, plans to increase its fleet to eventually include 120 Airbus A380s.
Fouad Attar, deputy president and head of commercial at Airbus Middle East, said the aircraft maker would deliver “six to seven” A380 jets to Emirates this year.
Asked whether there were any delays in the deliveries to Emirates, he said: “No, they’re all on time. There’s no delay.”
Attar also said Airbus expected 50 to 100 orders from the Middle East and North Africa region and the company would focus on Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere in North Africa.
“There’s lot of potential in North Africa,” Attar told reporters on the sidelines of an aviation, adding the political turmoil in Egypt could affect the number of orders.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Tuesday he would surrender power in September, angering protesters who want an immediate end to his 30-year-rule.
Airline Companies optimistic Market, Flight Services Future
Commercial airlines’ economic troubles will improve during the fourth quarter and the industry may even go into the black in 2009, the head of the carriers’ main trade group said this week.
Recent steps by U.S. airlines to cope with the high cost of jet fuel have left carriers in an strong position to withstand the current economic turmoil, especially now that oil prices have dropped, said James May, president of the Air Transport Association. Steps range from dramatic cutbacks in scheduled flights to charging passengers for checked bags and other services that had been free.
“The good news is we were prepared,” May told the Air Traffic Control Association’s annual conference. “The net result is I think we’re going to see a reasonably positive fourth quarter this year for commercial aviation and the very real chance we’ll be operating in the black” in 2009.
But airlines remained in the red in the recently completed third quarter. US Airways Group Inc. last month said it lost $865 million because of high fuel prices. Although those results beat analyst estimates, the loss was the worst among the major carriers during the July-September quarter, topping United parent UAL Corp.’s $779 million loss.
May also predicted there will be no further mergers of domestic carriers like Delta Air Lines Inc.’s acquisition of Northwest Airlines.
But he forecast more strategic alliances among U.S. and European airlines such as the partnership recently proposed by AMR Corp.’s American Airlines and British Airways. The airlines are seeking antitrust immunity for the deal, which would let them work together on pricing and scheduling for flights across the Atlantic. BA and American also want to add Spain’s Iberia to the deal.
“That will be the future of this business,” May said.
