New routes from Nashville for Sun Country

The ultra-low-cost airline Sun Country Airlines is continuing its programme of expansion with six new nonstop routes from Nashville.

The Minnesota-based Sun Country will offer nonstop flights from Nashville International Airport to Fort Myers, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, New Orleans and Minneapolis and the carrier is offering introductory fares as low as $49 one way. 

“Nashville is a popular destination for travellers in the Twin Cities, and we are excited to offer them an affordable, nonstop option,” said Jude Bricker, President and CEO of Sun Country Airlines, “The new service in Nashville is part of our continued effort to grow as a brand, which will allow us to invest in our employees and community here in Minnesota.”

Turkish to end new US advertising

Turkish Airlines has put a halt to all its US advertising as the diplomatic tensions between the two nations increase following US President Trump's instigation of double trade tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium.  

A number of Turkish companies and organisations are calling for a boycott of any American electronic devices as well as halting new advertising with US media establishments. 

The airline's senior management used social media to deliver the message, tweeting, “We as Turkish Airlines are taking our place alongside our state and people,” senior vice president for media relations Yahya Ustun wrote on Twitter with the hashtag #ABDyeReklamVerme, meaning “don’t give advertisements to the USA”. 

There are some calls for the Turkish Government to go further with retaliation against the US for doubling trade tariffs by Trump, according to local media reports. These other steps some are calling for include halting its support for US military using Turkish airspace and the closure of the US Air Force bases in Turkey. 

Bumpy go-around for Iberia plane.

Photo: Nicolas Larenas

The crew of an Iberia Airbus A340-600 performing flight IB-6453 coming in fast to Quito International Airport had to abandon the landing attempt and instigate a go-around due to strong winds.

The aircraft, registration EC-LEU had come from Madrid on 11th August, was landing on the airport's runway 18 which was experiencing strong gusting winds of some 25knots. The high elevation of the Ecuadorian airport means that aircraft have to land at faster speeds than they would at other airports. The aircraft slams down and to the side and it is then that the crew perform a go-around.  

The aircraft had to hold for around 20 minutes before it repositioned for another approach to runway 18 where it landed some 30 minutes after the first attempt. 

Local media reports that at least one tyre of the main central gear burst during the first landing attempt as well as some other minor damage being sustained and the aircraft is still in Quito.  

 

Delta is hiring 1,000 flight attendants

The US carrier, Delta is seeking more than 1000 people to work as cabin crew across its vast network the airline announced recently.

The Trump supporting airline is seeking dedicated, service-oriented professionals who love to be on-the-go, help others and enjoy variety in their work.  "The best flight attendants in the world wear the wings of Delta and we'll be looking for top talent as we welcome 1,000 new members to the Delta family," said Allison Ausband, Delta's Senior Vice President, In-Flight Service. "Our people are known for their engaging personalities, ability to listen, composure and teamwork — if this sounds like you, apply to come fly with us."

Last year more than 270,000 applicants applied for roughly 1,700 coveted flight attendant jobs at Delta. Delta is seeking applicants with a high school degree or GED, the ability to work in the U.S., English fluency and be at least 21 years of age by Jan. 1, 2019. Plus an adaptable flexible attitude to cope with the 24/7 operational schedule that the global airline employs.

More details on Delta's website.

southwest changes support animal policy

A number of US airlines have recently changed their animal carriage policies,  Southwest Airlines is the latest to update its policies for trained service and emotional support animals. 

The changes are designed to provide clearer guidance to its customers travelling with service animals. "We welcome emotional support and trained service animals that provide needed assistance to our Customers," said Steve Goldberg, Senior Vice President of Operations and Hospitality. "However, we want to make sure our guidelines are clear and easy to understand while providing Customers and Employees a comfortable and safe experience."

Bombardier puts passion in the air

Bombardier is putting a little passion in the African air with the placement of three second-hand, pre-owned Bombardier Q400's with PassionAir from the Republic of Ghana. 

The Ghanaian airline has acquired the aircraft through a dry-lease with a third party, “Bombardier has sold about 3,500 new regional aircraft to date, and we continue to be very active on the used aircraft market.” said David Speirs, Vice President, Asset Management, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. “Our recent momentum on the pre-owned aircraft market worldwide is a clear indication that our products are addressing a growing need for regional air transportation, especially in emerging markets.”

