PLAY added the Keflavik – Prague route on May 5.
PLAY aircraft photo gallery:
JAC expands its regional fleet
Japan Air Commuter (JAC) and ATR today announced the delivery of the companyโs 9th ATR 42-600 to its fleet of 11 ATR aircraft. The latest ATR 42-600 will undertake the first leg of its ferry flight from Toulouse to Japan with a blend including Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
This new ATR 42-600 sports a specific livery representing the leaves of Kaikouzu, the tree of Kagoshima Prefecture. These leaves are the symbol of the preservation of nature in this country. It represents JACโs commitment to connect areas that coexist with nature, operating the lowest CO2 emissions and most fuel efficient aircraft. The Japanese airline flies Yakushima, Amami Oshima, Tokunoshima, Okinawa, which are all World Natural Heritage Sites, as well as many other areas rich and diverse in wildlife.
JAC aircraft photo gallery:
With airspace closures to the east, LOT Polish adds five new destinations
LOT Polish Airlines has been forced to redeploy its aircraft due to airspace closures to the east of Poland due Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
LOT had been forced to cancelled its flights to Ukraine, Russia and Belarus due to the invasion.
LOT will launch flights from Warsaw to Mumbai (May 31), Cairo (May 31), Sarajevo (May 30), Baku (May 27) and Pristina (June 6) this summer with its grounded aircraft.
Mumbai will be served with its Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
LOT Polish Airlines aircraft photo gallery:
Volotea awards Iberia MRO to maintain its A320 fleet until 2028
Volotea has signed a contract with Iberia Maintenance to perform “C check overhauls” on Airbus A320s at its facilities in Madrid and Barcelona for the next five and a half years.
Volotea will send its A320 aircraft to Iberia MRO for a comprehensive maintenance service to be carried out during the winter seasons. This agreement, which will come into force in January 2023, will run for five and a half years.
The airline selected Iberia Maintenance after an exhaustive bidding process in which the Spanish provider was the winner due to the excellent quality of its services. The contract includes the performance of “C-checks” at Iberia Maintenance’s facilities located in Madrid and Barcelona and reinforces Volotea’s commitment to the Spanish aircraft maintenance industry.
The “C-checks” consist of the inspection, overhaul, maintenance, and replacement of aircraft parts, and include preventive maintenance, identified as “C-check”.ย ย C-checks, which must be performed every 14-16 months, are considered to be the most comprehensive evaluations in the market.
Iberia Maintenance is a leading provider of maintenance and repair services, with programs that meet the needs of each client and state-of-the-art technological systems. At its facilities in Madrid and Barcelona, it has six hangars with 16 positions and the necessary workshops to carry out maintenance and material management services for the A320 aircraft and associated engines.
Last year, Volotea completed the transition to a full Airbus fleet by opting for the A320 model, with which the company’s operations are now cleaner and more environmentally friendly.
Volotea aircraft photo gallery:
Hawaiian Airlines is moving to Terminal 4 at New Yorkโs John F. Kennedy International Airport
Hawaiian Airlines will relocate its ground services and check-in from Terminal 5 to Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), effective May 10. Hawaiianโs guests traveling to and from Honolulu (HNL) will enjoy JFKโs largest terminal with 21 food and beverage options, 36 retail shops and ample electronic charging stations.
Hawaiian, which will celebrate 10 years of service between Hawaiโi and New York next month, offers daily nonstop service between HNL and JFK with Airbus A330 aircraft featuring 18 First Class lie-flat leather seats arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration tailored for couples, families and honeymooners, as well as business travelers. Hawaiianโs A330s are also equipped with 68 of its popular Extra Comfort premium economy seats providing more legroom and enhanced amenities, in addition to 192 Main Cabin seats.
Hawaiian Airlines aircraft photo gallery:
flydubai grows its network to more than 100 destinations with the addition of Izmir and Pisa
flydubai, the Dubai-based airline, has announced that it will operate flights to ten unique destinations from June 23, 2022. This includes the launch of flights to the new destinations Izmir and Pisa as well as the resumption of operations to popular seasonal summer destinations such as Bodrum, Mykonos, Santorini and Tivat.
