No baggage fare introduced by Etihad Airlines

After months of speculations, Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways has launched a new hand baggage only fare called ‘Deal Fare’.

The new lowest fare level will be offered on selected routes, it includes a complimentary carry-on baggage allowance of 7kg, but no checked baggage at all. Currently the ‘Deal Fare’ is available on flights between Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Azerbaijan. Other destinations may be introduced in the future. 

“After a successful trial of the ‘Deal Fare’ late last year, purchasing behaviour demonstrated guests appreciate having more choice and like to be able to select the travel option that best meets their needs." Said Robin Kamark, Etihad Airways Chief Commercial Officer, adding, “We are enhancing our product offering to align with customer feedback. Guests travelling for business, weekend getaways or day trips who like to travel light can now avail cheaper fares.”

the UK's FlyBe opts for a new livery

A new paint job for Flybe.

The UK's regional airline, FlyBe has unveiled a new livery for its fleet of Q400's and Embraer which features more white than the previous livery, whilst still featuring the classic purple the airline has become known for.

The new paint job was released over the last 24 hours via social media posts and reaction has been fairly mixed. Jeremy Brookman tweeted "Honestly I much prefered the last purple livery! It made you stand out!"  whilst AndyMcLaughlin wrote "The current purple is much more interesting... this is a little dull towards the front! Keep the old purple please!"  Pip in Doha thought it was "Very Smart" and Sian Thorne posted "Love the new look."

We're equally divided in the Air101 office,  Josh loves it, Adam doesn't and Jason isn't sure but thinks the flybe brand identity on the forward part of the aircraft is rather lost.   What do you think?

Singapore receives first A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport

Airbus has delivered Singapore Air Force’s first A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT). The aircraft made its first official public appearance on Saturday 1 September 2018 at the RSAF’s 50th-anniversary parade.

The new-generation A330 MRTT extends the endurance of the RSAF’s fighter aircraft and ensures the service’s continued capability to provide air-to-air refuelling support.

It also provides the RSAF with greater cargo and passenger transport capabilities and enhances its ability to contribute to international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) and peace support operations.

Finnair appoint top banker to be new ceo

The premier airline of Finland, Finnair, has opted for a top banker to take the helm of the state-owned airline. The company has appointed Topi Manner of Nordea Bank as the new CEO, who will take up the position in January.

Topi Manner, is the current head of personal banking at Nordea Bank which is one of the largest banks in Europe and is the biggest in the Nordic region. “Topi Manner has extensive experience in both private and corporate customer business, and he has played a strong role in the digital transformation and customer service development of his bank,” Finnair Chairman Jouko Karvinen told a news conference.

Supreme Court orders Pakistan International Airlines boss to step down

Pakistan International Airlines' chief executive has stepped down from the airline on the direct order of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, which said his appointment was made in violation of the rules and regulations. 

PIA named Musharraf Rasool Cyan as its chief executive during the last quarter of last year and it was hoped he could turn the carrier's fortunes around late. PIA was reported to be losing up to $30 million per month last year. 

The three-member panel headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar passed the ruling on Monday that Musharraf Rasool Cyan didn't have any aviation experience, nor did he meet the criteria set down for the position. One of the judges even remarked that Cyan’s appointed was illegal because he'd only been placed in the position because of his relationship to an adviser to the former prime minister. who made the appointment. 

Pakistan International Airlines have confirmed today that it has complied with the courts ruling and Cyan had left the company. 

Colourful welcome to Lisbon for LATAM

The airport fire service at Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport gave a colourful welcome to a LATAM Airlines Group Boeing 767 operating the carriers first new service to the airport.

The arrival of flight JJ8178 marked the start of a five times a week service from São Paulo/Guarulhos from the Brazilian side of LATAM. The new link will continue to be operated by a Boeing 767 aircraft, featuring 30 seats in business class and 191 seats in economy. 

“Portugal offers a mix between the contemporary and traditional that enchants and surprises even those who are already familiar with the country,” said Jerome Cadier, chief executive, LATAM Airlines Brazil. Marking LATAM’s eighth destination in Europe, our arrival in Lisbon once again demonstrates our commitment to offering unrivalled connectivity between South America and the world.”

KLM and union VNV reach new agreement

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have announced today that, following an intensive round of negotiations with VNV - The Dutch Airline Pilots Association, with the assistance of an arbitrator, they have reached an agreement.

