In one of its biggest sales, Air New Zealand is offering $150 discount on all return trips from New Zealand to Australia for the next six months. A press release issued by Air New Zealand said: “Every return journey from any of Air New Zealand’s domestic ports to any destination the airline flies to in Australia is on sale – with absolutely no close out periods. That’s every available seat, on every available flight – all one million or so, on sale.”

Air New Zealand is also for the first time offering $150 off kids’ fares, thus offering a great relief for families wanting to travel in the school holidays.

The current offer by Air New Zealand will enable the citizens of New Zealand to make great savings on any Air New Zealand flight between 15th June and 15th December  2011 (including all school holidays, public holidays and regional anniversaries days) if they book the tickets up to midnight of 31st May 2011.

The sale has already gone live at midnight Sunday (29th May 2011) and will continue until midnight Tuesday 31st May 2011.

Royal Jordanian Airlines recently said in a statement that it expects to get the delivery of its first Dreamliner in the first quarter of 2014. The airline purchased three Boeing jumbo jets last year.

Hussein Dabbas, Chief Executive of Royal Jordanian Airlines, said, “Though high oil prices have hit the carrier hard in Q1 2011, Jordan’s flag carrier plans to include 11 Dreamliners in its fleet. Seven Dreamliners will be purchased outright, while four will be leased by 2015.”

Royal Jordanian Airlines is the first Arab state carrier to be privatized after Jordan sold 71 percent of the airline’s stake to international and local investors in an initial public offering at the end of 2007.

The Star Alliance partners TAM Airlines and Spanair have entered into a new codeshare agreement effective 12th May 2011 that will allow both the companies to widen their range of destinations.

Paul Castello Branco, Commercial and Alliances VP of TAM Airlines, said, “We are expanding TAM Airlines’ international network in Europe through this partnership with Spanair. We will be able to provide to our customers greater convenience and comfort with the offer of an extra five destinations in Spain.”

Expressing his happiness at the codeshare agreement, CEO of Spanair Mike Szucs said that with this agreement the Spanair will be able to expand its network of destinations to Brazil and South America.

According to the agreement, TAM Airlines will be offering its customers seats with a JJ code on the flights operated by Spanair to-and-from Madrid and Barcelona, Bilbao, Malaga, Tenerife-Norte and Santiago de Copostela. While, on the other hand, Spanair will be offering seats with a JK code on the daily flight operated by TAM Airlines between the Madrid and Sao Paulo.

The Gulf Air recently released its summer schedule adding more flights, additional seats and more convenient flight options to several key destinations. The airline said that over 1700 seats have been added per week to the existing flights to cope up with the increasing passenger demand. The services to three new destinations – Kabul, Copenhagen and Nairobi – have also commenced.

“Many of our destinations are very popular with our customers such as Bangkok, Colombo, Istanbul, Kathmandu and Manila, which are already witnessing over 80 percent bookings, and come summer, the demand will be even higher. So we have made sure to meet the summer rush by increasing frequencies and operating bigger aircraft. In addition, we have also introduced split schedules on some routes giving flexible options for our customers to choose their arrival and departures according to their leisure needs. The split schedule also offers better onward connectivity options for those travelling to other destinations via Bahrain,” said Karim Makhlouf, Gulf Air Chief Commercial Officer.

Summer Schedule Highlights:

• Flights to Manila increased from 10 to 12 times per week using an A330 with a capacity increase of 20 percent from May 11.
• Service to Istanbul increased from four to five per week with an A320 aircraft adding a 153 percent capacity increase replacing the current Embraer E70 from May 15.
• Flights to Colombo increased from seven to eight per week with a 14 percent added capacity from May 17.
• Flights to Kathmandu increased from 11 to 12 times per week using an A320 with a weekly capacity increase of 9 percent from May 21.
• Flights to Bangkok to be increased from seven to nine per week using A330 with a 28 percent additional capacity effective June 1.
• Flights to Larnaca to be increased from five to six per week with a weekly capacity increase of 20 percent effective June 5.
• Flights to the recently launched European destination Milan to be increased from four to six per week using an A320 aircraft instead of the current Boeing 737 offering 117 percent more seats per week for passengers.

Besides, the Gulf Air also announced that it will be launching services to three new destinations – Kabul from June 15, Copenhagen (its first service to Scandinavia) from July 1, and Nairobi from July 5.

