Tag Archives: A380

Lufthansa to operate around one half of its long-haul flights today due to the pilots’ strike

Lufthansa (Frankfurt) has issued this statement:

Lufthansa has published a special timetable for its services for Tuesday, September 8.

The action has been taken following a call by the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union (VC) for its members at Lufthansa German Airlines and Lufthansa Cargo to take strike action.

A total of 1,500 passenger flights (including some 170 long-haul services) and seven cargo flights were scheduled to be operated during the planned strike period today.

With a relatively large number of cockpit personnel indicating their willingness to fly, the airline will be able to operate more than half of its intercontinental passenger services despite the VC’s strike call.

All in all, 84 long-haul services from or to Frankfurt, Munich or Düsseldorf will have to be cancelled, while 90 such flights can be operated.

The willingness of many pilots to work despite the strike call will also permit all seven scheduled cargo flights for Tuesday to be performed. Lufthansa Cargo will thus be able to maintain its full flight program.

All Lufthansa customers holding tickets for long-haul travel from or to Frankfurt, Munich or Düsseldorf are urged to check the latest status of their flight on LH.com well in advance of their scheduled departure.

Lufthansa aircraft slide show:

Emirates to make London Gatwick an all-Airbus A380 destination

Emirates (Dubai) is moving to a triple-daily all-Airbus A380 scheduled operation at London’s Gatwick Airport starting on January 1, 2016. The third daily A380 roundtrip flight will replace the lone existing Boeing 777-300 ER flight according to Airline Route.

The carrier dominates the Dubai – London market with five additional daily Airbus A380 flights to Dubai from nearby London Heathrow Airport. This is a total of eight daily Airbus A380 roundtrip flights in one market.

Copyright Photo: AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A380-861 A6-EDW (msn 103) with special “Rugby World Cup – England 2015” markings taxies at London (Heathrow).

Emirates aircraft slide show:

Lufthansa to offer “restaurant service” in Business Class

Lufthansa (Frankfurt) has issued this statement about its new “Restaurant Service”:

From August onwards, passengers in the Lufthansa Business Class can look forward to a completely new service on board long-haul flights. The flight attendants will now adapt their service more strongly towards the rhythm of their passengers in order to individually respond to their guests’ needs and requests just like a top-class restaurant. After the flight attendants have welcomed ‘their’ guests on board in person and by name, they take their orders and set the table with ceramic crockery. Meals are then served directly from the galley. Trays and flight trolleys are replaced by service plates.

After the introductory flights in June and July on the Airbus A380 routes to New York (JFK) and Miami, the restaurant service will now be launched on the A380 services to Houston, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Miami, Delhi, New York (JFK), Beijing, San Francisco, Shanghai, Seoul and Singapore from 1st August onwards. The service will then be introduced on flights with the Boeing 747-400 and 747-8 from Frankfurt on October 1 and the Airbus A340 fleet from Frankfurt and Munich to Asia and the Middle East on October 25.

Special service training courses for around 4500 flight attendants have already been running since May this year. The around 130 flights on which the new concept has already been tested received an extremely positive response from Business Class guests. With its new restaurant service, Lufthansa is taking another important step towards becoming the first five-star airline in the Western hemisphere.

Photo: Lufthansa.

Lufthansa aircraft slide show:

British Airways to bring the Airbus A380 to Vancouver

British Airways (London) has announced that from May 1, 2016 it will begin flying its Airbus A380 Super Jumbo daily between Vancouver International Airport, Canada and London (Heathrow). This marks the first A380 for the city of Vancouver and will be the only scheduled A380 service in western Canada.

All four Canadian cities that British Airways serves will now have the latest aircraft in British Airways’ fleet, with Toronto, Montreal and Calgary operating the 787 Dreamliner.

British Airways aircraft slide show:

British Airways to operate the Airbus A380 daily to Singapore, Miami to start on October 25

British Airways (London) will go to a daily Airbus A380 operation the London (Heathrow) – Singapore route on February 24, 2016 instead of early March, 2016. As previously reported, the Super Jumbo will also be introduced on the London (Heathrow) – Miami route on October 25.