KLM says they have reached accord on a collective labour agreement for KLM’s pilots, which retains the terms set down in the agreement in principle that was reached on 1st May, but also includes a newly developed requests arrangement. This has significant social importance for pilots. A second change is the bringing forward of the introduction of measures to reduce work pressure, which were previously agreed, and the introduction of increased flexibility that KLM needs.

KLM is delighted that it has reached an agreement with the VNV and hopes that a line can now be drawn under a difficult period. KLM wishes now to join with the VNV to concentrate on the challenges ahead.

British Airways introduce new business menus

The UK's flag-carrying carrier, British Airways is going to be introducing new menus for business class cabin, from 12th September.

The new menus with improved recipes and signature warm breads, with dishes developed around key British ingredients. Launch options will include shaved Herefordshire roast beef on a tartar cream with rocket, British reared pork sausage and mash and a celebration of British cheeses.

On the airline’s longer short-haul flights to destinations such as Faro, customers will now have the choice of two hot options and one cold. Menus on flights to and from Heathrow will also be changed twice a month, rather than monthly.

Autumn transatlantic sale from Norwegian

The European long-haul low-cost airline, Norwegian has decided to open an autumn sale offering transatlantic flights from the UK and Ireland for just £140/€99 one-way.

For two weeks, consumers will be able to access special discounted fares on all flights from the UK and Ireland for travel to the USA throughout the winter season. The airline is also offering special fares on its premium product, fares in that cabin start at £415 one-way from London Gatwick. 

Scottish expansion for Jet2

UK Holiday airline Jet2 is going to increase capacity at both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports in Scotland for next summer.

The airline also launching new destinations - Bourgas in Bulgaria from Glasgow and Edinburgh and Izmir in Turkey from Glasgow. As a direct result of this expansion in Scotland, the holiday airline, will be recruiting more staff to cope, with the foreseen demand. Jet2 currently expect to hire an additional 150 cabin crew and around 100 ground staff in Scotland It will also be looking for experienced flight deck crew. 

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2 said "This is our biggest ever recruitment drive in Scotland, and once again demonstrates our commitment to investing in our customers and in people's careers. The success of our award-winning business is down to the hard work of our fantastic colleagues, and we are looking forward to meeting passionate people to join our expanding team."

Ryanair starts operations in Ukraine

The European low-cost-high-fee airline Ryanair, operated its first Ukraine flights today, 3rd September, with a rotation between Kyiv Boryspil and  Berlin Schönefeld airports.  

Ukraine is the 37th country for Ryanair and the Berlin route is the first of 12 new Kyiv services the airline is introducing for winter 2018 routes commencing this week.  The airline will operate the flight to Berlin from Kyiv four times each week. 

The 12 new routes the budget carrier is introducing includes, Barcelona (4 x week), Berlin (4 x week), Bratislava (3 x week), Bydgoszcz (2 x week), Gdansk (2 x week), Krakow (3 x week), London Stansted (5 x week), Poznan (2 x week), Stockholm S (3 x week), Vilnius (3 x week), Warsaw M (4 x week) & Wroclaw (3 x week)

Yeti Airlines Jetstream 41 suffers collapsed nose-wheel in runway excursion

A Yeti Airlines BAe jetstream 41 suffered serious damage when it made a runway excursion at Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport, Nepal on 1st September.

The aircraft, registration 9N-AHW, was operating flight 1424 when it went off the runway at around 2030 on Saturday.  There were 21 passengers and 3 crew members onboard the aircraft at the time of the incident and it is understood that 5 people sustained some minor injuries. 

The nose landing gear collapsed as the aircraft came to a stop in the grass near taxiways D and E which closed the airport for 12 hours before with the help of the army, the aircraft was moved to a safe location. 

Yeti Airlines used social media to issue the following statement -

Iberia's EC-LEU Airbus A340 returns to Madrid for evaluation

The Airbus A340-600 of Iberia that was damaged in a hard and bouncing landing at Quito, has been flown back to madrid for further evaluation as the airline considers whether it can go back into passenger service.

Back on 11th August whilst attempting to land in Quito during poor weather conditions the crew made a hard landing, which they then aborted and performed a go-around. They then made a second approach, however, one of the tyres was found to have burst upon landing and some of the breaking systems was leaking hydraulic fluid.

Iberia confirms the nine-year old aircraft, registration EC-LEU, returned to Madrid on the 27th of last month and are unsure if and when the aircraft can go back into service. 

