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Flydubai refunds India route passengers
Flydubai, Dubai's budget carrier has said it has refunded all its India passengers after the airline was recently forced to cancel plans to launch flights to India, with necessary government clearances not coming through. A senior Indian government official has said that none of the initial destinations sought by Flydubai figured in the existing 'points of call' in the MoU signed between India and UAE last year. However, he has said the three cities (Chandigarh, Coimbatore and Lucknow) were part of the 'note verbale' exchanged by the two countries, according to The Economic Times.
Gulf Air Baghdad route sales break record
Gulf Air has said that it has achieved record-breaking first week sales of tickets with its service to Baghdad, which begins September 1. Tickets for the service went on sale on August 6, and sales have exceeded previous first week sales figures of a newly launched Gulf Air destination, the carrier has said. Bahrain's national carrier will fly to Baghdad five times per week.
Jordan inks $14.7m airport security MoU
Jordan has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Japanese government to provide the kingdom with a $14.7m grant to support the security development project at Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA), The Jordan Times has reported. The project includes the installation of advanced security equipment, such as large-scale X-ray inspection and explosive detection tomography systems, and hand-held metal detectors for cargo and passengers. The security equipment is to be installed next year and will help facilitate the movement of cargo, goods and airport employees within the airport vicinity.
Iran stops flights to Saudi Arabia
Iran Air has announced the suspension of all flights to Saudi Arabia effective August 11, Fars news agency has reported. 'In order to prevent a pandemic of influenza type A (swine flu), there won't be any flight from Iran to Saudi Arabia in the holy month of Ramadan,' said Iran Aviation Organisation spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh. Iranian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia are to be repatriated by Ramadan.
Air Arabia: H1N1 'bigger threat' than economy
Adel Ali, CEO of Air Arabia has said that swine flu is a bigger threat to the airline industry than the global economic crisis, Bloomberg has reported. 'A lot of people are not travelling because of swine flu,' he has said. 'Swine flu is a bigger threat than the economy.' The carrier's Q2 profits rose 10%, attributed to the addition of new routes.
Gulf airline investigated for stranding pilgrims
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Haj and the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) are looking into whether a Gulf-based airline stranded 2,500 Pakistani Umrah pilgrims past their departure date, the Saudi Gazette has reported. Many of the pilgrims stranded had confirmed return tickets. The airline could be blacklisted if allegations were proven true, the newspaper has said, without naming the carrier.
Flydubai adds Djibouti service
Flydubai is expanding its African network with flights to Djibouti from September 1. The new service will operate three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, the airline has said.
Goldman Sachs rates Air Arabia 'Buy'
Goldman Sachs has resumed coverage of Air Arabia with a "buy" rating and a target price of Dhs1.34, saying rising oil prices and strong air traffic growth in the Middle East will boost the low cost carrier's earnings. Goldman Sachs is forecasting traffic growth in the Middle East in the next 20 years at 6.8%, a rise at a faster rate than compared to other regions. On August 4, Nomura initiated Air Arabia with a "buy" rating and price target of dhs1.40. (Mac Capital Advisors)
Qatar invites bids for airport extension
Doha International Airport's steering committee has invited four pre-qualified groups to bid by October 14 for a contract to build an extension to the passenger terminal, known as the north node or phase 3a, MEED has reported. The terminal extension is a five-level structure with a total floor area of 127,000 square metres, where the ground floor will accommodate passengers for transfers; the first floor is for departures, and the second for arrivals. The third and fourth levels will house a 100-room hotel. The first phase of the airport is scheduled to open in 2011.
Saudia threatened with legal action over plane auction
Saudi Arabian Airlines has been threatened with legal action by a Saudi businessman, after he bought a plane from the airline at a public auction and later found it had been stripped bare. Accroding to the Saudi Gazette, the man has said he will demand SR100m if the plane does not come fully equipped, as it was when he first inspected the aircraft.
Air Arabia net profit up 21% in H1
Air Arabia has announced its net profit for the first half of this year stood at Dhs193m, an increase of 21% compared to Dhs160m for the first six months of last year. The airline also reported a 20% increase in passengers during the first half of 2009, serving 1,953 million compared to 1.6 million during the first half of 2008.
EgyptAir expands Boeing 737 fleet
EgyptAir has converted its previous order for two 777s into an order for an additional eight Next-Generation 737-800s, according to a press statement. The airline currently has seven 737-800s in operation and it is taking delivery of an additional five 737-800s this year. EgyptAir Chairman Capt. Tawfik Assy has said the airline is pursuing a fleet plan aiming to expand regional markets.
Gulf Air adds three Iraqi cities
Bahrain's national carrier Gulf Air is to fly to Baghdad from September 1 and plans to add the holy city of Najaf and Erbil, in northern Iraq, by the end of September. The carrier will initially operate a five times weekly service to Baghdad using an Airbus A320 narrow body plane and hopes to increase this to a daily service in the near future.
Wataniya Airways posts H1 loss
Recently launched Kuwaiti airline Wataniya Airways has reported a KD5.9m loss for the first half of this year. Wataniya Chairman Abdulsalam Al-Bahar, said the results were not unexpected, because the airline was began operations only six months ago and does not yet have a full fleet. "It's a year set out for expenditures and not revenues, and such results were normally expected," he said.
Abu Dhabi to be AirAsia X hub
Malaysian budget airline, AirAsia X has chosen Abu Dhabi airport to be its regional hub for refuelling and connecting flights to possible destinations in Europe, Africa and central Asia, as a part of its expansion plans. In October the airline will begin flights between Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur, with tickets sales Available from later this month.
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