As a record-breaking World Routes event in Chicago enters its last day, this lunchtime the Chicago Department of Aviation and Choose Chicago will officially hand the event over next year's host, the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Etihad Airways treated delegates to an engaging presentation at the 20th World Route Development Forum Strategy Summit, outlining the carrier’s expanded network by the end of 2015, writes Jonny Williamson for The HUB.
Subject to regulatory approvals, the new three times per week service between Mahé and Mumbai will be launched from December 2, 2015 and will be operated by a two-class Airbus A320 aircraft, configured with 16 Business Class and 120 Economy Class seats.
The airline has placed an order for 20 737 MAX 8s with options and purchase rights for a further 15 aircraft. It is the largest single Boeing order by number of aircraft from an African carrier and was previously unidentified in the Boeing order backlog as being placed by an unidentified customer.
The Tanzanian capital becomes the third destination in Air Seychelles’ Indian Ocean and African network, after Mauritius and Johannesburg and the new route will be operated using a two-class Airbus A320 aircraft with 16 Business Class and 120 Economy Class seats.
The network growth is being facilitated by the continuous growth of the airline’s fleet and the new non-stop Doha - Cape Town route will be operated by one of the carrier’s new Boeing 787 Dreamliners which are configured in a two-class arrangement with 22 Business Class and 232 Economy Class seats.
UK carrier Virgin Atlantic Airways is to suspend flights to Cape Town, Mumbai, Tokyo and Vancouver as it instead looks to strengthen its transatlantic partnership with shareholder Delta Air Lines. The latest network changes are part of an ongoing network review and business recovery plan to return the carrier to long-term profitability.
The airline says forward bookings for the current twice-weekly flights are “well ahead of management expectations” and with the first flights from Zimbabwe already “operating to full capacity”, fastjet has quickly decided to boost the frequency of the link.
The total traffic for the four days is an increase of 36 per cent over the same period at the end of Eid Al Fitr in 2013, when 133,007 passengers took an Etihad Airways flight.
As Airbus and Boeing go head-to-head in negotiations for Emirates Airline’s outstanding order of 70 extra-widebodied aircraft, aviation intelligence expert OAG has revealed the critical importance of Emirates’ choice and how it could impact up to 88 per cent of the carrier’s flights.
UAE national carrier, Etihad Airways, has revealed plans to launch its first passenger flights to Algiers, Edinburgh, Entebbe, Hong Kong, Kolkata and Madrid in the first half of 2015, while Brisbane will get its first non-stop flights using the carrier's new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
VIDEO: You find out more about the challenges of operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo in our video interview with Christophe Allard, CEO of Korongo Airlines, in which he also highlights the carrier’s strategy to develop more regional partnerships across Africa.
South African carrier Comair has been operating for over 70 years and has shown over the past two decades that you can successfully operate both a full service and budget operation in Africa, albeit under two very separate brands.