Since the start of 2022, flydubai has launched flights to six destinations around its network including the start of flights to AlUla (ULH), its newest destination in Saudi Arabia, as well as the resumption of flights to its second point in Istanbul, Sabiha Gรถkรงen Airport (SAW). The carrier grows its network to 100 destinations with the start of flights to ten additional destinations, with the focus on seasonal summer routes.
flydubai has grown its network in Central and Eastern Europe over the years to more than twenty destinations that include popular cities such as Belgrade, Budapest, Ljubljana, Prague, Naples, Sarajevo Salzburg and Warsaw. Over the summer, the carrierโs network in Europe will further grow with the start of flights to Dubrovnik, Mykonos, Pisa, Santorini, Tivat and many more.
Since its launch in 2018, the Holidays by flydubai online portal has become a one-stop shop for customers to browse for and book their holiday packages including flights and hotels with the option to add pre-packaged ancillary services. Holidays by flydubai now offers affordable packages from 50 source markets across the flydubai network and more than 10,000 hotels from which customers can choose. flydubai passengers will be able to take advantage of the competitive Holidays by flydubai packages for their upcoming summer travel plans.
Flight details for the ten destinations starting from June 23, 2022
In other news,ย flydubai has recorded an exceptional performance in the First Quarter of 2022, building on the momentum from the tremendous performance in 2021. The carrierโs growing network and added capacity on its existing routes have been supported by new aircraft deliveries since the start of the year.
Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer at flydubai, said: โDubai has demonstrated its ability to successfully overcome the various challenges presented by the pandemic and continues to thrive. We have continued our growth in 2022 capitalising on the tremendous results we reported for 2021. We have seen the number of passengers carried in the first quarter of this year more than double compared to the previous couple of years as we welcomed the world during Expo Dubai 2020, connected underserved markets to Dubai and added more frequencies around the network.โ
โOur strong business model, supported by our ongoing recruitment drive to grow our workforce in parallel with the scheduled aircraft deliveries this year, will see that we are well placed to accommodate the surge in demand as more people get ready to travel again over the summerโ, added Al Ghaith.
Q1 2022 performance
flydubai operated 19,000 flights between 01 January and 31 March 2022 and carried 2.35 million passengers. This represents a 114% increase in the number of passengers carried compared to 2021. In addition, flydubai has seen an increase in demand for connecting traffic with 43% of passengers connecting on to the carrierโs network compared to 28% for the same period last year. Demand for travel in Business Class continues to grow across the network, Europe saw an increase to 51% in 2022 up from 39% in 2021.
Aircraft deliveries
flydubai has taken delivery of four new aircraft this year, growing its fleet of Boeing 737s to 63 aircraft serving its growing network. The carrier will take delivery of 18 more aircraft over the next few months, for which financing mandates have been issued. To support this growth trajectory, flydubai is currently undergoing a recruitment drive to add more talented professionals to its workforce and this includes pilots, cabin crew and various positions across the business.
Growing network
flydubai has built an expanding network of more than 100 destinations in 50 countries across Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Central and South-East Europe, the GCC and the Middle East, and the Indian Subcontinent, exceeding the number of destinations it operated to prior to the pandemic. The carrier relaunched flights to Yanbu (YNB) in Saudi Arabia in February and added AlUla (ULH) and Istanbul Sabiha Gรถkรงen (SAW) to its growing network in March, and has also announced the start of flights to a number of new destinations including Pisa in Italy and Izmir in Turkey commencing this summer.
flydubai aircraft photo gallery:
Airline Operators of Nigeria and the Nigerian Federal Government reach an agreement, flights resume
Temporary settlement has been reached between the Airline Operators of Nigeria and the Federal Government.
Therefore; All suspended flights will be restored immediately.
WestJet takes off and arrives in Rome
WestJet last night launched its long-awaited service to Rome with the departure of WestJet flight 32 from YYC Calgary International Airport at 6:20 p.m. local time. This first ever scheduled connection between Calgary and Rome, operated on WestJet’s 320-seat 787 Dreamliner, marked a major milestone in the recovery of Alberta’s travel and tourism industry and was celebrated alongside The Honourable Rajan Sawhney, Alberta’s Minister of Transportation and Bob Sartor, President and CEO, YYC Calgary Airport Authority.
WestJet Rome inaugural ribbon cutting. From left: Angela Avery, WestJet, Executive Vice-President, External Affairs, Bob Sartor, CEO, YYC Calgary International Airport Authority, Minister Rajan Sawhney, Government of Alberta, Minister of Transportation, Chris Hedlin, WestJet, Vice-President, Network & Alliances. (CNW Group/WESTJET, an Alberta Partnership)
WestJet’s new service to and from Rome rounds out the airline’s enhanced investments in Alberta’s transatlantic connectivity and is providing Alberta with a 43 per cent increase in WestJet’s service to Europe, compared to 2019. With five European destinations to explore, Western Canadians and northwestern based Americans can now seamlessly connect to Rome, Paris, Dublin and both London-Heathrow and Gatwick from WestJet’s convenient Calgary hub. ย This new connection will further expedite Canada’s travel and tourism recovery as international visitors benefit from a convenient nonstop flight to experience the vibrancy of what Alberta and Canada has to offer.
