Reading Time: < 1 minute Ryanair’s Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary, announced on Thursday, August 31, that the low-cost carrier intends to bid for 90 of Alitalia’s planes and associated routes. Although it has indicated that it intends to operate the planes with existing cabin crew and staff, some redundancies and aircraft lease restructuring will likely be required. Alitalia has been […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Houston Hobby Airport (HOU) have reopened to handle limited domestic flights after being forced to close Aug. 27 because of severe flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. “The plan is to begin a phased return to service, with full service expected by this weekend,” the Houston Airport System, which […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Emirates and Qantas will apply to extend their cornerstone partnership for another five years making changes to reflect customer demand, new aircraft technology and each airline’s respective network strengths. These changes will deliver additional benefits to the eight million passengers who have travelled more than 65 billion kilometres on the combined network since 2013, increasing […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes China Eastern Airlines is to add more than 250 aircraft to the group’s fleet over the next five years, with 50 set to be introduced before the end of 2017. The airline, which in July agreed to take a 10 percent stake in Air France-KLM, said its fleet modernisation programme means 191 jets will be […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute Middle East carriers might need to brace themselves; Norwegian Air’s website suggests the carrier’s commencement of operations to Dubai is imminent. The ultra low cost disruptor made a name for itself by flying passengers across the Atlantic, from Europe to the US, for as low as €54 (AED 236) and to the Caribbean for even […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute Lufthansa Group LCC subsidiary Eurowings will hire 600 crew members, comprising 200 pilots and 400 cabin crew members, as its fleet expands to a further 20 Airbus A320s. In addition, Eurowings management has confirmed that temporary working contracts for flight attendants will be changed to permanent contracts. Eurowings employs 1,500 flight attendants. Lufthansa established Eurowings […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes Despite many advances in airline systems over the last decade, there is one problem area in airline operations that technology hasn’t yet solved: cancelled flights and stranded passengers. Known as “irregular operations” (IROP), flights cancelled for non-weather reasons disrupt travel plans for hundreds of millions of US passengers each year. For airlines, flight cancellations are […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute After Dubai Airports, Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC) has become the second airport operator in the Middle East to ban bags without flat surfaces this year. The new rule, to come into force on 1 September, is applicable to all passengers irrespective of airline, cabin class and point of origin or final destination. “If the […]

Reading Time: 2 minutes Thousands of flights were canceled over the weekend as the storm resulting from Hurricane Harvey created “catastrophic” flooding and dangerous conditions in southeast Texas. More than 1,580 flights were canceled in the U.S. Sunday morning, according to Flight Aware, an aviation software company that tracks flight statuses. Those cancellations were in addition to the 1,100 […]

Reading Time: < 1 minute Etihad Airways Group is getting to set to name its new CEO within the next few months, according to a statement by the company. “The successful candidate is expected to start no later than the beginning of 2018,” the statement read. Former Etihad CEO James Hogan departed from the company in May, with Ray Gammel […]