Air Tanzania teams up with Maureva for flight scheduling and crew management

Air Tanzania has joined the growing list of carriers that have chosen to implement Maureva’s, ALEXIS – flight scheduling and crew management solution, to improve daily operations, enable better decision-making, enhance aircraft as well as crew utilization and better manage disruptions.

Photo: Air Tanzania.

airBaltic announces new direct flights from Tallinn to Salzburg

airBaltic continues its expansion at Tallinn Airport and has announced its 13^th destination from the Estonian capital to Salzburg, Austria. Winter seasonal flights between the two cities will commence on December 21, 2019.

Destination served

Flight frequency

Start date

Price *,

Basic

Price *,

Premium

Price*,

Business

Tallinn – Salzburg

1 weekly

December 21, 2019

129 EUR

169 EUR

369 EUR

*Lowest fare (one way), including taxes, fees and service charges, on www.airBaltic.com, subject to availability

Flights between Tallinn and Salzburg will be performed once weekly. Passengers will board an Airbus A220-300 aircraft.

From Tallinn, airBaltic offers direct flights to Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Oslo, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna and Vilnius as well as convenient connections via Riga. In June, airBaltic will also launch new direct services from Tallinn to Malaga, Brussels and Copenhagen.

airBaltic serves over 70 destinations from Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius, offering the largest variety of destinations and convenient connections via Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, the CIS and the Middle East. For summer 2019, airBaltic will launch new direct routes from Riga to Dublin, Stuttgart and Lviv as well as Kos and Menorca.

Red Nose Day soars to new heights with British Airways

British Airways has made this announcement:

As millions of people across the country don a Red Nose for Comic Relief, British Airways has unveiled an aircraft that will be wearing a Red Nose of its own for the cause. Painted on to an A320, the airline is raising awareness of Red Nose Day as it announces a target to reach £25million for Comic Relief by 2020. The Red Nosed plane will travel to various locations across the UK and Europe.

Through Flying Start, the airline’s global charity partnership with Comic Relief, British Airways has been fundraising to help change the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the UK and around the world.

Red Noses will be handed out in exchange for donations by celebrity look-a-likes at gates in Terminal 5, while Sir Chris Hoy, Gorka Marquez and Anton Du Beke have been hosted on flights and at British Airways sites to boost fundraising among BA customers and colleagues.

British Airways customers and colleagues have raised over £20 million since the Flying Start partnership with Comic Relief began in 2010, reaching the milestone target more than a year ahead of schedule. These vital funds have supported more than 620,000 people in the UK and in some of the world’s poorest communities.

The funds raised by British Airways have:

– Provided vaccinations to over 100,000 children in countries across sub Saharan Africa, protecting them from potentially deadly diseases

– Helped to empower young girls through a project in Kenya which aims to raise awareness to address gender-based violence

– Supported community healthcare in South Africa to help prevent the transmission of HIV from expectant mothers to their babies

– Supported over 1,000 children in India forced to live on the streets or in to work by providing healthcare, informal education and vocational training opportunities

– Supported thousands of vulnerable young people in the UK, including over 2,700 young carers, at risk of social exclusion and harmful behaviours, helping to improve wellbeing, confidence and life skills
The airline has announced that it aims to reach £25 million by the end of 2020, supporting projects in communities in the UK and around the world in partnership with Comic Relief. £2million of the funds raised will be specifically invested in projects which focus on early childhood development in communities that British Airways flies to. The airline will continue to support mothers2mothers and enable them to launch new project work in Ghana. Eight community projects across the UK will also be supported, focusing on early intervention by supporting maternal mental health and wellbeing, in turn supporting positive mental health and attachment into parenthood.

Alex Cruz, British Airways’ Chairman and CEO, said “We’re proud of our longstanding partnership with Comic Relief and what better way to get involved in Red Nose Day than to fly a giant red nose around the globe on one of our aircraft.

“Comic Relief does fantastic work in the UK and overseas. The funds raised by Flying Start so far are testament to the generosity of our customers, the hard work of our Flying Start team and everyone that supports this work. Let’s keep going to £25 million!”

British Airways is encouraging customers who spot the Red Nose Day aircraft to share their images on social media using the hashtag #RedNoseDay.

Liz Warner, CEO at Comic Relief, commented: “British Airways is a fantastic partner that has given us a tremendous level of support since the Flying Start partnership began in 2010. Hitting the £20 million mark a year ahead of schedule is an incredible achievement and something that we at Comic Relief are extremely grateful for.”

