Any news on QR B787s ? I heard they were returned back to Boeing Factory for inspection. Is there any issue with the aircraft ?

I think this livery didn't fit for CRJ but I like the proposed IA's B777 livery

same problem as United Continental 787. but I have seen other two aircrafts on DXB-DOH route.

> Gulf Air = Bahrain – Erbil Cancelled from 30DEC12

> Emirates = from 01JAN13 is introducing 6th weekly service on Dubai – Erbil route, which sees the airline adding Tuesdays service. Airbus A330-200 aircraft operates this route.

airlineroute.net

DAWN OF A NEW ERA: ERBIL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - http://www.ierbil.com/business/dawn-...tional-airport

Interview: Erbil International Airport has helped put Kurdistan Region on the map - http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/9/308699/

Saw this on a filipino news website that PR is proposing to start a daily flights to KWI from Summer 2013 and thrice a weekly flights to IST in August 2013. IST would become an easy transit-option for pax who fly between Europe and the Philippines as PR can't operate to EU states as still blacklisted under category 2. But Rumoured to be FAA may lift the ban on PR but time-length so far not given. Is there any O&D demand for the MNL-IST route?

PR flights recently commenced a Toronto service by replacing Las Vegas, which was reportedly unprofitable to PR. As per re-fleeting programme, PR has signed 7 billion US$ deal in Aug 2012 for 10 x A321 NEOS, 34 x A321s and for the 10 units of A330-300s. Aircraft-delivery of this deal starts in 2017 with a first A321 to touch down at MNL. It's likely new A333s may replace the ageing B744s in the fleet.

5J is already gearing up, to bypass the ban, by wet leasing Aircraft ..

And PR may go the same way ..

The ban for PR allows current routes but excludes new routes, then again, I am still not clear on how the FAA ban impacts EU ops, as PR is never keen to grow to EU and fight with the likes of EK, QR, and such ..

Of course, there is a large Filipino community in Europe - Uk, Norway and Germany, and the number of ticket sales MNL- to those destination is high ..


The inside story for cancellation of Las Vegas was that since Manny Pacquiao lost, not many filipinos will go to Las Vegas

Well, in all reality, there is a big and prosperous Filipino community in LV as well ..

The main incentive for the YYZ route is the under-utlisation of the 773Ws

AZAL Azerbaijan Airlines takes delivery of A340-500 F-WWTG , which was planned to be delivered to Kingfisher Airlines four years ago.. Wonder how AZAL is going to use this A345 ? Does AZAL have plans go long-haul with this A345 ?

Any latest news on Kingfisher Airlines ?



pic as of 14-Dec-2012.

KingFisher is now a dead duck

Yes, Rappler Biz also says FAA bans impacts on US operations but PAL has some unknown exemptions to fly EU operations. Probably PAL's large aircraft order with Airbus would have been placed to convince to get the Europe Access.

Changi News:

CHANGI Airport is clearing a plot of land – the size of over 40 football fields – to park more than 30 single-aisle planes.

This will boost its current capacity by more than a fifth and cater for future growth.

Sited along a stretch of land where Terminal 3 is and across a road from where Terminal 4 will be built, the 38.5ha area currently houses a plant nursery, a reservoir and a pond.

EK in the news ..

Emirates Airline said on Monday that it was planning to add a fifth daily flight to Bangkok at the end of the first quarter of 2013.

The Dubai carrier said it was further strengthening its commitment to South East Asia by adding the extra flight, with the announcement coming just weeks after it launched a daily service between Dubai and Phuket.

From March 31, Emirates will operate 35 flights a week between Dubai and Bangkok, plus a daily Airbus A380 service between Bangkok and Hong Kong, and a daily flight between Bangkok and Sydney, which connects on to Christchurch.

These services, along with the Phuket flights, take the number of weekly Emirates departures from Thailand to 56.

March 31 will also mark the start of the airline’s fourth daily service between Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, while a third daily Manila service started on January 1 and a third daily Jakarta service will commence on March 1.

“Emirates has been operating flights to Bangkok since 1990 and this capacity increase – combined with the launch of the Phuket service in early December - demonstrates what an important market Thailand is to us,” said Salem Obaidalla, Emirates’ senior vice president, Commercial Operations, Far East & Australasia.

“This new service will benefit Thailand’s tourism sector by bringing even more visitors from the likes of the Middle East and traditionally strong markets like Europe and Australasia."

Jabr Al-Azeeby, Emirates’ manager for Thailand and Indochina, added: “The increased frequency on Bangkok-Dubai service is just in time for passengers from Thailand to plan their Songkran holidays and to accommodate the anticipated high demand into Bangkok during the festive period.”

Emirates said in a statement that Thai exporters will also benefit from the new service which will provide an additional 105 tonnes of weekly capacity in each direction and take Emirates SkyCargo’s weekly cargo capacity each way to 750 tonnes.

And .. Aerosvit Airlines (VV) has suspended its operations !!!

Ukraine’s Aerosvit Cancels Flights, Government Helps Passengers
By Kateryna Choursina - Jan 10, 2013 11:41 PM GMT+0800

Aerosvit, Ukraine’s biggest private airline, which is in a bankruptcy procedure, canceled 15 flights and delayed two long-distance flights as the government pledged to find money to take passengers to their destinations.

Six arrivals and nine departures were canceled by the carrier today, Kiev Boryspil Airport said in a statement on its website. Flights from Goa and Bangkok were delayed for more than ten hours, the airport said. Aerosvit is controlled by Ukrainian billionaire Igor Kolomoisky. It operates 80 international routes to 34 countries, according to its website.

The Kiev regional economic court started a bankruptcy procedure against Aerosvit on Dec. 29. over outstanding debts of 4.27 billion hryvnia ($520 million) as of Dec. 27 and assets of 1.47 billion hryvnia as of Nov. 30, according to court documents.

The government pledged to find finances and to lease or rent aircraft to ensure passengers get to their destinations “for this acute period,” Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said in a statement on the government’s website today.

Qantas/Emirates partnership starts from April 2013. Did you spot any network changes on Australia-Dubai-Europe route by QF/EK ?

Sadnews. As reported on Flightglobal, most of the Aerosvit aircraft will be trasfered to UIA. All the B763s are to be returned to lessor and will be replaced by five ex-Air India B772s which are due to join the UIA fleet after next two months.

@umedhah - I am new to know about Fiji Airways but I am glad they are getting a new aircraft. Presently they have 4 x B737s and 2 x B747s, according to Planespotters.net. Does Fiji has sufficient passenger traffic to grow the aviation in the country ?

None appeared in our news casts ..

Other than SQ in news again ..

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has firmed up an order for 25 more widebody aircraft from Airbus.

Five of the aircraft are the A380.

SIA has placed three consecutive orders for the A380, making it the second largest customer of the A380, and now has 19 such aircraft in service.

The remaining 20 aircraft are in the mid-size category - the A350-900s, which will be used on medium and long haul routes