Monthly Archives: December 2016

Etihad Airways wins top Airbus A380 accolade

Airbus, manufacturer of the A380 aircraft, has presented Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, with the award for ‘Top Operational Excellence’ for A380 operations in 2015-2016.  The Etihad Airways A380 fleet recorded a remarkable 99.63 per cent operational reliability between January 2015 and October 2016, the highest of all 13 airlines […]

Lufthansa criticises new fee structure at Frankfurt Airport

Lufthansa has criticised Frankfurt Airport’s new fee structure following authorisation by the ministry of economic affairs, energy, transport and regional development of Hesse. The new fee structure not only involves an unreasonable increase in fees overall but also lowers fees for those airlines that are new to flying out of Frankfurt, argues the German flag-carrier. […]

Pakistan: PIA PK661 crashes with 48 people on board

A commercial aircraft carrying 48 people onboard crashed in northern Pakistan near the capital Islamabad, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) said. A plane carrying about 40 people crashed on the slope of a mountain in northern Pakistan on Wednesday, with witnesses on the crash site saying there were unlikely to be any survivors. The military said […]

US blacklists North Korean Air Koryo

On the 2nd of December, the US Treasury Department has announced blacklisting 16 North Korean entities ad several officials for reasons varying from overseas labor use to participation in the country’s nuclear program. Among the blacklisted companies is North Korea’s only airline Air Koryo. The carrier was blacklisted due to one of its aircraft participating […]

Australia & China sign open sky agreement

Australia and China have settled arrangements for an open sky agreement called “open aviation market” between two countries, as announced by the Australia‘s Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Investment on the 4th of December 2016. Under this agreement, both Australian and Chinese airlines will have an unrestricted capacity between China and Australia. Australia‘s Minister for […]

Etihad’s new airline will fly in April 2017

On the 5th of December 2016, Etihad Aviation Group’s board of directors has given green light to the establishment of a new European leisure airline. The new tourism-oriented carrier will be created jointly with TUI, a German travel company. The deal has already been approved by TUI’s supervisory board in November. Etihad will purchase a […]

Plane crashed in Colombia might have run out of fuel

According to a pre-crash transmission recording, the pilot of the chartered plane carrying Brazilian football club Chapecoense announced that the plane was running out of fuel. The crash of the Avro RJ85 plane operated by Bolivia’s LaMia happened on the night from the 28th to the 29th of November, killing 71 out of 77 people […]

Bolivian airline LaMia grounded after fatal crash

On the 1st of December, Bolivian authorities announced suspending the operator’s license of LaMia, a local charter carrier after the fatal crash that happened on the 28th of November, most possibly due to insufficient fuel. The crash that happened in close proximity to Medellin, Colombia, resulted in 71 deaths, with only six survivors. Among the […]

KfW IPEX-Bank, PTA Bank finance RwandAir‘s A330-300

KfW IPEX-Bank and the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank) have closed the financing of an Airbus A330-300 for the Rwandan airline RwandAir. The aircraft with serial number MSN 1759 was delivered on the 30th of November 2016 in Toulouse, France. John Mirenge, RwandAir’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “With a capacity […]

Lufthansa makes new offer to Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union

Deutsche Lufthansa has made the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union a new offer to resolve the present industrial dispute. The move follows days of strike action in recent weeks with hundreds of thousands of passengers hit by disruption. The airline is now offering a two-step 4.4 per cent increase in remuneration plus a one-off payment. Remuneration […]