The Singapore Airlines (SIA) and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), under the Asia and Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE) partnership, have launched regular ‘green’ flights across Asia and the Pacific. The regular ‘green’ flights, which comes under the ‘ASPIRE-Daily City Pair’ program, aims to deliver gate-to-gate environmental best practices for pairs of airports throughout the Asia Pacific, one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world.

The Singapore Airlines and CAAS, which are working together with the United States Federal Aviation Administration and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, launched the second regular ‘city pair’ Los Angeles to Singapore flight on May 16, 2011. The Flight SQ37 operating nonstop from Los Angeles to Singapore will be employing enhanced gate-to-gate air traffic management operational procedures to reduce fuel burn and carbon emissions in all phases of the flight.

Earlier, the first daily ‘city pair’ flight was launched between Auckland and San Francisco on February 21, 2011. The ASPIRE partners will be introducing more such ‘city pair’ flights over the next few months.

According to the airline, the air traffic management best practices, which significantly reduces fuel burn and carbon emissions, to be utilized for the Los Angeles-Singapore ‘green’ flight includes ‘User-Preferred Routes’ ‘Dynamic Airborne Reroute Procedures’ and ‘30/30 Reduced Oceanic Separation’, which allow pilots to take full advantage of atmospheric conditions, such as prevailing winds, to reduce separation between aircraft and shorten flight time; and ‘Time-Based Arrivals Management’ and ‘Arrivals Optimization’ which allow aircraft to fly with engines set at idle mode in continuous descent from a high altitude during the landing phase of the flight, thus reducing fuel burn.

The Singapore Airlines currently operates a modern passenger fleet of more than 100 aircraft and its network, including Singapore Airlines Cargo and SilkAir destinations, covering a total of 100 destinations in 40 countries.

The United Airlines recently launched its first-ever daily nonstop flights between the second-largest US city Los Angeles and China’s finance and trade centre Shanghai. The flights will operate from the airline’s hub at Los Angeles International Airport. The airline will press into service Boeing 777 aircraft to operate the daily flights.

According to the schedule, Flight 877 will depart Los Angeles daily at 1.23 pm and will arrive at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport at 5.45 pm the next day. On the return, Flight 878 will depart Shanghai at 8.10 pm and will arrive at Los Angeles at 5.07 pm the same day. The airline in a statement said that the flights are timed to provide convenient round-trip connections at its Los Angeles hub to cities throughout the western US, Canada and Mexico. Currently, the United Airlines offers more than 225 daily flights to destinations throughout the world from the Los Angeles hub.

At present, the United Airlines is upgrading its international first and business class sections, including new flat-bed seats in the business class. The airline said that both the first class and the business class cabins of the aircraft used on the Los Angeles-Shanghai route will have flat-bed seating by year-end. Besides, the flights will also offer improved economy-class features such as larger personal video screens, video-on-demand and in-seat power ports.

The United Airlines started operating flights to China in 1986. Currently, the airline has daily nonstop flights to Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai from hubs in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington.

The Eithad Airways has announced that it is extending a popular new sales promotion offering special pre-summer fares to 20 of its global destinations from Abu Dhabi, which include one week’s free parking at Abu Dhabi airport or complimentary luxury coach transfers from Dubai.

According to the airline, the promotional fares “Up, Up and Away” will be available for purchase until May 26, 2011, for outbound travel by June 14, 2011, and return travel by June 30, 2011. The new sales promotion offers the customers a final chance to take off before the summer rush at exceptional fares. The customers will get up to 20 percent off on regular fare prices while allowing for full mileage earning. The promotional fares offered include*:

• Flights to Alexandria from Dhs 805
• Flights to Beirut from Dhs 865
• Flights to Colombo from Dhs 925
• Flights to Bangkok from Dhs 2445
• Flights to Dublin from Dhs 2585
• Flights to Geneva from Dhs 2715
• Flights to Johannesburg from Dhs 2915
• Flights to London from Dhs 2935
• Flights to Paris from Dhs 3115
• Flights to Tokyo from Dhs 4405

The promotion offers applicable for destinations include Alexandria, Almaty, Bangkok, Beirut, Brussels, Casablanca, Colombo, Damascus, Dublin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Larnaca, London, Manchester, Munich, Paris, Seoul and Tokyo.

