Top News and Stories this week:
- Lufthansa To Reactivate All Remaining Airbus A340-600s
- Aeroflot Buys Ten Boeing 777s Amid Sanctions
- JetBlue Adds Daytime New York To London Heathrow Flight
- British Airways Unveils New Employee Uniforms For The First Time In 20 Years
- Delta to Offer Free Inflight Wi-Fi Starting February 1
- Singapore Airlines to Operate Three Daily Airbus A380 Flights to Heathrow
- American Airlines To Discontinue Miami-Tel Aviv Flights
Lufthansa To Reactivate All Remaining Airbus A340-600s
As travel demand has been strongly recovering, Lufthansa is reactivating five more Airbus A340-600s configured in a four-class configuration; including the First Class seats. The entire fleet of Lufthansa A340-600s will be back in service later this year.
Commencing in the summer of 2023, Lufthansa will fly ten Airbus A340-600s in addition to the five A340-600s that were put back into service in Munich in the summer of 2022. However, the additional quad jets will not be stationed in Munich, but at its largest hub in Frankfurt.
“Lufthansa will fly ten Airbus A340-600s in the future. Due to the strong traffic development, we need more aircraft, so that routes from Frankfurt are served with A340-600 again.”
Lufthansa spokeswoman
However, no specific destinations have been mentioned on which the additional A340s will be used. It is most likely that they will be deployed on flights to North America, South America and Asia with the likes of Hong Kong, New York-JFK and Bogota, among others.
Aeroflot Buys Ten Boeing 777s Amid Sanctions
Aeroflot has acquired ten Boeing 777-300ERs from an Irish leasing company despite Russia being subject to strict EU sanctions.
The Russian flag carrier announced that it has been able to complete the purchase of the 777s using an exemption in the EU Sanctions Ordinance. These 777s have been under lease from an Irish lessor since 2013 and 2014.
“The transaction was made taking into account all the necessary permits from Russian and foreign regulators.”
Aeroflot
Aeroflot further stated that it will continue to work on the implementation of transactions for the purchase of aircraft in order to maintain the current fleet of foreign-made aircraft in operation and expand the possibility of their operation. “This approach also confirms the reliability of Aeroflot as a counterparty that responsibly fulfils its contractual obligations,” the spokesperson continued.
JetBlue Adds Daytime New York To London Heathrow Flight
Commencing in the summer of 2023, JetBlue has announced that it will operate its first eastbound transatlantic daytime flight from New York-JFK to London Heathrow.
JetBlue’s Airbus A321LR aircraft, featuring the popular Mint business class product will operate this daily round trip from the 25th of March this year. The new flight is made possible through an additional pair of slots obtained by the US low-cost carrier. The new flight will operate as follows.
Flight B61107: Departing New York-JFK at 08:30 AM, arriving at London Heathrow at 08:45 PM
Flight B62220: Departing London Heathrow at 08:25 AM, arriving at New York-JFK at 11:40 AM
Currently, JetBlue operates two daily transatlantic flights to London Gatwick and one to London Heathrow from New York-JFK. However, with the addition of the Heathrow flight, flights between New York-JFK and Gatwick will reduce from two per day to one daily flight. Moreover, it will continue to operate its daily flights from Boston to both Heathrow and Gatwick.
British Airways Unveils New Employee Uniforms For The First Time In 20 Years
British Airways has unveiled a new uniform for the first time in nearly 20 years, created by British fashion designer and tailor Ozwald Boateng OBE. The new uniform will be worn by more than 30,000 employees starting in the Spring of 2023.
The new collection features a tailored three-piece suit for men with regular and slim fit style trousers and dress, skirt and trouser options for women, as well as a modern jumpsuit. A tunic and hijab option has also been created for the global carrier.
“Our uniform is an iconic representation of our brand, something that will carry us into our future, representing the very best of modern Britain and helping us deliver a great British original service for our customers.”
Sean Doyle, British Airways Chairman and CEO
More than 1,500 employees took part in 50 workshops to help ensure the practicality of the new uniforms, which have been under development since 2018. Cabin and flight crews have been wearing the new uniform on cargo flights across Europe while engineers have been secretly wearing the new uniforms while maintaining aircraft out of sight in Manchester and Cotswold Airports.
All British Airways’s engineers and ground operations agents will be the first to wear the new uniform from Spring 2023. Furthermore, the cabin crew, pilots and check-in agents will start wearing the new uniform in the Summer of 2023.
Delta to Offer Free Inflight Wi-Fi Starting February 1
Delta has announced to roll out free Wi-Fi on most domestic mainline aircraft starting on 1st February 2023 with full availability on international and regional aircraft by the end of 2024.
Delta is the first of the ‘big four’ US carriers to announce free inflight Wi-Fi. It will offer the service on more than 700 Viasat-equipped aircraft by the end of this year in partnership with T-Mobile to all customers. Around 80% of Delta’s domestic fleet is Viasat-equipped for the time being.
However, Delta won’t be offering free Wi-Fi on its widebodies and regional jets for the time being as these planes are not Viasat-equipped. Delta announced that it is working closely with Viasat – the satellite internet service provider behind the airline’s connectivity revolution to offer free Wi-Fi on both widebodies and regional jets by the end of 2024.
“At work, at home and everywhere in between, connectivity is essential to daily life, and your journey on Delta should be no different. Our vision has long been to deliver an experience at 30,000 feet that feel similar to what our customers have available on the ground.”
Ed Bastian, Delta CEO
Currently, Delta charges around $50 per month for Wi-Fi on its flights within North America and $70 on international flights.
Singapore Airlines to Operate Three Daily Airbus A380 Flights to Heathrow
Singapore Airlines is adding a third daily Airbus A380 flight to London Heathrow from mid-June to the end of July to boost its capacity in the peak summer period.
Currently, Singapore Airlines operates four daily flights to Heathrow including 2x daily A380 flights and 2x Boeing 777-300ER flights. However, the Changi-based carrier is replacing one of its 777 flights with the superjumbo to cater to more passengers on both ways. The temporary third daily A380 flight with operate as follows.
SQ306: Departing Singapore-Changi at 01:10, arriving at London Heathrow at 07:45
SQ305: Departing London Heathrow at 09:25, arriving at Singapore-Changi at 05:30+1
Although the additional A380 flight will only be for a very short period of time, the airline is taking another step towards operating at a similar level as in the peak summer of 2019. Unsurprisingly, these months usually have the highest passenger demand and seat load factors.
American Airlines To Discontinue Miami-Tel Aviv Flights
American Airlines will be scrapping its flights between Miami and Tel Aviv, less than two years after launching in the summer of 2021. First launched in June 2021, American initially flew the route three times a week on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays using a 273-seater Boeing 777-200ER.
The route was so successful that the Miami-Tel Aviv service was upgraded to a daily schedule in October 2022 and all of a sudden, the airline is discontinuing this route in a surprising move. It is the airline’s longest route from its Miami hub for the time being and American currently operates this route using a 234-seater Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.
“As part of the continuous evaluation of our network, American Airlines has made the difficult decision to discontinue its Miami (MIA) – Tel Aviv (TLV) service effective March 24, 2023.”
American Airlines Spokesperson
“We will continue to operate daily service to Tel Aviv from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK). We’re proactively reaching out to customers affected by these changes to offer alternative travel arrangements,” the spokesperson continued.
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British Airways’ New Uniform
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Feature Image: Sergey Kustov via Wikimedia Commons