On Wednesday, LATAM Brasil and the South African carrier Airlink announced the signing of an interline agreement that will allow the travelers of the South American airline to access over 40 destinations in Africa. The new travel options will be available once LATAM restarts its route between Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) and Johannesburg Tambo International Airport (JNB) on September 2, with three weekly flights.

A new interline agreement.
LATAM Brasil and Airlink have inked a new interline agreement in which one company may sell flight segments of the other using its own code. LATAM will begin to gradually sell Airlink’s flights as of Tuesday, May 23, on its website. It will offer over 40 destinations in Africa operated by the new partner.

The new routes under LATAM’s interline agreement with Airlink are available starting on September 2. On that date, LATAM will restart flying to Johannesburg from Sao Paulo after a pause of more than three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The route between Brazil and South Africa will last nine hours. It will be operated by the airline’s Boeing 787-9 fleet, which seats 300 passengers (30 in premium business, 57 in premium economy, and 213 in economy).

Where does Airlink fly?
The South African carrier based in Johannesburg has a fleet of 62 aircraft, composed mainly of Embraer jetliners, according to data from ch-aviation. Through the new interlink agreement, LATAM passengers will be able to access more than 40 destinations across Africa. This includes sixteen destinations in South Africa, six in Mozambique, three in Zimbabwe, one in Tanzania, one in the Democratic Republic of Congo, three in Botswana, one in the island of St. Helena, one in Angola, three in Zambia, one in Lesotho, one in Kenya, two in Madagascar, two in Namibia, and one in
Eswatini.

Rodger Foster, CEO and Managing Director of Airlink, said the airline “is very proud of this partnership with LATAM as it enables connectivity between Latin America and all of Southern Africa, creating wonderful corporate and leisure opportunities.”

Meanwhile, Aline Mafra, LATAM Brasil’s Director of Sales and Marketing, added, “This is yet another example of how we have thought of a borderless airline network to bring Brazil closer to the world in a sustainable manner. This agreement makes our flights to South Africa even more attractive and full of possibilities. The new connectivity options from Johannesburg expand the offer to LATAM customers, who will now be able to reach important destinations on
the African continent such as Luanda, Nairobi, and Cape Town.”

This is Airlink’s second partnership announcement this year. In February, British Airways and the South African carrier announced a new codeshare agreement connecting British’s passengers with over 15 destinations across Southern
Africa. This includes destinations such as Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Skukuza in South Africa via Johannesburg and or Cape Town, and Windhoek and Walvis Bay in Namibia via these two South African cities.

SOURCE: Simple Flying

Flydubai, the Dubai-based carrier, announced a new partnership with Air Canada to give customers flying between Canada, the Middle East, East Africa, Indian Subcontinent and Southern Asia more convenient travel options.

Pending final regulatory approval, Air Canada’s marketing code will be placed on nine routes operated from Dubai by flydubai, giving customers the ability to travel to these markets with the issuance of a single ticket. The nine routes include Bahrain, Dammam, Jeddah, Madinah and Muscat in the GCC as well as to Colombo and Karachi in the Indian Subcontinent.

Additionally, through an interline arrangement, customers will be able to seamlessly connect in Dubai to more than 60 destinations that flydubai flies to in the Middle East, East Africa and Southern Asia – including Djibouti, Kathmandu and the Maldives. Of these destinations, more than 30 are unique to flydubai and not flown by other partners of Air Canada.

Commenting on the codeshare announcement, Hamad Obaidalla, Chief Commercial Officer at flydubai, said: “we are very pleased to be adding Air Canada to our list of partners and to offer their passengers a seamless travel experience on the flydubai network. We look forward to growing this partnership that offers passengers the benefits and the convenience of connecting via the Dubai aviation hub and we look forward to welcoming them on board soon.”

Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President, Revenue and Network Planning at Air Canada, said: “Air Canada is very pleased to partner with flydubai, further expanding our connectivity to the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, a growing source of immigration and travel to Canada. This new partnership is a perfect complement to Air Canada’s nonstop service to Dubai from Toronto and Vancouver, and growing our relationship with Emirates, flydubai’s codeshare partner. Together we look forward to bringing together our networks and building a better experience for our customers.”

