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by Devesh Agarwal Two days ago, two Times of India group newspapers, The Bangalore Mirror and The Economic Times reported UAE national carrier Etihad buying a 48% in financially disabled and grounded Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines. The Bangalore Mirror may be a tabloid, but The Economic Times is no slouch when it comes to financial matters. This went against the …

AirAsiaX the long distance arm of Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia will increase its frequencies from its Kuala Lumpur hub to Melbourne, Australia, Taipei, Taiwan, and Chengdu, China from next year. Melbourne services will see frequencies increase from the current daily flights to nine flights weekly by May 1, 2013 and to twelve flights weekly by July 1. Taipei will …

Qatar Airways will be the first airline in the world to operate the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Australia when it commences flights from Doha to Perth in Western Australia from February 1, 2013. Coupled with its Doha London Heathrow 787 service, Qatar Airways will be the first airline to offer a UK to Australia ‘all Dreamliner’ service. Despite being the …

Jet Airways, today took delivery of the first of four new Airbus A330-300 series aircraft into its fleet, at the airframer’s headquarters in Toulouse, France. Aircraft registration VT-JWR. The airline is expected to take delivery of an additional A330-300 (VT-JWS) later this month. The first A330-300 aircraft will be be deployed from December 22 as 9W 228/227 on the Mumbai …

Following in the footsteps of most international airlines, offering special fares ex-India, national carrier Air India, today announced, it is offering low fares for the lean season which commences from the middle of January. The scheme is valid for immediate out-bound travel to the Far East and Near East, and from 21 January 2013 onwards for the USA, UK, Europe …

By Devesh Agarwal Jet Airways will place its code on Etihad’s flight operating out of Abu Dhabi to Paris Charles de-Gaulle airport with effect from December 10, 2012, offering its India passengers connectivity to Paris, via Abu Dhabi. The airline’s JetPrivilege members will earn JPMiles for their entire journey when they fly on Jet Airways codeshare flights from India to …

By Devesh Agarwal and Vinay Bhaskara Flag carrier Turkish Airlines has signed international soccer superstar Lionel Andrés “Leo” Messi, of La Liga club, FC Barcelona FC Barcelona as a Global Brand Ambassador. Messi joins NBA superstar Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, and professional tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, who have been brand ambassadors for the airline since …

by Devesh Agarwal A quick query to our readers. Bangalore Aviation has access to some good photographers who are also avid plane spotters and take great photographs of airplanes across the world. Would you like us to feature articles which can help you improve your plane spotting photography? Please post a comment. Do include specific points on what aspects would …

Over the past few weeks, it has become increasingly likely that Abu Dhabi based Eithad Airways will be purchasing a 24% stake in India’s largest full service carrier, Jet Airways, perhaps as soon as the end of this week. The deal for a stake in Naresh Goyal’s airline, is reportedly worth somewhere between Rs. 1600 to 2200 Crore, which would …

Indian low cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet will be launching flights 4 times per week between Delhi and Guangzhou, the hub of the Chinese Pearl River Delta. Services will begin on 8th February, 2013 with the following schedule: SG 81 — DEL – CAN — 1720-0035+1 — 2467 —  737-800SG 82 — CAN – DEL — 0155-0525 — 1357 — 737-800 …

German major, Lufthansa will re-launch its budget airline Germanwings on July 1, 2013, with a new brand and product concept allowing all passengers to enjoy “à la carte flying”. Passengers will then be able to create their own package and adapt it in detail to their individual needs, from low-cost flying without add-ons to a high-quality passenger experience with lots …

An industry traffic forecast by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 240 airlines comprising 84% of global air traffic, shows India, China and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), leading air passengers and freight growth over the next four years. The IATA Airline Industry Forecast 2012~2016 sees passenger numbers expanding by an average of 5.3% per annum, between …

As domestic leader, IndiGo, adds its 61st Airbus A320 in to its fleet, it is expanding its domestic route network and will operate 373 daily flights to 33 destinations. Effective December 10, the carrier, will operate its 14th daily non-stop flight on the Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai route. Will operate 6th daily non-stop flight on Mumbai-Bangalore Will operate and second daily non-stop flight …

Mumbai-based Jet Airways will the first Indian carrier to induct the new ATR 72-600 series turbo-prop aircraft into their fleet, with five aircraft, starting this month and completing in March 2013. The Franco-Italian ATR (Avions de Transport Régional) 72-600 is an upgrade from the existing ATR72-500 aircraft in the airline’s fleet, and will be used for connectivity to smaller Tier …

Photo copyright Vedant Agarwal. Used with permission. Low cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet will be launching service to Udaipur from December 15th, utilizing its fleet of 78 seat Bombardier Q400 turboprops. SpiceJet continues to pursue a strategy of serving Tier II and Tier III cities with the Q400s. SG 2435 DEL 1610 – 1730 UDR DH8 DSG 2436 UDR 1750 – …

European air-framer Airbus S.A.S. has completed the main structural assembly and system connection of the first A350 XWB aircraft ‘MSN1’, which is also the first flight-test aircraft of this new series. The aircraft pictured moved out of the main assembly hall (Station 40) at A350 XWB Final Assembly Line in Toulouse, France. It then entered the adjacent indoor ground test …

The CEO of GMR Male International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (GMIAL), Andrew Harrison has put out a statement refuting claims of the Maldavian government of a smooth and orderly take over of Male airport operations by the government. I categorically refute the version of events being portrayed to the media in relation to the meeting this morning with GoM officials and …

The past couple of years have not been kind to the global aviation industry. Whether it’s the European union implementing a misguided carbon taxation scheme, the Indian government crushing its nascent airline industry under the weight of oppressive regulations and heavy fuel taxation, increased “NIMBY” (not-in-my-backyard : a term used to describe local residents who oppose aviation development near their …

Dubai based Emirates airline, is deploying a line-of-business application for improving in-flight communication and customer relationship management. Called Knowledge-driven Inflight Service (KIS), the airline is equipping its in-flight Pursers with over 1,000 HP ElitePad 900 tablets running the KIS application on Windows 8. As the video below shows, the KIS application will download passenger data at the start of each …

In the Google Maps photograph below, you can see the storage yard, some may say, graveyard, of the Airbus fleet of Kingfisher Airlines at Mumbai airport. View Larger Map This parking area is at the 14 end of runway 32-14 next to the Kalina hangars of Air India. From the top you can see an Airbus A330-200 parked in an …