Also on October 25, BA will introduce the new stretched Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (below) on the London (Heathrow) – Delhi route.

Image Above: British Airways.

Top Copyright Photo: AirlinersGallery.com. British Airways Airbus A380-841 G-XLEE (msn 148) taxies at the London (Heathrow) hub.

British Airways aircraft slide show:

Video: British Airways. The Airbus A380:

Air France to introduce the Airbus A380 on the Paris (CDG) – Mexico City route

Air France (Paris) will introduce the Airbus A380 on the Paris (CDG) – Mexico City route on January 12, 2016 with three initial weekly frequencies. The A380 will replace existing Boeing 777-300 ER service. The route will be served daily with the A380 starting on March 26, 2016 per Airline Route.

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A380-861 F-HPJG (msn 067) departs from Los Angeles International Airport.

Air France aircraft slide show:

Qatar Airways announces the seventh flight to London Heathrow

Qatar Airways (Doha) continues to expand. Starting on October 25, the fast-growing Gulf carrier is increasing the weekly frequencies on the Doha – London (Heathrow) route from 42 weekly flight to 46 weekly flights, meaning it will operate seven flights a day on key days of the week. This includes double-daily Airbus A380 (above) operations on the route.

In other news, on July 1 Qatar Airways launched its second new destination of the year, touching down in the Spice Island of Zanzibar. Zanzibar is the airline’s third route in Tanzania, following Dar-es-Salaam and Kilimanjaro.

Qatar Airways will initially operate five weekly flights to Zanzibar via Kilimanjaro, and commencing October 1, 2015, the airline will offer an additional two weekly flights making it a daily operation. Out of the daily flights from October, passengers will be able to fly nonstop to Zanzibar three-times-a-week and on a linked flight via Kilimanjaro four-times-a-week.

Qatar Airways is operating an Airbus A320 in a two-class configuration on the Zanzibar-Doha route, with 12 seats in Business Class and up to 132 seats in Economy.

Additionally the flag carrier has announced network frequency increases to multiple destinations across its global network.

The national airline is adding frequencies to its popular routes – Dubai (UAE), Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Peshawar (Pakistan), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Belgrade (Serbia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Asmara (Eritrea), Djibouti (Djibouti), Najaf (Iraq), Luxor (Egypt), Salalah (Oman) and Zanzibar (Tanzania) all of which are launching over the coming months.

From July 16, Qatar Airways will increase its frequency on the Doha – Dubai route with one additional daily flight, taking its capacity up to 15 services a day to Dubai International Airport (DXB), which also takes the total frequency to DXB and DWC to 19 flights a day. Dubai has the highest frequency in the airline’s route network and this popular Gulf destination is currently served 126 times a week.

Flights to destinations in the Middle East has also increased with an additional daily flight during Ramadan to Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; from June 18, services to Jeddah have risen from double-daily flights to triple-daily flights.

The third daily flight to Jeddah is being operated with an all-premium First Class service. The Airbus A319 aircraft fitted with an all First Class, single aisle, 2–2 seating configuration with 40 seats.

Qatar Airways will also be strengthening its commitment to Pakistan. After the recent announcement to launch flights to three new destinations (Sialkot, Faisalabad and Multan), the airline is expanding further in Pakistan with Peshawar moving from three weekly flights to daily flights effective from October 1.

The popular Far East destination of Kuala Lumpur, which is currently served 21 times-a-week, will have three additional flights from July 2 to August 29, helping to supplement busy travel demands during this summer season.

The Sofia-Belgrade linked route, which is currently served with five flights a week, will see an increase to daily flights when it adds two more flights commencing July 2.

Starting from July 1, Qatar Airways will initially operate five weekly flights to Zanzibar via Kilimanjaro, and commencing October 1, the airline will offer an additional two weekly flights making it a daily operation to Zanzibar. Out of the daily flights from October, passengers will be able to fly non-stop to Zanzibar three-times-a-week and on a linked flight via Kilimanjaro four-times-a-week.

