Qatar Airways Plans Order 60 Airbus Superjumbo Jets

Les Echos newspaper reported, Qatar Airways is in advanced negotiations to place a giant order for 60 airliners built by the European firm Airbus.

The order, which would be announced at the Le Bourget air show in June, would be for 50 A320 NEO aircraft, the re-engined version of the medium-range A320, and for 10 to 20 A380 superjumbo jets.

The airline would also place an additional 50 options to buy A320 NEO aircraft and options to buy an additional 10-20 A380 planes, the report said.

Until now, Qatar Airlines has ordered five of the superjumbo aircraft but has signalled that it intends to buy more.

Air France Launches New Flight Route from Paris to Freetown

Air France last week launched twice-weekly service from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Freetown and commenced twice-weekly CDG-Monrovia flights. Both new routes are via Conakry. AF last week increased CDG-CKY service to daily, of which four weekly flights are nonstop and three are via Nouakchott. Flights to CKY, NKC, FNA and MLW are being operated by an Airbus A330-200 with 208 seats in a three-class configuration, including 40 seats in business, 21 in premium economy and 147 in economy.

“After the launch of flights to Kigali by KLM in October 2010, these two new Air France routes and the daily service to Guinea illustrate the confidence Air France KLM has in the development of the West African region,” AF KLM SVP-Africa and Middle East Pierre Descazeaux stated.

AF KLM ASKs to/from Africa for its summer schedule are slated to be up 4% over the 2010 summer schedule. The airline group now operates to 38 destinations in Africa.

Separately, AF put its 60th Boeing 777 into service. 777s make up over half of its long-haul fleet, which also comprises 13 747s, 15 A330s, 16 A340s and four A380s.

Qantas Airlines to Increase Flight Service Los Angeles to New York, Non-stop Daily Flight Service

Qantas is bumping its LAX-NY connecting flight up to a daily service from 1 June 2011.

The Red Roo-liveried Airbus A330-200, which carries the same QF107/108 flight numbers as the primary feeder flights between Sydney and Los Angeles, currently runs just six flights per week from Los Angeles to New York’s JFK airport, skipping Tuesdays.

But it’s strictly for Qantas passengers connecting from Australia and New Zealand – no tickets are sold inside the US for this flight. Just as well, because Yanks may become quite jealous of the fitout on the A330: as one of Qantas’ international variants of the A330 it includes 36 Skybeds in business class.

They’re not the fully lie-flat horizontal beds – it’s a lie-almost-flat recline which tends to be better for extreme relaxing than serious snoozing. But that’s perfect for this last leg of your journey because it’s a day flight, and you should be trying to adjust to your destination time zone.

So in this stretch-out mode and with 60 inches of legroom (almost twice that of the A330’s economy cabin) it’s one of the best ways to spend the almost six hours shuttling from coast to coast and is a cut above almost anything on the US domestic market.

So while Qantas has plenty of codeshare flights from Los Angeles to New York with American Airlines, if you’re travelling in business class you may as well stick with Qantas all the way through.

Another reason is that Qantas runs this flight purely as a connection service for inbound LA flights from Sydney (QF107), Melbourne (QF93), Brisbane (QF15) and Auckland (QF25, which originates in Melbourne), so it’s more likely to be held over at LAX to accommodate late-arriving aircraft whereas a US domestic service would happily take off before your late flight touched down.

The exception to this is if you’re on QF11, which arrives too late into LAX for the QF107 connector.

Lufthansa to Increase Flight Services Between Mumbai – Munich Route

Lufthansa, with the start of the next summer schedule, will be offering daily flights on its Mumbai – Munich route, up from five weekly flights now. As a result of the flight increase between Mumbai and Munich, the Lufthansa Group, including SWISS and Austrian, will be operating 77 weekly frequencies from seven Indian destinations to Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Vienna in the next summer schedule.

Lufthansa’s Mumbai-Munich route is currently served by an Airbus 330-300 with eight First Class, 48 Business Class and 159 Economy Class seats. The flight departs at 01: 50 hours and arrives in Munich at 05: 50 hours, giving travellers a wide option of convenient onward connections to Europe and the US.

Axel Hilgers, Director, South Asia, Lufthansa said, “This increase further strengthens our position as Europe’s leading connectivity provider to and from India. By bringing in more business travellers, investors and tourists, the frequency addition will support India’s economic growth. Indian customer will get the choice of daily flights to Lufthansa’s world class hubs at Munich and Frankfurt, both offering outstanding global connectivity.”

As per the company release, with its latest flight increase, Lufthansa responds to an encouraging demand pick up in the strategic market that is India. The two additional flights to Munich follow the recent addition of Mumbai as a new destination for Group affiliate Austrian Airlines, which introduced five weekly frequencies to Vienna in November this year. Together with SWISS’ daily service to Zurich, three Lufthansa Group airlines now serve India’s commercial capital Mumbai with an unparalleled choice of connectivity via four world class hubs.

AirAsia X Flights to Melbourne and Perth Using Airbus A330 Aircraft

AirAsia X will operate flights to Melbourne and Perth, with three more Airbus A330 aircraft coming in, as securing routes to Seoul and Sydney are a challenge.

Currently, it is using six A330 and two A340 aircraft.

“For some reasons we are not privileged enough to get some routes. So, we will be adding more flights to Perth and Melbourne and keep pushing Mumbai and New Delhi routes in 2010,” says chief executive officer Azran Osman Rani.

AirAsia X will service the New Delhi route in August.

“However, that doesn’t mean AirAsia X is dropping those routes from its plan, we still want to fly to Seoul, Sydney, Jeddah and to one city in Japan as there is huge demand.

“So, the guys next door are not going to run away from competition as we will keep throwing in more flights in the current routes,” he told reporters after unveiling the budget airline’s premium “Lie-Flat Bed” seats at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal here on Monday. Read more

Problems Found in Airspeed Sensors on Airbus A330 Planes

A component suspected of playing a role in the crash of Air France 447 over the Atlantic Ocean on June 1 has also malfunctioned on at least a dozen recent Northwest Airlines flights, federal investigators have discovered.
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Hawaiian Airlines Hires 100 Workers, Plans To Add 170 More

Hawaiian Airlines has hired 100 employees in recent months and plans to add 170 more by early next year to meet the company’s growth needs as it prepares for the first of its new Airbus A330-200 aircraft.
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