Aeroflot takes delivery of 48th Sukhoi Superjet 100

The leading Russian airline, Aeroflot is celebrating the delivery of its 48th Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ 100). In common with its other aircraft in the Aeroflot fleet, which are christened with the names of famous and noteworthy Russians throughout history, the latest addition to the fleet is no exception. The aircraft, with the registration RA-89110, is named in honour of the legendary Soviet pilot Mikhail Gromov.

Mikhail Gromov made global aviation history for completing a non-stop flight from Moscow to San Jacinto, California, via the North Pole in 1937 and setting a new flight distance record. It took Gromov and his crew 62 hours 17 minutes to complete the flight.

The Russian-built Sukhoi Superjet 100 is configured with 12 seats in business class and 75 seats in economy class. The new SSJ100 will start operating on Aeroflot routes in the coming weeks.

Aeroflot supports Russian manufacturing and is currently the largest operator of Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft. The airline plans to expand its fleet of SSJ 100 aircraft, bringing the total number to 50. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 planes will operate flights on Aeroflot routes within Russia, CIS countries and also to a number of European countries.

  

SriLankan Airline introduces a 20 minute gate deadline as the airline extends its codeshare deal with Air India

SriLankan has introduced a twenty-minute gate arrival cut off time to make passengers ‘Ready to Fly’. If passengers fail to arrive at the gate by that time they wil be offloaded, more on that later. 

In another recent announcement, SriLankan Airlines has confirmed it has extended its codeshare deal with Air India.  Under the deal, the airline will apply the Air India code to a number of flights from its home of Columbo. Air India will also add the SriLankan flight code to various departures from Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.

Read on for the codeshare flights- 

MH370 message logs were modified claims new investigators.

It is being reported this week that independent investigators looking into the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that was operating flight MH370 in March 2014, says parts of the report and data logs have been modified.

The investigators have said they believe that the official report might have been modified and Malaysia Airlines is withholding information. These investigators are claiming that the message logs released by the airline that were given to the official investigation and contained in the official report are not complete, some have been taken out or in some cases changed. 

The group of independent investigators, lead by Victor Iannello reports he's 'found some anomalies in the message logs that were included in factual information released by Malaysia', as well as the safety report. "It is disappointing that more than four years after MH370's disappearance, we are still asking Malaysia to release withheld data,'" he claimed on a blog last week.

Ryanair stamps its feet claiming discrimination

The low-cost-carrier Ryanair claimed on Monday that it was being discriminated against by the UK's Air Traffic Control Service NATS.

The airline says that recent figures published by the CAA prove that the airline and London Stanstead Airport are facing discrimination by NATS. The low-fare-high-fee airline claims that failure of NATS to fairly supply ATC staffing and airspace resources at Stansted Airport has wreaked havoc this summer on both Ryanair and London Stansted flight schedules.

The CAA's Oberon report detailed that Stansted suffered 15,268 (52%) delay minutes of NATS attributable ATC delays during the first quarter of this year.  Gatwick's delays attributed to ATC was 10% and the UK's largest and busiest airport Heathrow seems to have operated with no delays due to ATC issues. 

OneJet ends scheduled flights and faces an uncertain future

The small regional US airline OneJet, has suspended all scheduled operations as it "transitions itself", according to its website, yet some in the industry are speculating that current finical and legal difficulties will prevent the airline from restarting in October. 

The company issued the following statement:-

"One Jet will be transitioning its operations to a fully owned 135 operating certificate over the next 8 weeks.  During this transition, we will be suspending scheduled services on current routes.  Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused by this disruption; the result of this transition will be a more robust and reliable operation for our customers from the fourth quarter forward.
We presently expect inventory to re-open for sale beginning October 1st and will make additional information available at that time."

OneJet specialised in offering direct routes between small and mid-sized markets that lacked direct air services, that would appeal to both business and leisure travellers. However, the airline was being sued by Allegheny County Airport Authority for pocketing  $1 million incentive to operate 10 routes out of Pittsburgh International Airport, yet only operating two routes from the airport. According to court papers, the airline owes the authority $763,000.

SAS mulls over A321LR order

The chief executive of SAS, one of the leading Scandinavian airlines has confirmed the airline is currently evaluating an order for the long range Airbus A321LR aircraft.

The SAS chief executive Rickard Gustafson, was speaking during press briefing regarding the airlines better than expected third-quarter results, when he advised the company was “running the numbers” on a potential order for the A321LR.

Rickard Gustafson, stated “I believe the A321LR could be an attractive aircraft that can unlock new markets in the long-haul space,” confirming  “That’s something we’re looking into.”

