Tag Archives: LHR

CargoLogicAir is adding Tel Aviv

British all-cargo airline, CargoLogicAir (CLA), is adding Tel Aviv to its growing network of scheduled freighter operations.

Starting on November 10, 2017, the London Stansted-based airline will operate a weekly Boeing 747-400F service to Tel Aviv via Frankfurt. The flight will depart Frankfurt for Tel Aviv Friday evening before returning to Frankfurt on Saturday morning. In December, the outbound service ex Europe will switch from Frankfurt to Hahn Airport.

CLA launched its first scheduled cargo route in August with twice-weekly 747-400F flights from London Stansted Airport to Mexico City International Airport via Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The routing of this service also incorporates stops in Houston, Frankfurt and Abu Dhabi, enabling the airline to also provide a wider choice of Europe-Mexico, Europe-Middle East and U.S.-Middle East connections. Last month, CLA also commenced a weekly route connecting London with Frankfurt, Dubai and Hong Kong.

By utilizing its network to connect with global partners, CLA is also able to offer cargo deliveries to Moscow, Chicago and to points across Asia, including Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Tokyo.

Icelandair launches year-round service from Berlin Tegel

Icelandair on November 3, 2017 launched year-round service from Berlin-Tegel Airport (TXL), with flight # FI529 departing at 1:05pm. Icelandair CEO, Birkir Hólm Guðnason and Berlin Tegel COO, Elmar Kleinert, were at the gate to welcome the boarding passengers and help celebrate the new route. Icelandair‘s new service will operate three flights a week (Mondays, Fridays and Sundays) between Reykjavik and Berlin with connections to and from 20 destinations in North America.

“Berlin is our 4th gateway in Germany, and establishes our commitment to strengthen our transatlantic route network by providing passengers with more convenient connections between Europe and North America. Berlin, the capital city of Germany, has a rich history, diverse culture, and vibrant nightlife, which we look forward to sharing with our passengers,” said Birkir Holm Gudnason, CEO of Icelandair.

Icelandair, in operation since 1937, has a long, illustrious history of bridging North America and mainland Europe through Iceland. The airline has helped boost tourism to its home country in record numbers and in bolstering Iceland as one of Europe’s hottest destinations.

Copyright Photo: Icelandair Boeing 757-256 WL TF-FIU (msn 26243) (Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis) LHR (Antony J. Best). Image: 925480.

El Al restores the Miami route

El Al Israel Airlines on November 1, 2017 restored the nonstop Tel Aviv – Miami route. This time, the route will be operated three a week with Boeing 777-200 ER aircraft.

United operates the last international Boeing 747 flight

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United Airlines flight UA 892 from Seoul (Incheon) to the San Francisco hub with the pictured N121UA arrived at 11:19 am local time in SFO on Sunday, October 29, 2017. According to Flightaware the flight duration was 10 hours and 24 minutes. This was the last UA 747 international revenue flight.

As previously reported, United announced it will operate United special flight 747, on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 from San Francisco to Honolulu which will be the airline’s farewell flight to the Boeing 747 fleet.

This journey will serve as the ultimate throwback for customers, employees and invited guests as it recreates the first 747 flight operated by United in 1970. From a 1970s-inspired menu to retro uniforms for flight attendants to inflight entertainment befitting of that first flight, passengers will help send the Queen of the Skies off in true style. The original United 747 aircraft that first made this journey from San Francisco to Honolulu was named the “Friend Ship,” the same name bestowed on this farewell flight.

Seats on this special, one-way trip, United flight 747, are available for purchase now at united.com or through the United app. The seats in the upper deck will not be sold, giving all guests the opportunity to spend time in this iconic space.

Customers seated in United Polaris first class and United Polaris business class will be entered into a drawing that will take place at the gate prior to boarding for an opportunity to occupy one of a select number of seats in the upper deck during the flight.

The journey will begin with a gate celebration at 9 a.m. local time at San Francisco International Airport, featuring a Boeing 747 gallery, remarks from United employees and executives, as well as refreshments. The flight will depart San Francisco International Airport at 11 a.m. local time, landing at Honolulu International Airport at 2:45 p.m. local time. Upon landing in Honolulu, local employees will welcome the aircraft with final festivities to close out the historic day. Customers and fans of the Queen of the Skies are encouraged to use the #UA747Farewell hashtag in social media posts.

Top Copyright Photo: United Airlines Boeing 747-422 N121UA (msn 29167) (4-Star 747 Friend Ship) LHR (Antony J. Best). Image: 939641.

