Last week, Etihad celebrated ten years of operations with a flyover of AbubDabi. From one A320 flying from Abu Dhabi to Beirut, the UAE carrier has grown to be one of the world’s largest carriers. The airline operates over 1,000 flights per week with 88 aeroplanes to 95 passenger and cargo destinations across the globe. In 2012 it carried 10.3 million passengers, up 23 per cent on 2011. Etihad is very good at growth. Just not good at making money. In fact growth seems to come before profit. For much of its decade, the airline…
Airline News (Friday)
Category Archives for Airline News (Friday).
Fly Nonstop Stops
The old adage about the airline business is that the way to make a small fortune in the airline business is to start with a large one. Espen Hennig-Olsen, an heir to the Norwegian Hennig-Olsen ice cream company invested his money in a full service airline start-up carrier called Fly Nonstop. The airline started flying on April 25th, 2013. The airline leased a 100-passenger Embraer 190 which was flown by a Dutch charter company. The aircraft had two-class seating. Fly Nonstop had 17 weekly flights serving eight European destinations: Berlin, Dubrovnik, London City, Manchester, Nice,…
Lao Airlines Flight 301
The news that a Lao Airlines plane crashed a mere six kilomtres (three miles) from its destination has barely been a blip on the international news networks. Yet 49 people from 11 countries perished in the crash. 16 Laotians, seven French, six Australians, five Thais, three South Koreans, three Vietnamese, and one national each from the China, Malaysia, Taiwan and USA. Five were crew and 44 were passengers. The crash highlights the danger of traveling in some parts of the world. Roads in Laos are in a very poor condition and rail service non existent. Tourists, business people, aid workers and locals all…
British Airways Beautiful new A380 has arrived, a visual tour
I have to be honest, I am in love with the A380. After 12 A380 flights with six airlines over 120,000km, I am hanging out to add more airlines to my A380 experience. This week it is British Airways turn as they add a Heathrow to Los Angeles A380 route (operating as BA268 and 269). British Airways Senior First Officer Peter Nye takes you on a tour of British Airways new A380 aircraft. It certainly whets your appetite for the real thing. The BA A380 will have 469 seats in a four class set up: 1. BA First…
Alitalia-finally doomed?
Alitalia is the airline I love to hate. They are one of my least favourite airlines ever. Flying them has rarely been a treat. I keep expecting to hear of their demise but somehow they seem to claw their way back from the edge of doom. The current Alitalia is almost five years old rising out of the ashes of the “old” Alitalia which went bankrupt in 2008. On September 6, the Italian carrier released their first half year financials. Revenue fell four per cent from 1686 million Euro to 1621 million. Passenger loads improved…
Norwegian’s 787 frustration
Norwegian Air Shuttle have two Boeing 787s, which because of the 787 grounding were delivered in September, five months late. These two planes are being deployed on routes between Oslo and Stockholm to New York and Bangkok. This week, Norwegian grounded one of its 787s and demanded that Boeing fix the plane. The incident follows claims that Norwegian are experiencing an on time performance rate of only 49 per cent after a string of break downs in its first month of service. The incidents have included electrical faults and hydraulic issues. Norwegian have had to…
Fastjet: good and bad news
Fastjet is the new pan African low cost carrier backed by Easyjet’s Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. The Good news: 1. their Tanzanian business is profitable, achieving $81 of revenue per passenger in June, 2013 – almost double that in January when it was $46. First quarter losses of $9.1m for the Tanzanian business were cut to $4.2m in the second quarter. 2. Their legal issues seem resolved 3. Permission for their first international flight from Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg is close. The bad news is that the airline has burned through almost all of its…
Lion Air – World’s Fourth Largest Airline?
Lion Air wants lots of planes! It has already placed two the biggest aeroplane orders in aviation history: 234 Airbus A320 and A320neo aircraft valued at US$ 24 billion in 2013 230 Boeing planes in 2012 worth $US22.4-billion 44 ATRs on order– the largest order with that manufacturer Now, the airline is talking to Canada’s Bombardier Inc.’ about their CS300 planes with a possible 100 plane order. With its other orders, the airline will grow their fleet from 120 planes currently to over 820 planes in a decade. This would propel Lion Air…
Aeromexico debuts 787
It is now two years since the first 787 was delievered to ANA. Now, carrier number 14 has their turn. AeroMéxico (airline code AM), the flag carrier of Mexico received their first Boeing 787 on August 16, 2013. It was the 75th Boeing 787 delivered by the company to an airline. Their 787 will initially serve Mexican domestic destinations including Cancun and Monterrey. On October 14th Mexico City to Tokyo, Japan service will commence. That will mean by the end of the year, four airlines will be flying 787s to and from Tokyo (United, ANA,…
Lion Seeks help
Indonesia’s Lion Air is Indonesia’s biggest domestic airline and with two massive orders for jets from Airbus and Boeing aims ot beocme one of the world’s largest carriers. Except for one problem: its safety record. While Lion Air (and other airlines) have big plans, a spate of deadly accidents In Indonesia has raised international concern about the nations’s air-safety standards.. Along with most of the Indonesian carriers, Lion—is under a European Union and US safety ban. While Lion doesn’t fly into either airspace, it loses business as many travel agents are barred from booking tickets with…
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