The ceo confirmed the airline had not yet made any firm decisions nor would he be drawn on whether the airline would make an extra order for the A321LR aircraft, or convert its existing order for the smaller A320neo aircraft or indeed source the frames elsewhere. 

So far the company has taken almost twenty new Airbus A320ne's from an order backlog of more than sixty of the type it has. 

Airline at centre of Cuba crash allowed to fly again

The airline at the centre of the Cuban air crash in Havana on 18th  May this year that claimed the lives of over 100 people has been allowed to take to the skies again,

Global Air from Mexico has been given the authorisation to be able to resume air flights some three months after a fatal crash of one of its Boeing 737-200 aircraft.  An administrative court in Mexico City passed a ruling at the end of last month that the suspension of Global Air's service could end. This followed a technical safety audit of the airline by the Mexican civil aviation authority DGAC on 15th August.

The DGAC had criticised Global Air’s management team during in July this year after the airline apparently leaked details from the accident investigation, which had reportedly blamed the pilot for the crash, categorising the accident as "human error". The final report on the crash has not yet been made public by Cuba’s civil aviation authority IACC.  

Qantas start nonstop flight to San Francisco from Melbourne

The Australian airline Qantas has launched its first-ever direct flight between Melbourne and San Francisco today on VH- ZND, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

The flight left Melbourne Airport at 2154 and is due to arrive in San Francisco 1612 and marks the first of four flights each week the airline plans to operate.  Qantas International CEO Alison Webster said the direct flights were a win for the 60,000 travellers who currently need to make a stop when travelling between Melbourne and San Francisco. “This is great news for Victorians, as they will have direct flights to San Francisco for the very first time. - This will reduce travel times by at least two hours which means less time in the air and more time to explore or work in San Francisco."

“Travel between the United States and Australia continues to grow – with a 13 % increase in visitors to Australia in the past year,” Webster said.

The flight is numbered QF49 in recognition of the city’s symbolic references to the number 49 dating back to the California Gold Rush of 1849, including the local San Francisco 49ers American Football team.

Aeroflot launches flights to new international destinations: Colombo, Gothenburg, Ljubljana

The leading Russian airline, national carrier, Aeroflot has confirmed its intention to operate new regular flights to Colombo, Gothenburg, Ljubljana from the start of its winter schedule in October.

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka and is the financial and cultural centre of the country. It is the main tourist hub from which travellers start their journeys across the country. Five weekly flights on Airbus A330 aircraft will operate on the following schedules:

Moscow-Colombo (all times local):

flight SU 0286 will depart Sheremetyevo on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 22:05, and arrive in Colombo at 9:05.

Return flight SU 0287 will depart Colombo on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 10:45, and arrive at Sheremetyevo at 17:30.

Qantas Dreamliner flights from Brisbane start.....

The Australian airline Qantas launches its first international Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights from Queensland this weekend with a daily service to Los Angeles and onwards to New York from Brisbane.

The airlines says that four of the national carrier’s 787-9s are going to be based at Brisbane Airport, the service to Hong Kong is scheduled to start in December, with other destinations to follow in due course.  Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce, basing the Dreamliners at Brisbane would bring new jobs to the airport, “We’ll have 120 cabin crew and pilots based in Brisbane to operate the Dreamliner flights and a further 350 indirect jobs are expected to be created as a result,” he said.

Airport worker dies in Russia after aircraft overshoots runway

Photo Tass

An airport worker at the Russian airport at Sochi has been killed in during an emergency response at the airport when a Utair Boeing 737 aircraft crashed.

The aircraft was landing when it careered off the end of the runway ending in a riverbed where it caught fire. According to the Russian health ministry, the aircraft was carrying 164 passengers and 6 crew members at the time of the incident, 18 of who suffered some injuries during the event.

An official at the airport said that the fire service had extinguished the aircraft fire within 8 minutes and the transportation minister, Yevgeny Ditrikh, has confirmed that Vladimir Begiyan, a shift supervisor who was one of the first responders to the accident, died after having what appeared to be a heart attack at the scene.

At this stage, no cause of the crash has been identified.

Aer Lingus takes over CityJet's Dublin - London City route, sort of

The Irish airline, Aer Lingus, part of IAG announced this week that it was joining forces with another Irish airline, CityJet to expand its operations to London and build on CityJet's long-established presence at London City Airport. 

The expansion will see Aer Lingus operations between Dublin and London increase to up to 50 daily flights from October 2018.