* Prices above are based on return Economy class fares from Abu Dhabi. Terms and conditions apply. Fares are inclusive of taxes and surcharges and exclusive of service fees.

The KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has announced that it will be operating a twice daily service to Euro-Airport, the airport serving Basel and Mulhouse, from October 30, 2011, the start of the winter schedule.

Basel will be KLM’s third Swiss destination after Geneva and Zurich, whereas Mulhouse will be KLM’s sixth French destination after Paris, Bordeaux, Nice, Marseille and Toulouse.

Basel and Mulhouse are situated in a region around the French, Swiss and German borders, which has over two million inhabitants, and these two cities are quite interesting for both business and holiday travelers.

According to the airline, the flights to Basel and Mulhouse will depart daily at 10.00 hours from Amsterdam, arriving at 11.25 hours in Basel/Mulhouse. The flight will return at 12.05 hours, arriving in Amsterdam at 13.35 hours. The second flight will depart Amsterdam at 20.30 hours and will arrive at Basel /Mulhouse at 21.55 hours. The flight will depart the following day at 7.15 hours from Basel/Mulhouse and will arrive in Amsterdam at 8.45 hours.

Lufthansa, one of the world's largest and prestigious airlines, has announced that it will be launching A380 service to its third Asian destination Singapore with the winter timetable becoming effective from October 30, 2011. The airline will be operating a daily A380 service on its Frankfurt-Singapore route. The inaugural flight LH778 will depart Frankfurt at 10.05 pm for Singapore.

The airline also said that it will shift its service to Jakarta (via Singapore) from Frankfurt to Munich on October 30, 2011. Airbus A340-300 will be operated on the route. The new shift in services will provide ample time to the passengers arriving in Singapore on the A380 flight from Frankfurt to transfer to the onward flight to Indonesia.

The new flight schedules will be as follows:

Frankfurt- Singapore (Starting October 30, 2011)

A380 schedule                 LH 778 Frankfurt 10:05 pm - Singapore 4:55 pm (following day)

LH 779 Singapore 11:55 pm - Frankfurt 05:55 pm

(All times are local times)

Munich - Singapore – Jakarta (starting October 30, 2011)

A340- 300 schedule         LH 790 Munich 9:30 pm - Singapore 4:50 pm (following day)                      

Singapore 6:00 pm - Jakarta 6:50 pm

LH 791 Jakarta 8:05 pm - Singapore 10:45 pm

Singapore 11:59 pm - Munich 06:10 pm

(All times are local times)
Lufthansa currently operates flights to 211 destinations in 84 countries around the world, with hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.

The US Airways recently launched new seasonal summer service to be operated daily between the airline’s hub at Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Madrid (Spain) and Dublin (Ireland) to provide passenger more options to get to the two favorite European cities.

The Madrid service began from May 13, 2011. The flight will be operated with Boeing B767-200ER aircraft with seating for 18 in Envoy, US Airways’ international business class, and 186 in the main cabin.

The Dublin service started from May 14, 2011. The flight will be operated with Boeing B757-200 ETOPS aircraft with seating for 12 in Envoy and 164 in the main cabin.

The new flights will complement US Airways’ daily nonstop service to both cities from Philadelphia, the airline’s international gateway, and will operate through September 30, 2011.

With the new flights the number of international destinations served from Charlotte by the US Airways now stands at 31 (6 cities in Europe and 25 in Latin America and the Caribbean). During the last week the airline also reinstated seasonal summer service from Philadelphia to Athens, Greece; Glasgow, Scotland; Lisbon, Portugal; and Venice, Italy. In March, seasonal summer service also began to Barcelona, Spain.

The flight schedule is as follows:                                                                                              

Charlotte - Madrid

Flight 748 – Departure: 4.25 pm – Arrival: 6.40 am (Next Day)                                                                                     

Madrid - Charlotte

Flight 749 – Departure: 9.30 am – Arrival: 12.55 pm                                                                                                          

Charlotte - Dublin

Flight 724 – Departure: 6.20 pm – Arrival: 6.50 am (Next Day)                                                                                     

Dublin - Charlotte                                                                                           

Flight 725 – Departure: 9.15 am – Arrival: 12.40 pm
The US Airways, along with US Airways Shuttle and US Airways Express, currently operates more than 3,200 flights per day serving more than 200 cities in the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Central and South America.