The airlines also plan on further improving the connection process in Dubai and are working toward introducing expanded features and benefits for one another’s loyalty programme members to be announced later this year.
Seats are available for sale now at aircanada.com, via Air Canada’s Contact Centres, and through travel agents.

SOURCE: flydubai

Kenya Airways (KQ) will operate an SAF-powered flight on Africa Day as part of The Sustainable Flight Challenge (TSFC) by SkyTeam. This is a friendly competition between SkyTeam members to promote sustainability and make air travel greener.

This year, TSFC has extended the invitation to alliance members as it seeks to spearhead environmental change. Kenya Airways will work with its subsidiary Jambojet to discover several solutions that can reduce aviation’s impact on the environment by improving sustainability.

KQ’s SAF-powered flight

As part of the sustainability challenge, KQ will operate a flight powered by Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), which is expected to provide essential data and insights that can determine policy decisions, industry regulations, and best practices related to the use of SAF.

The pilot flight will be operated on May 25, 2023, on the return flight between Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta (NBO) and Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS). This will be a very significant milestone for the airline and the continent.Kenya Airways will deploy its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on the flight. On the same day, the continent will celebrate African unity and development, with milestones like this set to be part of its future. KQ Group CEO and Managing Director Allan Kilavuka said;

“As an aviation industry, it is our responsibility to ensure that we are actively playing a critical role geared towards solutions and shared learning for sustainable solutions and practices in our industry. This year as our red tail goes green again, we aim to support the industry in achieving net-zero by 2050. We are committed to adopting better practices and creating partnerships with people of similar vision.”

Starting in 2025, all flights taking off from European airports must incorporate a portion of Sustainable Aviation Fuels. Kenya Airways seeks to leverage the industry-wide SAF momentum to unlock competitive advantages in the African aviation market.

SkyTeam and TSFC

SkyTeam is one of the world’s leading airline alliances, with 19 members. Kenya Airways has been a part of SkyTeam since 2007 and is the only African airline in the alliance. KQ and 21 other airlines will participate in the second edition of The Sustainable Flight Challenge.

Launched in 2022, TSFC has returned, and it will take place between May 15 and 28. It is the only sustainability initiative of its kind, aiming to drive meaningful change in the short term.

In the name of “friendly competition,” participating airlines will be challenged to operate their flights as sustainably as possible, above and below wing, from pushback to parking stand. After the competition, airlines will share their innovations and solutions to enhance sustainability.

There are seven categories with awards for the lowest CO2 emissions, greatest CO2 reduction, lowest CO2 emissions ground operations, best in-flight waste management, best collaboration, best adoption, and the best innovation. All qualifying flights have to be part of the airline’s existing network.

Kenya Airways’ commitment to sustainability

The winners of the 2023 sustainability challenge will be recognized in October, with Kenya Airways looking to bring some awards home. The airline will focus on the six essential categories, including e-mobility for passengers and travel light policies.

KQ is fully committed and invested in helping the industry achieve sustainable growth through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program. CSR highlights its dedication to economic, environmental, and social issues.

Through this, the airline will support activities in education, environment conservation, community well-being, health, water and sanitation, and disaster and humanitarian relief. CSR will be the pillar of reliability, efficiency, and sustainable development in Africa.

KQ has completed various projects at schools and community centers in Africa. Its commitment to education is driven by the belief that a solid educational foundation will ensure that young people are appropriately skilled for the demanding job market.

Source: Simple Flying

Planning to visit the UAE soon? How about you land in Abu Dhabi, spend two weeks visiting everything all the seven emirates have to offer, and then fly out of Dubai, that too on the same ticket?

This has just been made possible after two of the country’s largest carriers – Abu Dhabi’s Etihad and Dubai’s Emirates – entered into an agreement that will further boost tourism in the country and at the same time enhance a tourist’s experience.

This interline agreement is the first of its kind between the two airlines, which are both on a rapid expansion spree to new destinations and have burgeoning order books ready to take on additional capacity.

“This summer, customers of each airline will be able to purchase a single ticket to fly into either Dubai or Abu Dhabi, with a seamless return via the other airport. The new agreement also provides travellers planning to explore the UAE with the flexibility of one-stop ticketing for their full journey and convenient baggage check-in,” the airlines said in a statement.

How will it work?