Boeing agrees to ground all 371 737 MAX aircraft worldwide

Boeing issued this statement:

Boeing continues to have full confidence in the safety of the 737 MAX. However, after consultation with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and aviation authorities and its customers around the world, Boeing has determined — out of an abundance of caution and in order to reassure the flying public of the aircraft’s safety — to recommend to the FAA the temporary suspension of operations of the entire global fleet of 371 737 MAX aircraft.

“On behalf of the entire Boeing team, we extend our deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those who have lost their lives in these two tragic accidents,” said Dennis Muilenburg, president, CEO, Chairman of The Boeing Company.

“We are supporting this proactive step out of an abundance of caution. Safety is a core value at Boeing for as long as we have been building airplanes; and it always will be. There is no greater priority for our company and our industry. We are doing everything we can to understand the cause of the accidents in partnership with the investigators, deploy safety enhancements and help ensure this does not happen again.”

Boeing makes this recommendation and supports the decision by the FAA.

Video: New York Times:

TAP Air Portugal to add Conakry in July

TAP Air Portugal will begin to fly between Lisbon and Conakry from July 3 onwards, offering three weekly flights between the two capitals.

Flights will depart from Lisbon on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 7.25 pm and arrive in Conakry at 11.10 pm. In the opposite direction, flights will depart from Guinea’s capital on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays at 12.05 am and arrive in the Portuguese capital at 5.30 am (local time).

With the launch of this new route to the African continent, TAP will cover 17 African cities in 11 countries. In addition to Conakry (Guinea), the carrier also flies to Luanda (Angola), Maputo (Mozambique), S. Tome (Sao Tome and Principe), Bissau (Guinea-Bissau), Praia, Sal, Sao Vicente and Boa Vista (Cape Verde), Marrakesh, Casablanca, Tangier and Fez (Morocco), Dakar (Senegal), Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), Accra (Ghana) and Lomé (Togo).

In 2018, TAP’s African routes saw a significant rise in the number of passengers: 116,000 more than in 2017, totaling 1.1 million passengers, which is a growth of 11.2% compared to the previous year.

Uzbekistan Airways takes delivery of its first Airbus A320neo

Uzbekistan Airways, the flagship airline of Uzbekistan, has taken delivery of its first Airbus A320neo (UK32021), confirming the success of the A320 Family in Central Asia. The event took place on March 8 in Hamburg, Germany with Gennadiy Kharlap, Deputy Director General of Uzbekistan Airways, and Kimon Sotiropoulos, Airbus Vice President – Central and Northern Europe, Russia & CIS.

The aircraft, acquired through a leasing contract with BOC, is part of an order for two aircraft, featuring a two-class cabin with 12 premium and 138 economy seats. The aircraft is powered by CFM International LEAP 1A engines.

Uzbekistan Airways became the first airline in 1996 in a CIS country to operate a Western-built aircraft. The A320neo, renowned for its unbeatable fuel efficiency, will join the airline’s fleet of ten A320ceo aircraft operated since 2010 across a network in Europe, America, the Middle East and Asia.

The A320neo and its derivative aircraft family members are the world’s best-selling single-aisle aircraft with over 6,500 orders from over 100 customers.

Photo: Airbus.

American Airlines’ statement of the grounding of its 24 Boeing 737-8 MAX 8 aircraft

On March 13, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all U.S.-registered Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, including the 8 and 9 variants, as a precautionary measure. This includes the 24 MAX 8 aircraft in the American Airlines fleet. We are complying with the FAA directive.

On average, American operates 85 flights per day on the MAX 8, out of 6,700 departures throughout the American Airlines system.
The safety and security of our team members and our customers remains our top priority. We continue to have the utmost confidence in our fleet, which is flown by our highly-trained pilots and maintained by our highly-skilled maintenance team.
American regularly monitors aircraft performance and safety parameters across our entire fleet, including extensive flight data collection. This data, along with our analysis, gives us confidence in the safe operation of all of our aircraft, and contributes to American’s exemplary safety record. American has flown more than 2.5 million passengers — during 46,400 operating hours encompassing nearly 18,000 flights — safely on our MAX 8 fleet since the first one was delivered Sept. 2017 and began commercial service later that November.
We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause some of our customers. Our team will work with all customers impacted by these flight cancellations in order to rebook them to their final destination. Affected customers may rebook themselves on aa.com by retrieving their reservation or using our mobile app. If a flight is canceled, customers may request a full refund by visiting our website. Customers who booked through a travel agent are requested to contact their agency directly.
American is working in close coordination with our union partners, the Department of Transportation, FAA, National Transportation Safety Board and other regulatory authorities, as the safety of our team members and customers is always our number one priority.