WestJet’s service to Rome will operate during peak season up to three-times weekly. ย The flight was originally set to launch in May of 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic.
| Route | Peak frequency | Start date | Departure | Arrival |
| Calgary โ Rome | 3x weekly | May 7, 2022 | 6:20 p.m. | 11:55 a.m. (local) |
| Rome โ Calgary | 3x weekly | May 8, 2022 | 1:55 p.m. (local) | 4:19 p.m. |
WestJet arrives in Rome (photos by APG Italy via Marco Finelli):
WestJet aircraft photo gallery:
Remembering the Past: Trans Caribbean Airways
Trans Caribbean Airways (TC) was founded on May 18, 1945 by O. Roy Chalk.
Headquartered in New York, the airline started charter operations in December 1945 with two war surplus Douglas C-47s (DC-3s).
Larger Douglas DC-4s were acquired in 1946.
The airline specialized in offering low-fare flights to San Juan and the rest of the Caribbean.
Miami – San Juan DC-4 flights started in August 1946.
Three Douglas DC-6As are acquired and military charters commence.
Following CAB supplemental authorization, TCA started low-fare operations on the competitive New York – San Juan route on March 8, 1958.
In 1962, TCA joined the jet age. A Douglas DC-8 is leased from Seaboard World.
A larger DC-8-61 is added supplemented by leased Boeing 707s and 720s during the busy winter seasons from Aer Lingus.
Above: April 28, 1968 timetable via timetables.com.
Flights from Newark to San Juan started in 1968.
1969 Route Map:
Boeing 727-100s and 727-200s were added.
Spiraling into financial troubles after a Boeing 727-200 crash landing at St. Thomas, the struggling airline is acquired by American Airlines on March 1, 1971.
As a result, AA gained a foothold in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean and never looked back.
Top Copyright Photo: Trans Caribbean Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-8F-54 Jet Trader N8783R (msn 45684) MIA (Christian Volpati Collection). Image: 957549.
Trans Caribbean Airways aircraft photo gallery:
airBaltic reopens cargo operations from Kyiv, A220 on tour around Asia
airBaltic hasย announced that in cooperation with UkrPoshta it has organized a multimodal mail transportation system and thus reopened cargo operations from Kyiv, Ukraine.
First mail shipment from Kyiv arrived in Riga on April 12. Since then the company has handled more than 7 000 mail bags from Ukraine with a total weight of over 50 tons.
In other news,ย airBaltic isย participating in an aircraft manufacturer Airbusโย demonstration tour around the Asia-Pacific region showcasing its latest A220-300 aircraft. During the tour, airBalticโs A220-300 will visit a total of four destinations in the region.
The first three stops of the tour were Sydney, Australia, Singapore and Hanoi, Vietnam. The aircraft will then visit Tokyo, Japan. At each stop, invited guests are welcome to tour the aircraft, attend product briefings by Airbus executives, as well as take part in a short demo flight.
Thus far, airBaltic has carried nearly 8 000 000 passengers on the Airbus A220-300 aircraft. Airbus A220-300โs have completed more than 92 000 flights and flown over 200 000 block hours.
Since May 2020, airBaltic operates all its flights with a single aircraft type โ Airbus A220-300, thus minimizing the complexity and benefiting from the additional efficiency provided by the aircraft. The airlineโs fleet now consists of 34 A220-300 aircraft with six more planned to join in 2022.
The Airbus A220-300 has performed beyond the companyโs expectations, delivering better overall performance, fuel efficiency and convenience for both passengers and the staff. This aircraft offers an excellent flying experience with such benefits for passengers as wider seats, larger windows, more hand luggage space in the cabin, improved lavatories and much more.
The Airbus A220-300ย has a high-quality air filtering system equipped with High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) type filter that provides the best level of filtration currently available for recirculated cabin air from the very beginning of boarding, during entire flight and until all passengers have left the aircraft. The quality of cabin air is carefully controlled and is recirculated with ventilation rates that provide a total change of air 20-30 times per hour.
airBalitic aircraft photo gallery:
You must be logged in to post a comment.