Air Travel News

SWISS keeps focus on scheduling stability for Summer 2023
SWISS will further expand its flight schedules as planned and continue to focus on the stability of its services and operations for next year’s summer timetable period.

Delta enhances benefits for SkyMiles Medallion members
As Delta exits an unprecedented summer of demand for travel and navigates an evolving industry landscape, the airline remains committed to ensuring Delta SkyMiles membership and Medallion Status levels provide exclusive, earned opportunities for its most loyal customers

Italy’s First Vertiport Deployed at Fiumicino Airport
Aeroporti di Roma, Volocopter, UrbanV, and Atlantia conducted the first crewed eVTOL public test flight in Italy this morning, while presenting the country’s first advanced air mobility (AAM) testing vertiport and hosting an interactive booking process on Volocopter’s VoloIQ digital platform

KLM and Transavia to share data on unruly passengers
KLM and Transavia share data on passengers placed on the No Fly List for disruptive behaviour on board or on the ground, since 29 September. Both airlines will ban unruly passengers for five years, regardless of which airline operated the flight in question

Royal Brunei expected to restart London-Dubai
Royal Brunei will no longer operate nonstop between London and Bandar Seri Begawan. Effective November 1 Royal Brunei will operate to Bandar via Dubai, as it did until 2018. It is expected to gain fifth-freedom rights between London-Dubai and vice versa as happened before.

Aviation recovery continues despite headwinds
Against a backdrop of slowing economic growth, the recovery in global air travel continues to support forecasts of a return to 2019 levels of traffic in 2024 at the aggregate level, IATA Chief Economist Marie Owens Thomsen told the World Financial Symposium.

Etihad Guest and utu partner
Singapore-based travel-tech company utu (utu Pte Ltd) has announced that Etihad Guest, the frequent flyer programme of the UAE’s national airline Etihad Airways, will now allow Etihad Guest members to shop tax-free globally with the utu Tax-Free Card.

Air tax strangling economic growth
The Chancellor’s decision to push ahead with the double inflation increase in Air Passenger Duty (APD) in the recent budget has been branded as a reckless brake on the economy by the Board of Airline Representatives in the UK (BAR UK).

Rising fuel prices dampening air travel, says IATA
Rising fuel prices are starting to dampen air travel demand, according to the latest report from IATA, but business travel is maintaining a strong recovery. Economy travel slowed from 4.9% year over year growth in January to 3.3% in February. Premium travel was more robust, slowing from 8.1% to 7.7% over the same periods.

Air travel has lost it’s glamour
In the age of grotty airports and budget airlines it seems there’s not much room left for glamour.

Over half of Canadian Air travellers have never received an upgrade
Of the 1000 Canadian travellers polled, 52.8% said that they have never actually received an upgrade. 37.3% lucky travellers reported a bump up to first class, 6.1% considered roomier seats the best upgrade they have ever received and 3.8% cited free drinks.

Long haul destinations fight back
A catalogue of woes may have hit the long haul holiday market this year but destinations are fighting back hard to overcome the negatives, according to its latest review of the sector by Hayes & Jarvis