WestJet to introduce an Orlando flight from Saskatoon

Orlando, Florida will get a whole lot easier to get to from 7th December this year for the residents of Saskatoon when a leading Canadian airline will start a new weekly service.

The new service will link Skyxe Saskatoon Airport Saskatoon with Orlando International Airport every Friday. The schedule will see the flight depart at 1430, to arrive in Orlando at 1950, while the Orlando to Saskatoon flight leaves at 0900, arriving 1259 all times local. 

July 2018 - The busiest July on record for all London's main airports

The month of July has proved to be a busy month for London's main airports, breaking all previous records.  

London Stanstead airport in Essex saw passenger number rise up 7.4 percent on last years July figures to a whopping 2.8 million passengers.  The airports CEO, Ken O’Toole said, “As the main summer holiday season firmly gets underway, July is always a very busy month for us and this year we have welcomed a record number of passengers to the airport."

London Luton had the busiest July in its history with 1.67 million passengers passing through its doors, some 3.1 percent more than used the airport in July last year. “July was a milestone month for LLA, as we celebrated 80 years of growth and reached the next stage of our £160 million redevelopment." Nick Barton, chief executive of Luton said.

July 2018 was the busiest ever month for London City Airport, exceeding all existing records since it opened in 1987. In total, 471,519 passengers departed or arrived between 1st and 31st July– up 15.7% year-on-year compared to July 2017. It was also the third consecutive month that the airport has broken existing records, preceded by May (422,593 passengers) and June (441,519).

United rewarding top corporate customers with new programme

United Airlines has launched the travel industry's newest corporate travel programme that has been designed to offer top travel benefits to some of the airline's most loyal business customers. It is called United Corporate Preferred and the company introduced the new programme at the Global Business Traveler Association (GBTA) Convention in San Diego on Monday 13th August.

United Corporate Preferred offers new and exclusive benefits with some added perks for the airline's top corporate customers. It is a multi-level programme, with three different levels, including United Corporate Preferred, United Corporate Preferred Plus and United Corporate Preferred Elite.

Another new route from Calgary this winter from WestJet - plus frequency increases on other routes

Canadian airline WestJet is increasing a number of services from Calgary International Airport (YYC) this winter and from 3rd November the popular airline will be heading to another sunshine destination, guaranteed to put a smile on the face of anyone feeling the winter chills. The 2018 North America's Best Low-Cost Airline at the Skytrax awards is starting up a new non-stop twice-weekly service to Sangster International Airport, which if you're unsure where that is, the three-letter IATA code is MBJ.  Yep, WestJet are heading to Montego Bay, Jamaica this coming winter season.

The new route forms part of WestJet's seasonal schedule for winter 2018/2019, which includes more flights from Calgary to domestic, transborder, international and sun destinations including Maui, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Orlando, Huatulco, Puerto Vallarta and Belize, among others.

MH370 was flown and crashed by a stowaway............new theory suggests

According to an international aviation 'expert,' the latest theory into the disappearance of Malaysian Flight MH370 is that it was flown by a stowaway who then crashed the plane.  

Philip Baum editor of Aviation Security International claims that someone evaded all airport security checks, managed to find a secret hiding place on the Boeing 777 and then somehow took over control of the aircraft and crashed it.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 went missing in March 2014 while en route to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board. Its disappearance has sparked the biggest marine search for a civil airliner in history and so far officials have drawn a blank in finding it or what happened to it. Indeed the Malaysian investigation team of some 19 or so people failed to find a conclusion The team found no evidence of malfunctions, no malicious or suspicious behaviour from the flight crew, there was no evidence of someone other than the pilots flew the plane, but at the end of their investigation they concluded: “The team is unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance of MH370.”

Opps we've landed at the wrong airport. Wings Air ATR lands at closed airport in June 2018

The National Transportation Safety Committee of Indonesia released its preliminary report earlier this week into an incident that occurred on 19th June this year that saw a Wings Air ATR72 land at a closed airport.

The aircraft an ATR 72-600, registration PK-WHF of on Wings Air was performing a normal scheduled flight from Pontianak to Sintang, with thirty-two passengers, two cabin crew and two pilots onboard.