In the initial stages of the expanded interline, each carrier will focus on attracting visitors to the UAE by developing inbound interline traffic from select points in Europe and China. The arrangement will allow visitors to cover as much ground as possible when exploring Abu Dhabi, Dubai or any other emirate, saving time by removing the need to fly home via their arrival airport.

Customers travelling into the UAE also have the option of ‘multi-city flights’, with the choice to travel from one city on both carriers’ networks, and conveniently returning to another point served by either Emirates or Etihad.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed at Arabian Travel Market by Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer, and Mohammad Al Bulooki, Chief Operating Officer, Etihad Airways, in the presence of Sir Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline, and Antonoaldo Neves, Etihad CEO.

Tim Clark said: “We are pleased to be working again with Etihad Airways – this time to allow each carrier to offer a new range of seamless travel options in and out of the UAE. Emirates and Etihad are leveraging on our strengths to expand our respective customer offerings and boost UAE tourism. We believe this new agreement provides a strong foundation to develop further opportunities between both airlines and is an example of our commitment to the UAE’s vision for continued economic diversification.”

Antonoaldo Neves added: “We’re delighted to partner with Emirates in our shared mission to support inbound tourism to the UAE and facilitate travel to our vibrant cities. With two world-class airlines supporting UAE tourism, our interline agreement will make it more convenient for our guests to experience the best of Abu Dhabi and Dubai on one single ticket while promising to deliver an exceptional flying experience whether they fly with Etihad Airways or Emirates. It’s a win-win proposition for travellers to the UAE.”

Tourism push

The expanded interline partnership draws upon the commitment of both airlines to support the UAE government’s objective to promote tourism to the country and enhance its position as a preferred global destination. Tourism is one of the key pillars of the UAE economy and is expected to contribute 5.4 per cent of the nation’s total GDP, or Dh116.1 billion, supporting over one million jobs by 2027, according to figures from the Emirates Tourism Council.

Dubai welcomed 4.67 million international overnight visitors in the first quarter of 2023, compared to 3.97 million tourists during the same period in 2022, a 17 per cent year-on-year growth and the city’s best Q1 performance since the pandemic.

Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, has announced plans to attract more than 24 million visitors to the emirate by the end of 2023. The emirate received 18 million visitors in 2022, a 13 per cent increase over the previous year.

Expanding reach

Earlier this week, Emirates signed MoUs on the sidelines of Arabian Travel Market with Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, the Moroccan National Tourism Office and Tourism Authority of Zimbabwe to promote inbound travel and boost visitor numbers. It signed similar agreements with authorities in Seychelles, Mauritius and the Sri Lanka as well.

The airline recently also activated its codeshare with US-based United, allowing Emirates customers to enjoy easier access to an expanded choice of US destinations. Emirates customers can now fly to three of America’s biggest business hubs – Chicago, Houston or San Francisco – and connect easily to an expansive network of domestic US points on flights operated by United.

Emirates has boosted operations by 31 per cent (total ASKMs) since the start of its financial year and has further plans to ramp up seat capacity.

“Customer demand has been very strong, and our forward bookings are also robust. Emirates is working hard on several fronts – to bring back operating capacity as quickly as the ecosystem can manage, while also upgrading our fleet and product to ensure our customers always enjoy the best possible Emirates experience,” Adnan Kazim said in an earlier statement.

The airline also plans to scale up its A380 operations with the reintroduction of the double-decker across its network, including Glasgow, Casablanca, Beijing, Shanghai, Nice, Birmingham, Kuala Lumpur, and Taipei.

It is also expanding services to several destinations such as Amsterdam, Athens, Budapest, London, Venice, Cairo, Dar es Salaam, Brisbane, Christchurch, Melbourne, Sydney, Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, among others. The airline is also starting services to Montreal, and expanding capacity to Toronto.

The carrier also has plans to place more aircraft orders to meet growing demand.

“We will probably order more in the next few months on top of what we already have,” Tim Clark said earlier this week, adding that Emirates is extending the life of its existing A380 super jumbo and 777 fleets due to long lead times for aircraft deliveries.

Etihad, too, entered into partnerships with as many as six airlines earlier this year. It launched reciprocal interline partnerships with three new airline partners – Philippine Airlines, Austrian Airlines and Airlink South Africa, while re-launching interline links with Biman Bangladesh and codeshares with Air Seychelles and ITA Airways.