Expansion in Africa includes one additional weekly flight to both Asmara and Djibouti from July 1 and July 3 respectively. Service to Luxor in Egypt will increase with one more weekly flight effective from November 1, 2015 to March 20, 2016.

Najaf in Iraq will be operated with two additional weekly flights from July 15 taking its frequency to 10 weekly flights. From September 18, four additional weekly flights will be launched to Najaf making it a double-daily operation.

In addition, Qatar Airways will operate three more weekly flights to popular tourist destination Salalah from October 6.

The airline now serves 147 worldwide destinations with 161 aircraft.

Copyright Photo: SPA/AirlinersGallery.com. Qatar Airways’ Airbus A380-861 A7-APA (msn 137) climbs majestically away from the runway at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Qatar Airways aircraft slide show:

New video from JustPlanes: Airbus A380 HEAVY Cockpit Takeoff

New video from JustPlanes, just released. Air France Airbus A380.

China Southern introduces the Airbus A380 to Amsterdam

China Southern Airlines (Guangzhou) today (June 20) introduced its 506-seat Airbus A380 on the Beijing – Amsterdam route. The Super Jumbo arrived this morning on its overnight flight from China. China Southern is the first airline to operate the A380 from China to Amsterdam.

Copyright Photo: Xiangrui Huang/AirlinersGallery.com. China Southern Airlines Airbus A380-841 B-6138 (msn 054) arrives in Beijing.

China Southern Airlines aircraft slide show:

Malaysia Airlines is “technically bankrupt”, will cut 6,000 jobs and sell two Airbus A380s

Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur) is “technically bankrupt” according to its new CEO Christoph Mueller, formerly of Aer Lingus. Mueller announced today at a press conference the company will cut around 6,000 jobs in order to reduce costs. The airline continues to operate normally.

The airline will also rebrand on September 1. Mueller did not want to offer any details on the rebranding.

Mueller also stated the new airline could break even by 2018.

A full review is underway on all routes and some routes will be dropped.

As previously reported, a new legal entity, Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB), will replace the technically bankrupt Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS).

Read the full report from the BBC: CLICK HERE

An analyst comment from Ken Odeluga, a senior market analyst at www.cityindex.co.uk

Christopher Mueller’s strategic comment very much suggests the recently appointed CEO is trying to afford himself maximum flexibility in the difficult months ahead.

There’s a moderate possibility the airline will in practice not be formally declared bankrupt.
We note Malaysian bankruptcy law provides a much lower threshold to judge going concerns than would apply to Malaysian Airlines.

Its balance sheet is remarkably clean under the circumstances with about $810m of accumulated losses including $75m of hedge accounting.

Aside from that, there is no other red ink at all—no significant impairments or other risky effects and its most recent pre-tax margin at 17% is well above MA’s internal run-rate.
The burdens that exist are of course not inconsiderable, but the point is, the airline has been carrying them for longer than its crisis has been going on.

Its bigger problems involve the significant depreciation in the ringgit against the dollar that continues to shave off its room to manoeuvre, not to mention political interference, powerful unions, and more than a whiff of alleged corruption.

MA’s cost base could be about 20% higher than those of its rivals.

Mueller will need in the near-to-immediate term, all his negotiating, persuasive and coercive skills in dealing with all sorts of stakeholders—those which are legitimate and those for whom that term is more arguable.

At least there does now appear to be a will in the State apparatus that wasn’t there a year ago.

Mueller will have the ear of those strong enough to bulldozer parties which might attempt block the root-and-branch reform of the airline that will be necessary to make it what it may never really have been—competitive.

Copyright Photo above: SPA/AirlinersGallery.com. Malaysia Airlines is reviewing its fleet of 13 Boeing 777-200 ERs and will also attempt to find buyers for two of its six Airbus A380s. Airbus A380-841 9M-MNB (msn 081) approaches the runway at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Malaysia Airlines aircraft slide show:

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