The aircraft flew a normal routing and subsequently landed at an airport that had been closed for almost three months. It should have been landing at Tebelian airport but instead went to Susilo airport, in Sintang, West Kalimantan, Indonesia  The National Transport Safety Committee report indicates that the flight crew contacted the Tebelian using the ‘Susilo Info’ callsign as they started their approach. They reported they were 84nm from Sintang and read through the planned arrival procedure.

Taking a plane for a joyride.....ground worker steals a passenger aircraft.

It's believed that a suicidal airline employee, a member of the ground crew, stole an empty passenger aircraft from Seattle Tacoma Airport, for an hour joyride on Friday evening before crashing into an island in Puget Sound. 

It's believed the man stole the aircraft,  made "an unauthorised take-off" late on Friday which forced the airport to halt operations for a period of time and the air force to scramble two F15 fighter jets. The man, who has not yet been named by officials, then did a number of manoeuvres in the air including a complete loop the loop, flying inverted, doing a low pass over the water as well as appearing to climb straight up.

When I first heard this story on the radio news, I assumed it had been a small Cessna or a similarly sized aircraft, I was therefore shocked to discover it was a twin-engined turboprop Bombardier Q400 belonging to Alaska Airlines' sister carrier Horizon Air.

Video of ground collision at Ataturk Airport

Thursday saw another aircraft collision at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport between a departing aircraft and one parked at a departure gate.

A Royal Air Maroc Boeing 787, registration CN-RGT had been pushed back and was given clearance to taxi and was proceeding along when its wing tip struck the rear of a Turkish Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft, registration TC-JJZ.

The two-year-old Royal Air Maroc suffered only minor damage, but the damage to the rear of the Turkish Airlines aircraft that had just come in from New York was more severe. Early indications are the covers as well as the APU was damaged.  A full investigation is underway, however, local media reports are suggesting the Turkish 777 had stopped short of the designated parking line for an aircraft of its size.


The incident bears a striking similarity to a collision between an Asiana Airlines Airbus A330-300 and a Turkish A321 back in May this year.   The Asiana aircraft sliced through the Turkish aircraft's tail fin with dramatic consequences.







The pilots at Royal Air Maroc are continuing with their strike action over pay and conditions which is now into its fourth week. The airline has had to cancel a number of flights daily, as staff walk out, usually it is around 8 to 10 a day, however for tomorrow it appears only four have been axed, so far.

Flight	From	To	Status of disrupted flights on August 11
AT750	Casablanca	Paris	Canceled*
AT751	Paris	Casablanca	Canceled*
AT992	Casablanca	Madrid	Canceled*
AT993	Madrid	Casablanca	Canceled*

United July Figures

One of the largest US carriers, United Airlines has reported its July 2018 results earlier this week, which so the airline performed well, increasing revenue and loads over the same period last year. The carrier flew more than  15.4 million people during the month on more than 73,000 mainline flights.

United advise that its July 2018 consolidated traffic (revenue passenger miles) increased 6.9 percent and consolidated capacity (available seat miles) increased 4.0 percent compared to last year. UAL's July 2018 consolidated load factor increased 2.4 points compared to July 2017. 

Some of the highlights for the month include ---

Air New Zealand ventures into 3D printing of metal aircraft parts

Air New Zealand has teamed up with Zenith Tecnica for 3D printed metal parts for aircraft and tools.

Air New Zealand has confirmed it is working with Zenith Tecnic to work on producing 3D printed metal parts for its aircraft. Zenith Tecnic specialises in the design and manufacture of 3D printed titanium and other metals using a technology called electron beam melting (EBM).

Qantas to help drought hit farming communities with $3 million aid.

Photo Brent Winstone.

The Australian airline Qantas is stepping up help and assistance to the drought-affected farming communities in Australia. The airline has said, that together with its customers, it will donate $3 million to help provide relief. 

Qantas has started a new partnership with charity Rural Aid to help fund hay bales, water trucking, groceries and mental health counsellors for farming communities who are struggling to survive in what is the worst drought conditions that parts of Australia have seen in decades.

The airline will make an immediate $1 million cash donation to Rural Aid, followed by a number of Qantas and Jetstar appeal initiatives to raise another $1 million with the help of customers. Qantas will then match these fundraising efforts, with the aim of providing the charity with a total donation of $3 million by the end of 2018.