The airline also announced a new direct service to Lisbon for the first time, and said it will return to Málaga on the Spanish Costa del Sol and the popular Greek island of Mykonos this summer.

The airline will be offering travellers nearly 160 weekly flights to 21 destinations in Europe this summer, with 20 per cent more seats available than in 2022. Earlier, it had also announced plans to resume its A380 services this summer after heavy demand, with four super-jumbos pressed into service on the London Heathrow route.

Etihad aims to triple the number of passengers it carriers to 30 million and nearly double its fleet to 150 planes by the end of the decade, the airline’s chief said in an interview last month.

Convenience is key

Earlier this week, Etihad signed an agreement with technology firm Astra Tech that allows customers to make flight bookings using artificial intelligence within chat app Botim.

Under the deal between Etihad and Astra Tech, the airline’s clients will be able to book flights just by typing in the basic details of the service they require, with the technology then completing the booking itself.

Old pals

This is the second time the airlines have announced a collaboration. In 2018, Emirates Group Security and Etihad Aviation Group signed an MoU to strengthen aviation security, including the sharing of information and intelligence in operational areas both within and outside the UAE.

Last year, Emirates signed an MoU with the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, to boost tourist numbers to the UAE capital from key source markets across the airline’s global network.

Source: Gulf News

Air Canada has resumed Montreal to Cairo. The first summer-seasonal service of 2023 left Canada in early May, with the last from Egypt planned for October 27th.

Air Canada launched the route in 2021, 12 years after EgyptAir ended it. Revolving around the Egyptian diaspora in Montreal and connections over Montreal in particular, Air Canada and EgyptAir – both Star Alliance carriers – codeshare, including beyond each other’s hubs.

Air Canada is back in Cairo

On May 2nd, Air Canada relaunched the 5,436-mile (8,748 km) link from Montreal, its second-largest hub, to Egypt’s capital. It is Air Canada’s third African destination from Montreal, alongside Algiers and Casablanca, also focused on diaspora.

Operating thrice weekly, Cairo will see both the 255-seat Boeing 787-8 and – much more frequently, crucially through the peak summer – the 298-seat 787-9.

The 787-9 has 30 seats in Signature, 21 in premium economy, and 247 in regular economy. The -9 variant provides 10 more business seats (+50%) than the smaller -8 and 33 more in economy (+15%).

Now mainly by the 787-9

Since launching in June 2021, the route has almost always been operated by the smaller 787-8, but it will now primarily see the 787-9.

As Air Canada mainly had four weekly flights last summer, against three now, capacity has been reduced by 126 weekly seats (double for both ways).

One fewer roundtrip will, of course, nicely reduce the route’s operating expenses, while the bigger aircraft will reduce seat-mile costs. Hopefully, yields will improve somewhat from fewer seats for sale and more business. When combined with lower costs, performance will hopefully improve further.

What’s the schedule?

It is scheduled as follows, with all times local:

• Cairo to Montreal: AC74, 17:30-10:55+1 (10h 25m block time)
• Montreal to Cairo: AC75, 12:40-16:50 (11h 10m)

Where do passengers go?

According to Cirium data supplied by airlines, Air Canada had 49,568 roundtrip Montreal-Cairo seats last year. Relating that to booking data suggests it achieved a very strong seat load factor of 94%, helped, of course, by only being summer-seasonal.

Passengers in 2022 can be broken down as flying this:

• To/from Cairo, transiting Montreal: ~56% of passengers
• Point-to-point: (i.e., only between Montreal and Cairo): 35%
• Transiting Montreal and Cairo (‘bridging’): ~5%
• To/from Montreal, transiting Cairo: ~4%

Cairo over Montreal to Toronto was #1

Of the largest category (those transiting Montreal), booking data shows that flying to/from the US was the most popular market, then across wider Canada.

When broken down by airport, Cairo over Montreal to/from Toronto was the leading market, despite EgyptAir’s daily non-stop. It was presumably cheaper to connect in Montreal with Air Canada than to pay the premium for a non-stop. EgyptAir codeshares with Air Canada on Montreal-Toronto.

The next most popular airport-level origin and destination was Cairo-Los Angeles. Booking data suggests that Air Canada carried just under 3,000 roundtrip Los Angeles passengers over Montreal. When split over 190 flights (two ways) last summer, each flight had around 15 passengers traveling to/from California airport.