As Bangalore Aviation reported last month, Indian full service carrier Jet Airways is likely to move its long standing trans-Atlantic scissors hub to Amsterdam in conjunction with its new part-owner Etihad Airways. Late last week, Jet applied for the following slots at Amsterdam for the IATA Winter 2013/14 season. 9W 224 – DEL – AMS –> arr: 09.40 333 daily …

Earlier this week in a press conference at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, Etihad CEO broke the news that Indian full service carrier Jet Airways will be transferring its European scissors hub from Brussels to Amsterdam. Thanks to the recently created Jetihad partnership (Etihad owns 24% of Jet Airways), Etihad exerts significant control over Jet’s international strategy. Jet Airways currently operates daily …

by Vinay Bhaskara When Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airlines announced in late April that it had acquired a 24% stake in Mumbai Will the MEB3 hold sway? based full service carrier Jet Airways for $379 million, it marked a paradigm shift in the state of the Indian air travel market. The newly formed “Jetihad” partnership would hold a nearly 18% share …

By Oussama Salah, Vinay Bhaskara, and Devesh Agarwal Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal The Indian government often makes curious decisions in setting aviation policy. For example, it encouraged Air India to lower prices to gain market share, causing mayhem in the market place and increasing Air India’s losses. It also recently  allowed Air Asia to expand in India by approving a …

Major route announcements came from 2 Middle Eastern carriers yesterday, with Qatar Airways announcing plans to start new services to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (as well as Addis Ababa and Clark in the Philippines) and newly minted Jet Airways partner Etihad Airways revealing an up-gauge in capacity on its daily Abu Dhabi-New York JFK services to a Boeing 777-300ER. For Qatar …

by Vinay Bhaskara Honolulu, Hawaii based full service carrier Hawaiian Airlines has announced new service to Beijing, China, with thrice weekly flights commencing in April 2014 utilizing 294 seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft configured as (18P/276Y).  The new service will be made possible because the existing 3 weekly flights to Manila in the Philippines will be cancelled from July 31st, 2013. …

by Vinay Bhaskara Abu Dhabi based full service carrier Etihad Airways reported record results for the first quarter of 2013. Revenues grew a whopping 18.7% year over year to $900 million, up from $758 million in Q1 of 2012. In its 10th year of operations, Etihad also saw cargo revenues grow 17% to $193 million. Passenger figures also reached a …

by Vinay Bhaskara The first fully painted Airbus A380 for British Airways was rolled out of Airbus’ paint shop in Hamburg this past weekend. The first of 12 A380s for British Airways is scheduled to be delivered in July, and is outfitted with 469 seats. British Airways will introduce the aircraft on shorter training flights before introducing it on long …

by Vinay Bhaskara As its fleet grows with the introduction of new Airbus A320s, including India’s first sharklet retrofitted A320, low cost carrier (LCC) IndiGo continues to expand its domestic services. The carrier will be adding one additional daily flight to Jaipur, Nagpur, and Kolkata from its hub in Mumbai with schedules as follow: Mumbai – Jaipur 6E296 BOM – …

by Vinay Bhaskara Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways has inked a code share with Nairobi based Kenya Airways, expanding access to second and third tier African destinations for its consumers. Etihad Airways will place its code on flights by Kenya Airways to 27 destinations across Kenya Airways’ African network. Meanwhile, Kenya Airways will place its code onto 32 onward destinations …

Back in late January, I had to do a weekend turn to Miami. Because I am currently shooting towards Star Alliance Gold (9,000 miles away) in advance of my travels this summer, I decided to book on United Economy. (Un)Fortunately, my mother was traveling with me, so I had to stick to the nonstop United between Newark – Miami – …

by Vinay Bhaskara Etihad Airways Boeing 777-300ER — Image Credit Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi based Eithad Airways reported its second straight year of profitability, with calendar year 2012 witnessing a net profit of US $42 million (versus $14 million), on revenues of $4.8 billion (up from $4.1 billion in 2011). Full year EBITDAR (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and …

by Vinay Bhaskara and Devesh Agarwal Late last week, Mumbai based full service carrier Jet Airways reported an excellent Rs. 85 Crore net profit for the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2012-13, mirroring the financial performance of rival low cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet and the general resurgence of the Indian airline market as a whole. For the quarter, Jet recorded …

by Vinay Bhaskara Qantas A380 – Image courtesy QANTAS Earlier today, Australian national carrier Qantas announced a restructuring of its Asian network. After launching an in-depth partnership with Middle Eastern carrier Emirates and switching its Kangaroo Route services to operate via Dubai instead of Asia, Qantas announced a renewed focus on strengthening its Asian operation. The key features of the …

by Vinay Bhaskara Malaysia Airlines A330-300 9M-MTE in oneworld livery On February 1st. 2013, Kuala  Lampur based Malaysian national carrier Malaysia Airlines will officially join the OneWorld alliance, a partnership of11 airlines around the world that serves more than 849 destinations globally. Malaysia Airlines serves 61 destinations on a fleet of 105 aircraft, and enjoys a strong reputation as one …

by Vinay Bhaskara and Brett SnyderEarlier this month, I had a chance to do a little bit of back and forth with Brett Snyder (a.k.a Cranky Flier) about some of the biggest news stories in US aviation from last year. While the idea was that we’d do a lot of debating, it became mostly a discussion (what was that line …

by Vinay Bhaskara Following American Airlines’ announcement of a new livery and logo lost week, Bangalore Aviation contacted their PR department with a few questions about the driving factors behind the various brand decisions. Find our questions and the responses with American’s spokesperson(s) below: 1)  Why was the Double A logo that has graced the tail of Americans planes for …

by Vinay Bhaskara After Air India joined most global operators of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in grounding the aircraft following a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) emergency directive due to issues with the 787’s Lithium-Ion batteries, the beleaguered Indian national carrier is reportedly seeking compensation from Boeing for the losses caused by the grounding. India’s civil aviation minister Ajit Singh said …

by Vinay Bhaskara Computer rendering of A380 in Kingfisher Airlines livery Image Courtesy of  Malaysia Flying Herald At its recent annual results conference, European aerospace manufacturer Airbus released a bit of shocking information. Apparently, the ill-fated order for five Airbus A380s by now-defunct (though perpetually on the verge of “re-starting” in the eyes of chairman Vijay Mallya) Kingfisher Airlines is …

Yesterday, Dallas-Fort Worth based American Airlines announced a major re-branding effort, including an all-new logo and livery which it unveiled on its new flagship Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. This new branding will be expanded across American’s entire fleet over the next 3-5 years, as well as into airports and other corporate venues. The full press release from American is displayed below …