Qatar Airways will launch Airbus A350-900 service on its Doha-Frankfurt route in January. The airline will use the aircraft first on the Flight QR67 and QR68 daily services and will also move them to the second daily Frankfurt service—QR69 and QR70—shortly afterwards. The two daily Frankfurt flights are currently flown by a mix of aircraft, including Airbus A330s as well as Boeing 777s and 787s.
Airlines in the Philippines will be able to boost their services to Hong Kong under a new air services agreement between the two governments. The current agreement allots to Philippine carriers 15,000 seats weekly on Hong Kong-Manila routes; under the new deal, this allocation will double. There will be no restriction on flights departing cities other than Manila. Both Philippine Airlines (PAL) and low-cost carrier (LCC) Cebu Pacific have multiple daily flights to Hong Kong, mainly from Manila.
As Delta Air Lines continues to retire 50-seat jets from its regional aircraft fleet, the carrier is deploying myriad strategies aimed at ensuring flights on all Delta Connection partners replicate the mainline experience as much as possible, a key executive said in an interview.
Lufthansa’s pilots extended their strike planning to include long-haul services on Tuesday, forcing widespread cancellations of many Lufthansa-branded flights. The airline was forced to cancel about two-thirds of the 2,100 takeoffs scheduled for Monday afternoon and Tuesday evening. Pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit initially planned to call to strike only pilots of Embraers, Boeing 737s and Airbus A320-family aircraft, but later added the entire long-haul fleet.
For a complete list of Aviation Week’s upcoming events, and to register, visit www.aviationweek.com/events Nov. 4-6 —MRO Asia, Singapore EXPO Convention and Exhibition Centre, Singapore Nov. 19-20—A&D Programs, Wigwam Resort, Liltchfield Park, Ariz. Jan 13-14, 2015—MRO Latin America, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Upcoming Events To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] . (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Oct. 21-23—NBAA 2014 Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA2014), Orlando, Florida, (703) 783-9000, (703) 783-9000, www.nbaa.org
The Philippines and Thailand have both seen significantly lower-than-usual passenger numbers from mainland China during the first two weeks of October, following warnings from the country’s National Tourism Administration (NTA). Although the two weeks are traditionally massive for Chinese travel because of the National Day Golden Week holiday, low-cost carriers (LCC) to both destinations have been hit badly by travel advisories from China’s state tourism body.
LOS ANGELES—Rolls-Royce has begun flight tests of its composite carbon/titanium (CTi) fan blade that will be a key feature in the company’s next-generation Advance and UltraFan engine designs.
Government delegations of Germany and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are scheduled to meet during the week of Oct. 20 in an effort to resolve the current dispute on codesharing services of Air Berlin and Etihad Airways. To allow time for the negotiations, the German transport ministry no longer insists the codesharing services be withdrawn from the coming winter timetable, according to sources familiar with the situation. That removed some time pressure from the two airlines, but the issue remains unresolved. None of the parties involved was prepared to comment immediately.
United Airlines will add Gogo’s ATG-4 air-to-ground Internet and entertainment service to more than 200 large regional jets operated by its United Express partners starting later this year.
Austrian Airlines is turning its attention toward major fleet investments now that it has resolved a long-standing dispute with its pilots and cabin crew.
Lion Group and CFM signed a material support agreement for the airline’s CFM engines and a consultancy agreement to support Lion Air’s planned engine maintenance and overhaul center in Indonesia. The agreement will cover nearly 1,000 CFM engines in service or on order and includes repair and replacement of life-limited and non-life-limited parts. It also provides Lion Air with technical data for component repairs and engine overhaul to assist its MRO operation.
Airbus will cut A330 production rates ahead of the transition from the current model to the A330neo, the manufacturer said Friday. The manufacturer will reduce monthly output to nine aircraft, from 10, in the fourth quarter of 2015. It raised production to 10 in 2013.
France and the Czech Republic have decided to follow the U.K.’s policy and will begin screenings of passengers who arrive from Ebola-affected countries, but other European Union (EU) member states are not convinced the procedures are necessary or effective and are steering away from temperature checks at their airports.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) head John Pistole will retire Dec. 31, the agency announced Thursday. Pistole, formerly the number two official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been the TSA administrator since June 2010. Pistole is slated to become the next president of Anderson University, located in his hometown of Anderson, Ind. Pistole earned his bachelor’s degree from the university in 1978.