More new schedules from Russia's Aeroflot

The Russian airline, Aeroflot has announced it is increasing flights to Phuket and Dubai soon as well as launching a brand new route to Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkaria region in southern Russia from its Moscow base. 

The carrier will launch new the route to Nalchik on 28 October 2018 and will fly an Airbus 1320 on a daily rotation to the city that's known as the pearl of the North Caucasus. The flight SU1064 will depart Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport at 14:00 and will arrive at Nalchik at 16:30, while the return flight, SU1065 departs Nalchik at 17:30 to land back at Sheremetyevo at 20:00. 

Nalchik is surrounded on three sides by mountains and is located practically at the foot of Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Russia. In the winter time, Elbrus becomes a magnet for skiers and snowboarders from all countries. The Elbrus enjoys special popularity amongst climbers. Resorts in the North Caucasus are a fast-growing tourist centre in Russia, combining unique natural features with the renowned hospitality of the Caucasus.

SkyWest's latest results

The US regional contract airline, SkyWest has reported its latest results this week, in July 2018 the carrier reported 153,300 block hours compared to 162,400 block hours in July 2017, a decrease of 9,100 or 5.6%.  The company says this net decrease was consistent with the company's change of fleet plans to improve the mix of aircraft in its fleet by adding new E175 aircraft while reducing its 50-seat jets.

The year-over-year net change was primarily driven by approximately 6,900 additional block hours from its E175 aircraft (includes the E175 aircraft and the E175 SC aircraft) and a decrease of approximately 16,000 block hours from its other aircraft types. 

Atlanta - Nashville route launched by Southwest

The US leading low-cost airline, Southwest has started nonstop flights between Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee. The airline started operations on Tuesday and will operate five flights a day during the week. With a reduced service of three flights a day on at the weekends. 

The route “answers business community requests in both Nashville and Atlanta,” said Southwest's vice president of technical operations Trevor Stedke.

Doug Kruelen, the CEO of Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority says business people have long sought more service between Nashville and Atlanta. Kruelen says the route brings more competition and options. 

"It is great to have another airline to fly with between these two cities." Rachel Turner, a business owner told us, "I've previously had to fly with Delta, now I have much more choice.".

Strike woes for Ryanair as flights are cancelled

Ryanair pilots and crews are striking across five European countries today in a dispute over pay and conditions, which has lead to the cancellation of nearly 400 flights. This latest strike to hit Ryanair involves staff from Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands and could be the first of many pan European strike days by the various unions. Ingolf Schumacher of Germany's Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union, said pilots should be prepared for "a very long battle" and it would take months to push through change at the low-fare-high-fee carrier.

The airline says 396 flights have had to been cancelled as a result of what it claims as 'regrettable and unjustified' action. As the average passenger capacity of a Ryanair aircraft is 189, as many as 74,844 people could be affected by the strikes.  Far less than Ryanair disrupted last year in its monumental cock-up over pilot rosters saw the cancellation of hundreds of flights. However, indications are that the true number of people affected would be 50,000 and the airline says it has re-accommodated most on alternative flights.

The Lufthansa group's July results

14.2 Million people flew with Lufthansa group in July 

In July 2018, the Lufthansa Group of airlines welcomed around 14.2 million passengers across its vast network, that's an 8.2 percent increase over July 2017. The available seat kilometres were up 7.0 percent sales were up 7.0 percent and the load fact was pretty stable at 86.3 percent. 

Air Italy extend Miami service.

The Italian airline half owned by Qatar Airways, Air Italy has announced it is extending its recently launched service between Milan and Miami. The scheduled service will now complete the entire forthcoming winter season. 

The airline only launched the route on the 8th of June and demand has proved to be strong, Neil Mills, Air Italy Chief Operating Officer said, "Thanks to a great response from our customers and increasing demand, we are opening up our winter inventory for our Milan-Miami flight, as we are already running at a load factor of over 80%. This expansion is a testament to our business plan and product offering, and is simply a response to the great support which we have been receiving from our customers," 

Copa sees a big drop in income during 2018 second quarter

Copa announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2018 (2Q18) yesterday and increased fuel costs were blamed for a massive drop in both operating and net income. The airline also confirmed it was in discussions with United and Avianca on a joint venture operation.