Bottom Copyright Photo: N121UA was previously painted in the Star Alliance livery. United Airlines Boeing 747-422 N121UA (msn 29167) (Star Alliance) SFO (Mark Durbin). Image: 902623.

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SAS seasonal summer 2018 routes – 5 new destinations and 27 new nonstop routes from Scandinavia

SAS continues to expand its offer to and from Scandinavia and launches 27 new nonstop routes to be served from several of its hubs. The seasonal summer 2018 routes also includes five new destinations on SAS´ route map; Verona, Sarajevo, Genoa, Toulon and Beirut. In addition to this, SAS is giving its customers more access to popular destinations with expanded summer service to Portugal, Spain, Croatia and Italy. And as a response to the increased interest in leisure travel, expanded non-stop flights from several of its hubs to popular summer destinations.

SAS seasonal summer 2018 routes offer 114 destinations from Denmark, Norway and Sweden and 1,3 million additional seats (compared to 2017) for the Scandinavian travelers.

SAS seasonal summer 2018 routes from Sweden

Arlanda Airport offers nonstop flights to Verona, Gazipasa, Birmingham. Expanded departures to Palma, Lisbon, Malaga and Rome.

SAS seasonal summer 2018 routes from Norway

Oslo offers nonstop flights to Thessaloniki, Prague, Genève, Warsaw and Aarhus. Additional flights will be offered to popular destinations as Athens, Düsseldorf and Manchester.

Nonstop flights are also offered from hubs including Bergen-Pula, Stavanger-Pula, Bodø-Alicante and Trondheim-Split.

SAS seasonal summer 2018 routes from Denmark

Copenhagen Airport offers nonstop flights to Beirut, Toulon, Sarajevo, Lisbon and Genoa. Gazipaza in Turkey is destination that has made a comeback in this year’s summer program. In addition to this, more frequent flights to Zurich in Switzerland, Rome, Italy and Aarhus.

Aarhus Airport offers new nonstop flights to Oslo, Stockholm, Munich, Majorca and Split.

Finnair is opening new routes to India, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Lapland

Finnair has made this announcement:

Finnair is poised to enter the largest expansion in its history during the upcoming winter season.

Finnair’s growth strategy will be in full swing during the winter season with 20 intercontinental destinations, over 100 destinations in Europe and a significant increase in capacity for Lapland destinations.

Finnair is opening new routes to Goa, India on November 1, to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on November 5, to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic on November 30 and to Havana, Cuba on December 1.

“This winter, we are entering the biggest expansion phase in our airline’s 94-year history,” says Juha Järvinen, Chief Commercial Officer at Finnair. “We are opening several new destinations, expanding our network and fleet including our eleven Airbus A350s, adding capacity to Finnish Lapland and taking important strides in our customer experience. It’s a very exciting time to fly Finnair.”

Due to the continued increase in demand for Lapland as a tourist destination, Finnair is also heavily expanding its capacity to several Lapland airports for the upcoming winter season. Finnair is the leading airline flying to Lapland with several weekly connections, and timetables designed to support smooth connections from Europe, Asia and North America.

Finnair is increasing its capacity to Lapland by over 20%. As of mid-December, Finnair will start flying new nonstop flights to Lapland airports from London Gatwick, Paris and Zurich. Finnair is also increasing its capacity from Helsinki airport to several Lapland airports for the entire winter season, and offers a total of 430,000 seats to five of Lapland’s airports during the winter season.

Finnair flies to the following intercontinental destinations:

· 16 weekly to Bangkok
· 14 weekly to Tokyo Narita as joint business with Japan Airlines
· 10 weekly to Hong Kong
· 7 weekly to Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and New York JFK
· 6 weekly to Delhi
· 5 weekly to Osaka and Nagoya
· 3 weekly to Chongqing, Phuket and Miami
· 2 weekly to Goa, Havana and Krabi
· 1 weekly to Puerto Vallarta, Puerto Plata and Ho Chi Minh City

Malaysia Airlines to replace its Airbus A380s with new Airbus A350-900s, including London on March 5, 2018

Malaysia Airlines is planning to gradually replace its Airbus A380 (above) on the Kuala Lumpur – London (Heathrow) route. The last A380 flight from LHR will be on March 5, 2018. The A380s are being replaced with the new 288-seat Airbus A350-900s (below) per Airline Route.

Above Copyright Photo: Malaysia Airlines Airbus A350-941 F-WZFG (9M-MAB) (msn 159) TLS (Eurospot). Image: 939652.

Malaysia will take delivery of its first Airbus A350 very soon and the new type will enter revenue service on December 9, 2017 between Kuala Lumpur and both Bangkok and Penang according to Airline Route.