From 28th October 2018, Aer Lingus will operate six daily round trips from Dublin to London City Airport on weekdays, with a reduced service at the weekend. These flights will continue to be operated on an Avro RJ85 of CityJet but it will be under the Aer Lingus brand. These flights will be in addition to the current extensive services between Dublin and London Heathrow and London Gatwick airports the Irish carrier already flies.

The new schedule is tailored to provide competitive travel options across the day for both business and leisure travellers. The fares start at €44.99 one way from Dublin and £49.99 one way from London City Airport, plus a steep booking fee of £16 per person if booking directly with Aer Lingus.

  

Aeroflot launches flights to major cities in North Caucasus

The leading Russian air carrier, Aeroflot will launch regular flights to major cities in the North Caucasus: Grozny, Makhachkala, Vladikavkaz, Nazran and Nalchik.  Daily flights will operate starting from 28th October 2018. Tickets are already available for purchase.

Flights on Airbus A320 will operate on the following schedules (all times local):

Moscow-Grozny:

SU1498 will depart Sheremetyevo at 08:35 and arrive in Grozny at 11:25,

return flight SU1499 will depart Grozny at 12:40 and arrive at Sheremetyevo at 15:35 (on Tuesdays departure is at 12:55, arrival is at 15:45).

Moscow-Makhachkala:

flight SU 1052 will depart Sheremetyevo at 08:25 and arrive in Makhachkala at 11:20;

flight SU  1058 will depart Sheremetyevo at 15:50 and arrive in Makhachkala at 18:40;

return flight SU 1053 will depart Makhachkala at 12:20 and arrive at Sheremetyevo at 15:15;

return flight SU 1059 will depart Makhachkala at 19:40 and arrive at Sheremetyevo at 22:35.

Moscow-Vladikavkaz:

- flight SU 1042 will depart Sheremetyevo at 8:00 and arrive in Vladikavkaz at 10:40.

- return flight SU 1043 will depart Vladikavkaz at 11:40 and arrive at Sheremetyevo at 14:15.

California Pacific Airlines announce another new route - Carlsbad - Phoenix

Nonstop Flights to Phoenix/Mesa Gateway Airport from Carlsbad

Just days after announcing its inaugural west coast USA schedule, California Pacific Airlines are back announcing another new route.  The regional airline will add Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona to its growing list of destinations served from its home base of McClellan – Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, California.

 California Pacific Airlines will start the Phoenix service on 15th November and is scheduled to operate Monday to Saturday. During the week the flight leaves at 1430 to land in Phoenix at 1635. The return leaves at 1705 to land back in Carlsbad at 1715.  The Saturday service has a different schedule, with a departure time of 1045 to arrive 1250 and the return flight departs at 1320 landing back at home base of 1330.  

Profits up at SAS

Things are looking good over in Scandinavia for one of the regions leading airlines has reported strong earnings in the peak season and also raised its full-year earnings outlook.

SAS said on Friday third-quarter profits topped market expectations on the back of strong customer demand and efficiency gains, stronger than expected performance over the first nine months of the year, had enabled to airline to raise its full-year pretax earnings before non-recurring items to about 2 billion Swedish crowns that is around $220 million, its previous forecast was around 1.5 billion to 2 billion crowns.

SAS said that pretax profit for the May to July quarter came in at 2.00 billion crowns, slightly up from 1.97 billion a year ago.  It is perhaps surprising to see such results when things like a weaker crown and higher fuel costs are considered. The intense competition from low-cost carriers such as Norwegian Air Shuttle and Ryanair has also had an impact on the airline's bottom line, yet cost-cutting at SAS has worked beyond expectations. 

No Chinese Air Asia joint venture

Asia's largest budget airline group, Air Asia has shelved its plans to establish a low-cost airline subsidiary in China, it has been announced this week.

The Malaysian based airline had signed a preliminary agreement - a memorandum of understanding last year with Chinese state-backed financial firm Everbright Group and Henan province, with the express intention of setting up a low-cost airline with a base in Zhengzhou.  However, the plans have now been completely dropped. 

Air Asia issued a statement this week that said the memorandum of understanding with Everbright and Henan government has now lapsed and would not be extended.  Whilst it may not be setting up a Chinese Air Asia, the country is still an important part of the group's route network and route development plans.  “China remains an extremely important market for AirAsia, where we are currently the largest international low-cost carrier by capacity,” an AirAsia spokesperson told media representatives on Friday. “We will continue to grow our presence in the market where we witness growing demand.”,

With a change of political leaders in Malaysia recently, there has been a push back against Chinese investments and projects since May this year, including the halting of over $20 billions worth of infrastructure contracts that had been awarded to Chinese firms. The Air Asia joint venture deal had been signed in the presence of the former Prime Minister during a trip to the country. 