Copa reported net income of US$49.9 million for 2018 second quarter whereas it managed US$58.6 million in the same period in 2017. Operating income for 2Q18 came in at US$57.1 million, representing a 27.3 percent decrease over operating income of US$78.6 million last year. 

The carriers load factor increased slightly to 83.5 percent and the airline managed to achieve a very respectable on time performance of 89.9 percent and a flight-completion factor of 99.8 percent, maintaining its position among the best in the industry.

What's on your British Airways 747 to New York?

The UK contingent of IAG has just released some, supposedly revealing, data of what it carries on one of the airlines medium haul flights. 

A Boeing 747 operating from BA's London hub of Heathrow to New York's JFK airport is loaded with over 7,000 items they tell us. Many of those have to be unloaded and re-loaded before each flight. Included in the inventory are 101 full bottles and 388 quarter bottles of wine, 293 headrest covers - which is a little odd as BA has three different configurations of 275, 299 and 345 seats, the average of which could be 306, so some folk won't be getting a headrest cover! 

Worry not, no matter what configuration there 747 has, there will be enough pretzels to go around as BA carry 350 bags of the salty snacks. 78 toilet rolls on the flight as well as five first aid kits and up to around 800 items of bedding, including the new Club World White Company bedding, which has been recently introduced. 

The airline says that 47 percent of us are travelling solo, while 27 percent travel as a pair. Around 70 percent are travelling for leisure purposes and 28 percent are flying for business and who knows what the other 2 percent are travelling for.  

To help us visualise the figures, British Airways has created a patronising cartoon infographic of the results of its research, because we're all too stupid to know what a 747 or a control tower look like. 

London City Airport has busiest ever month

London City Airport is celebrating after experiencing its busiest ever month, exceeding all existing records since it opened in 1987. 

In July 471,519 passengers departed or arrived at the east London airport, that's up 15.7 percent year-on-year compared to July 2017.   It is the third month in a row that the airport has broken existing records, May saw 422,593 passengers pass through its door and in June some 441,519 people flew in or out of the Docklands airport.

In addition to its busiest ever month, Monday 16th July was the airports busiest single day ever, with some 20,115 passengers using the airport. That's the first time in its history that over 20,000 have passed through the airports terminal in a single day. 

Air China's first A350-900.

At a special ceremony in Toulouse, France on Wednesday 8th August, Air China took delivery of its first A350-900.  The national flag carrier is the first Chinese mainland customer to order and take ownership of the world’s newest and most efficient twin-engine widebody aircraft.

Air France - KLM group releases July figures

The Air France - KLM group released its July results this week which showed as a whole 8.1 million passengers travelled with the group during July 2018, an increase of 1.5 percent over the same month last year.  The average load factor was  0.1 percent higher than 2017 to 90.1 percent, while the groups capacity increased by 1.4 percent.  The group had hoped to see bigger increases, however, growth was hampered by temporary rostering changes caused by pilot training backlogs following the recent strikes. 

KLM carried over 3 million passengers during the month but following a period of uninterrupted growth, load factor saw a slight drop for the first time in five months to 91.3 percent (-0.3 percent from last year). The decrease is the result of greater capacity in seat kilometres compared to traffic growth in passenger kilometres. The drop in load factor was most visible to North, Central, and South American destinations.

"The growth in traffic figures continued in July. Passenger numbers were well in excess of three million during this busy holiday month. The fact that we were able to welcome so many passengers on board is a great achievement on the part of the KLM staff, certainly in the face of rising summer temperatures." Said Pieter Elbers - KLM President & CEO.

First A350-900 for Sichuan Airlines

Sichuan Airlines has taken delivery of its first A350-900 at a special ceremony in Toulouse today. 

The airline already operates the largest all-Airbus fleet in China and is leasing the new A350 from AerCap. It has become the first Chinese mainland operator via leasing to take delivery of this type of new aircraft.

Sichuan Airlines has configured its new A350-900 with  28 business class seats and 303 in the economy cabin making a total of 331. The jet is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines which are supremely fuel efficient and offer a lower noise footprint than many other engines of its type. The carrier says it will initially deploy the new aircraft on its domestic routes, it will then be used on its international “Panda Routes”.