Malaysia has six Airbus A380 in its fleet. Four are assigned to the London route and the other two are available for pilgrimage charters.

Malaysia is expected to retire the Airbus A380 fleet by June 2018.

Previously on September 12, 2017, Malaysia Airlines signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Boeing for 16 airplanes including eight 787-9 Dreamliners.

Top Copyright Photo: Malaysia Airlines Airbus A380-841 9M-MNA (msn 078) LHR (SPA). Image: 926034.

Malaysia Airlines:

Photo of the Day: United Airlines Boeing 747-422 N121UA (msn 29167) (4-Star 747 Friend Ship) LHR (Antony J. Best). Image: 939640.

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Copyright Photo: United Airlines Boeing 747-422 N121UA (msn 29167) (4-Star 747 Friend Ship) LHR (Antony J. Best). Image: 939640.

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Air Malta to add five new routes for the summer 2018 season

Air Malta will start operating a twice weekly scheduled service to the city of Malaga every Monday and Friday from March 26, 2018. This is the first time that the Maltese airline is introducing scheduled services to the city and through this route, Air Malta will be resuming its services to Spain.

The flight schedule will operate as follows:

Monday

KM590	Dep.	Malta	19:35	Arr.	Malaga	22:30
KM591	Dep.	Malaga	23:30	Arr.	Malta	02:15

Friday

KM590	Dep.	Malta	05:25	Arr.	Malaga	08:20
KM591	Dep.	Malaga	09:10	Arr.	Malta	11:55

Air Malta will also be operating twice-weekly summer service to Lisbon (effective March 25, 2018), and weekly service to St. Petersburg (March 30, 2018) and Stockholm (Arlanda) (May 1, 2018) and three weekly flights to Venice (March 26, 2018).

Ex-Virgin Atlantic G-VWOW is now with Virgin Orbit as N744VG “Cosmic Girl”

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Virgin Orbit is the newest member of the Virgin Group:

“We are the newest member of the Virgin family, and we are thrilled to be here! Our team is hard at work launching the smallsat revolution. Right now, our engineering-driven team are integrating rockets, filling up our launch manifest, preparing for our initial orbital flights, and yes, finding time here and there to build out a full website. While we get that last one finished up, here’s a bit more about our technology, our mission, and our team.”

Virgin Orbit continues;

WE ARE IN THE FINAL STAGES OF TESTING AND PREPARATION FOR LAUNCHERONE, A TWO-STAGE, EXPENDABLE, LOX/RP-1 ROCKET THAT LAUNCHES FROM OUR MOBILE AIR LAUNCH PAD, A DEDICATED 747-400 CARRIER AIRCRAFT, CALLED COSMIC GIRL.

Cosmic Girl will carry LauncherOne to an altitude of approximately 35,000 feet before release for its rocket-powered flight to orbit. Starting each mission with an airplane rather than a traditional groundbased launch pad offers performance benefits in terms of payload capacity, but more importantly, air-launch offers an unparalleled level of flexibility.

LauncherOne will operate from a variety of locations independently of traditional launch ranges—which are often congested with traffic—and will have the ability to operate through or around weather conditions and other impediments that delay traditional launches.

Once released from the carrier aircraft, the LauncherOne rocket fires up its single main stage engine, a 73,500 lbf, LOX/RP-1 rocket engine called the “NewtonThree.” Typically, this engine will fire for approximately three minutes. After stage separation, the single upper stage engine, a 5,000 lbf LOX/RP-1 rocket engine called the “NewtonFour” will carry the satellite(s) into orbit. Typically, the second stage will execute multiple burns totaling nearly six minutes.

At the end of this sequence, LauncherOne will deploy our customers’ satellite (or satellites) into their desired orbit. Both stages of LauncherOne will be safely deorbited, while the carrier aircraft will return to a predetermined airport, where it can be quickly prepared for its next flight.

LauncherOne is capable of delivering 300 kilograms to a 500 kilometer Sun-Synchronous Orbit.

TO LEARN ABOUT THE VEHICLE’S CAPACITY TO OTHER ORBITS OR OTHER TECHNICAL STATS, CHECK OUT OUR SERVICE GUIDE.

We have built LauncherOne from a blend of classic, proven techniques and tailored high-tech investments. Both the NewtonThree and the NewtonFour are highly reliable liquid rocket engines designed, tested, and built by Virgin Orbit. We are at the forefront of hybrid manufacturing, automated flight safety systems, composite structures, and ultra-responsive launch operations—cutting edge developments that allow us to offer unparalleled service to the small satellite market.

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