EY expands flight services
ETIHAD Airways has launched daily ights between Abu Dhabi and
Al Medina in the western province of Saudi Arabia, a key religious
and cultural hub for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims. This is the airline’s
fourth destination in Saudi Arabia. The ights are operated by an
A320 aircraft with 16 Pearl Business-class and 120 Coral Economyclass
seats. The airline will also increase its services to Islamabad,
Pakistan, from March 30, from 11 a week to double daily. Services
to Peshawar increased from two to ve a week on February 1. The
additional services will be operated by A320 aircraft.
Fedair resumes Skukuza flights
FEDAIR has resumed its service from OR Tambo International
Airport, Johannesburg, to Skukuza Airport in the Kruger National
Park. This follows the reopening of the airport at Skukuza, which
closed in January for renovations. Airlink announced last year that
it would launch direct ights to Skukuza from Cape Town and Johannesburg in June.
Lie-flat seats for DL’s 767 Business Elite pax
DELTA’S Business Elite clients are now guaranteed fully at-bed
seating when ying B767-operated international routes. The airline’s
entire eet of 79 Boeing 767-300ERs and B767-400ERs has been
refurbished with 180-degree lie-at seats with each passenger
having direct aisle access. DL offers a daily non-stop service
between Johannesburg and Atlanta operated by a Boeing 777
LR, which features the fully at-bed seats in business class. Delta
expects the seats to be available on all its routes operated by widebody
aircraft by the middle of this year.
SW and LH sign interline agreement
AIR Namibia and Lufthansa have concluded an interline agreement
that offers passengers a ‘one stop’ ight between Windhoek and the
UK. Since August last year, agents have been able to use Lufthansa
as a second carrier for all routings from Windhoek to Lufthansa’s
European destinations via Frankfurt. The new agreement extends
the partnership to open up the UK to Air Namibia passengers via
Frankfurt. Passengers now have easy access from Windhoek to six
points in the UK – LHR, MAN, BHX, EDI, ABZ and DUB. Applicable
published fares are already in the GDS. Connecting/transit times at
Frankfurt are between one and two hours.
Fastjet increases DAR-LUN flights
FASTJET has added an extra ight on its Dar es Salaam-Lusaka
service. In addition to Thursday and Saturday ights, a Tuesday
ight will be added to the schedule from April 15. Tickets have been
on sale since February 18.
VS pilots new high-tech service
IN A world-rst, Virgin Atlantic will pilot a new high-tech Upper Class
service. By using Google Glass and Sony Smartworld technology,
the airline aims to provide passengers with a more personalised
and efcient service. The technology sends individual passenger
information directly to the assigned ight attendant’s glasses
or watch, as the passenger arrives, so that the check-in process
can begin. It also enables staff to provide clients with up-to-date
ight information, weather updates and language translation.
Virgin launched the trial after receiving the results from a survey
that indicated, as air trafc numbers have grown, the passenger
experience has declined.
PO increases baggage allowance
PROFLIGHT Zambia has announced an increase in its domestic
baggage allowance. From March 1, the free checked baggage
allowance between Lusaka and Solwezi increased from 15kg to
23kg. The hand baggage allowance is 5kg. From April 1, the route
between Lusaka and Mfuwe will see the same increase. Also from
April 1, check-in counters will close 30 minutes prior to departure
– they previously closed 15 minutes prior to departure. In addition,
Proight announced that it would soon introduce online check-in for
passengers carrying hand luggage only.