Sichuan Airlines has a long history with the European manufacturer, dating back to 1995 when the airline introduced the A320, becoming the first to operate an Airbus fly-by-wire aircraft on the Chinese mainland. The carrier now has a fleet of 136 Airbus aircraft, made up of  123 A320 Family aircraft, 12 A330 Family aircraft and this new A350-900. The airline has another nine of the XWB aircraft on order.  

Royal Brunei Airlines to restart Taipei service.

Fourteen years after ending scheduled services to the city, Royal Brunei Airlines will be heading back to Taipei with a regular scheduled rotation.

The airline had a scheduled service to the capital of Taiwan until October 2004 although it continued to fly to the city during Chinese New Year peak celebrations with some charter flights.  However, from December this year, the carrier is bringing back the routing on a scheduled basis three times a week.

Royal Brunei has scheduled an Airbus A320 to serve the route from 3rd December, operating on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. The flight has a provisional timing of 1015 departure from Bandar Seri Begawan arriving in Taipei Taoyuan at 1345 local time.  The return flight looks to depart at 1500 landing back at Bandar Seri Begawan at 1830. 

The A320 is configured with 12 seats in business class, with a 44-inch seat pitch and 132 Economy cabin seats with a 31-32 inch pitch. 

(images Royal Brunei Airlines)

WestJet took 2.4 million people for a ride in July

The Canadian airline WestJet carried 2.4 million people during July this year, 144,000 up on the same month last year! Its revenue also increased by around 8.2 percent and the carriers load factor remained fairly steady at 85.2 percent (ok, just ever so slightly down as last year it was 85.6)

"In July, we continued to expand our reach while attracting 2.4 million guests to WestJet's award-winning brand of caring and friendly service." Ed Sims, WestJet President and CEO. " I want to thank all of our guests for their continued loyalty as yesterday, August 7th, we flew an estimated company record 80,219 guests across our network."  

The increases in revenue is particularly welcome news after the carrier reported a loss of $20.8  for the second quarter of 2018 just over a week ago. It blamed the loss on rising fuel prices, threats of industrial action and increasing competition.  

The airline recently announced it was going to be service Terrace, British Columbia with a WestJet Encore Q400 twice a week from 4th September, bringing a much-needed boost to the area.  While that was good news for Terrace, Sudbury wasn't quite so lucky, WestJet informed them that is was pulling out all three of its daily flights from the city with effect from October this year.  

WestJet's ultra-low-cost sister airline Swoop has also made the news recently, with its expansion plans announcing it was heading south - to five key US gateway cities - including Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.

The carrier also launched a new baby, WestJet Link in June this year. The regional service operates a number of small routes to and from Calgary using a fleet of cute Saab 340B aircraft from Pacific Coastal Airlines. 

Jane Austen is flying high.......as the latest tail fin hero from Norwegian

Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion are perhaps six of some of the finest British novels of all time and they were all written by Jane Austen, although not one was published under her own name during her lifetime! It is, I think fair to say that the true success of Austen's work and her place amount the writing elite has only been achieved many years after her death.  In tribute to this fine creative genius the popular and well respected European airline, Norweigan has put her on the tail of one of its latest Boeing 787 aircraft.

The Norwegian Boeing 787 featuring tail fin hero Jane Austen      Photo: Atle Straume

Yes, Jane Austen has taken to the skies, at least her portrait has as it now adorns the tail fin of a Norwegian Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The aircraft now operates long-haul routes from London Gatwick on a network that includes 12 nonstop routes to the USA as well as flights to Singapore and Buenos Aires.

Nearly 1.1 million people flew with Hawaiian Airlines in July

Nearly 1.1 million people flew with Hawaiian Airlines during the month of July the airline has said this week as it releases its latest performance figures. Apparently, that's an increase of 3.2 percent on July 2017 numbers.

Hawaiian also reported revenue passenger miles increased 5.1 percent on an increase of 5.0 percent in capacity (available seat miles).  Load factor was roughly the same at 87.4 percent.   Not bad for an airline that's been going for 89 years and operates more than 250 flights a day. 

The sky is the limit as Wizz Air announce another new route

Following on from announcing 11 new routes earlier this week, Wizz Air, have released details of yet another forthcoming addition to its route network.

Wizz is one of the fastest growing airlines in Europe and the latest addition is a service between Kaunas (Lithuania) and Turku (Finland). Wizz will fly the route twice a week from 9th November operating on Mondays and Fridays and launch fares start at ten euros one way. 