Lufthansa's Help Alliance - a force for good. Helping disadvantaged people since 1999

Started in 1999 by just 13 Lufthansa employees 'The Help Alliance' was designed to help and support disadvantaged people, especially children. Since those early days, the help alliance has grown in stature and strength and now supports more than 10,000 disadvantaged people in around 30 projects worldwide.

Corporate responsibility is an integral part of the Lufthansa Group and its development, the Lufthansa Group assumes responsibility for social challenges over and above its business activities and contributes to tackling them sustainably.  Through its Help Alliance, Lufthansa staff  take responsibility and volunteer as project managers, with many projects focusing on education and income-generating measures

 Now the help alliance, the non-profit limited company and the central pillar of the company's social commitment has published its annual report. It consists of two parts, a review and a facts section. The new design in two parts makes it more enjoyable to read. The review section focuses on people. In addition to insights into the work of the aid organisation, it also includes success stories from the projects.

Republic Airways addressing pilot shortage

The first class of future pilots at the Republic Airways Holdings' LIFT Academy will "take off" on Tuesday. LIFT Academy, a U.S.-based aviation training school located at the Indianapolis International Airport (IND), launched in May of 2018 and makes aviation training affordable, accessible and attractive. Over 600 applications were received for the first class.

Boeing to make MQ-25's for US Navy - the unmanned carrier based refueller!

US manufacturer Boeing will build the US Navy’s first operational carrier-based unmanned aircraft, the MQ-25 aerial refueler, through an $805 million contract awarded today.

Boeing was awarded the engineering and manufacturing development contract to provide four aircraft. Boeing plans to perform the MQ-25 work in St. Louis.

“As a company, we made an investment in both our team and in an unmanned aircraft system that meets the U.S. Navy’s refuelling requirements,” said Leanne Caret, president and CEO, Boeing Defense, Space & Security. “The fact that we’re already preparing for first flight is thanks to an outstanding team who understands the Navy and their need to have this important asset on carrier decks around the world.”

MQ-25 is designed to provide the U.S. Navy with a much-needed refuelling capability. According to the U.S. Navy, the MQ-25 Stingray will allow for better use of combat strike fighters by extending the range of deployed Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Boeing EA-18G Growler, and Lockheed Martin F-35C aircraft. MQ-25 will also seamlessly integrate with a carrier’s catapult and launch and recovery systems.

More routes from Ukraine with Wizz Air

One of Europe's fastest growing airlines and the premier low-cost-carrier of Ukraine, Wizz Air, has announced this week that it will further expand its operations in Ukraine by adding a fourth Airbus A320 aircraft at its Kyiv base in March 2019 and will be launching five long-awaited routes from Kyiv and Lviv airports and increasing the number of tickets offered with over 45% next year.

The new low fare routes announced will operate from Kyiv to Breman, Billund and Riga and from Lviv to Copenhagen and Frankfurt Hahn and travellers can already book their tickets from just EUR 24.99 / UAH 759*.

At a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday, Stephen Jones, Executive Vice President of Wizz Air, said: “Today we are bringing more exciting news for our customers from Ukraine, underlining once again Wizz Air’s commitment to the country. We are happy to continue our investment with the addition of a fourth Airbus A320, creating more new direct jobs at Wizz Air as well as supporting over 1,000 jobs in aviation, tourism and other associated industries across the country. We are increasing our offer in Ukraine to more than 2.5 million tickets in 2019, on 42 routes available from 3 Ukrainian airports creating more opportunities for our customers to travel at truly the lowest”

Russia's Aeroflot takes brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft

The leading Russian airline and the worlds most recognised aviation brand, Aeroflot has taken delivery of a new Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

The Boeing 737-800 registration VQ-BHR has been named after Igor Sikorsky, a Russian aviation pioneer, an aeronautics engineer and inventor.

Aeroflot’s Boeing 737-800 aircraft are equipped with aerodynamic wing-tips known as Sharklets. The airliner has a two-class composition with 20 seats in business class and 138 seats in economy class. The Business class salon is equipped with monitors for viewing media content. Boeing 737 is one of the world’s most popular single-aisle jet airliners providing a high level of comfort on medium-haul routes.