Andras Rado, Corporate Communications Manager at Wizz Air said: "Today we are thrilled to announce this new route between Kaunas and Turku. WIZZ is the European airline that is always looking to create more and more exciting travel connections for its customers across Europe and beyond. This new route further strengthens Wizz Air’s commitment to Lithuania and Finland, the involved cities and the airports, as well as stimulate the tourism and hospitality sectors in the countries.”

JU-Air to resume flying on 17th August

Photo JU-Air

The operators of the Junkers JU-52 that crashed on Saturday plans to resume flying on 17th August, unless they are ordered not to.

JU-Air spokesperson Christian Gartmann said “We plan to resume flights on August 17 unless we receive any indications until then that safety might be a concern. At the moment we don’t have any indication that it would be unsafe to resume flight.”

The 1939 aircraft came down on Saturday during a pleasure sightseeing flight, in which all onboard were killed. The cause of the crash is still unknown at this stage, however, an investigation is ongoing.

.

Emirates celebrates 15 years of serving Auckland

The Dubai based super-carrier Emirates is celebrating 15 years of successful operations to Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city this week. Since its inaugural flight in 2003, Emirates has carried over two million passengers to and from the city of sails and has enabled New Zealander's to connect to the world via its Dubai hub.

Emirates operates a daily A380 non-stop flight from Auckland to Dubai as well as a new daily B777-300 ER service via Bali, Indonesia.  With the launch of the new Dubai-Auckland-Bali route in June, Emirates became the only airline offering daily, year-round flights to Bali, providing New Zealanders with greater choice and flexibility when booking their island holiday.  Emirates also serves New Zealand with a daily A380 flight between Christchurch and Dubai via Sydney. 

“We’re thrilled to be celebrating 15 years of flying into Auckland which has become an important part of Emirates’ success story in the region. We would like to thank all our customers and industry partners in New Zealand for their long-standing support over the years. We are proud to contribute to the city’s thriving tourism and trade industry, connecting Auckland to more than 160 destinations across six continents with only one stop in Dubai,” said Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.

Icelandair July passengers down

The premier Icelandic airline, Icelandair saw passenger numbers fall by 5 percent in July to 519,000. The airline also saw its overall load factor fall down to 85.3 percent, with the biggest falls in the North America route market, down 8.9 percent over the same period last year. Routes to North America achieved 81.9 percent, whereas the routes to Europe saw increases up to 90.7 percent

The number of passengers on domestic and regional flights was just short of 32,000, decreasing by 14 percent compared to July last year. This large decrease was blamed on the fact that the airline halted flights to Belfast, Aberdeen and between Keflavik and Akureyri from the middle of May.

The airline is facing increased competition in the marketplace, particularly to  North America, which is driving down the fares, especially during peak travel periods. There has been a major cost-cutting and reorganisation exercise at Icelandair in recent times, which may see further cuts and amalgamations. 

WOW to end its Tel Aviv service.

The low-cost Icelandic airline Wow has confirmed it is putting a stop to its Tel Aviv route with the last flight due to land back in Iceland from the Israeli gateway on 25th October. Wow started the route in September 2017 and had been flying the route with an Airbus A321 three times each week.

The airline says it is ending the route due to operational, logistical and commercial considerations, although it hopes to head back to the city, maybe next year for the summer period.

WOW has indicated it wishes to expand its North American route network, which may offer higher loads over the winter period. The low-cost airline has not yet decided which destination will replace Tel Aviv in the A321's schedule. 

Poor decisions lead to bouncing Mahan Air aircraft.

A report from the Civil Aviation Organisation of Iran blames poor decision making by the crew of a Mahan Air Airbus A300 aircraft that suffered a tail strike after bouncing down the runway three times on 6th June.

The Iranian investigators advised that the crew did not execute a go-around after the first bounce which was a poor decision. The aircraft bounced two more times on the runway and struck its tail causing damage to the skin of the 27-year-old aircraft. 

The aircraft had 121 passengers on a flight from Asaluyeh to Tehran Mehrabad when the incident occurred. The investigators also say that the weather was clear, visibility good during the daytime landing, with just an 18knot headwind. 

The crew have been ordered to undergo further flight and crew resource management training, as well as recreating the incident in aircraft simulators to better understand the need for fast and effective remedial action.