European Airlines

German flag carrier Lufthansa will resume inbound passenger operations to India from 13 August 2020. The routes being reinstated are: Frankfurt to Delhi (Airbus A340-300) Munich to Delhi (Airbus A350-900) Frankfurt to Bangalore (Airbus A330-300) Frankfurt to Mumbai (Airbus A330-300) The airline has already been operating outbound flights from the three cities to Frankfurt and Munich. As per the latest …

Virgin Atlantic has announced its plan for their “post-Covid19 future“. The airline expects that demand will take three years to return to post corona levels and that it will have to reshape and resize its business to adapt. The CEO of Virgin Atlantic Shai Weiss commented “We have weathered many storms since our first flight 36 years ago, but none …

A couple of weeks back we saw Lufthansa announce its plans to reduce its fleet by retiring some of their A380s and 747s amongst other aircraft. At the time it was also announced that subsidiaries Austrian and Swiss would also see reductions but no further details were given. Austrian has now laid out its future plan. The airline suspended its …

A British Airways Airbus A350 collided with an Emirates 777 at Dubai International Airport, early today morning. The two aircraft involved in the incident were: A British Airways A350-1000 G-XWBA, which was the first A350 to join British Airways in July 2019. Emirates Boeing 777-300ER A6-EBR, a 14-year-old aircraft delivered to Emirates in August 2006. The British Airways aircraft was …

Polish Aviation Group (PGL), the parent company of LOT Polish Airlines has cancelled its takeover of German leisure carrier Condor. The Takeover Condor was owned by now-defunct Thomas Cook Group which went into liquidation in September 2019. The airline was given a bridge loan by the German government to keep operating since it had a working business model and to …

The majority of the global aircraft fleet is grounded at the moment and airlines do not expect demand to return to the pre coronavirus levels any time soon. As such, some airlines have begun longer-term planning of their fleets – in many cases accelerating the retirements of their older aircraft. American is retiring it’s Embraer 190s, 76 Boeing 737-800s, its …

British flag carrier British Airways is adding an additional three weekly flights to Bangalore. The airline currently operates a daily flight using the newest aircraft in their fleet the Airbus A350-1000 which features the airline’s brand new business class suites. The new flights will begin in April 2020 and be operated using the airline’s three-class Boeing 777-200s. Time-table for British …

Britain’s other major carrier, Virgin Atlantic, rather unexpectedly, announced a seasonal, thrice-weekly service between Manchester and New Delhi starting Winter 2020. The new service will begin from the 26th of October 2020 operating on Monday, Thursday and Saturday on an ex-Air Berlin A330-200 aircraft. Virgin Atlantic added four of these aircraft to its fleet starting March 2018 to deal with …

Virgin Atlantic made its India debut in July 2000 when the airline launched its flight to India’s capital, New Delhi. Back then, Virgin Atlantic was a boutique airline fuelled by the ambitions of a maverick entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson.  A lot has changed since then. Today, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is a minority shareholder (20%) in the airline with …

A couple of days back, KLM celebrated its 100th anniversary. The airline is the oldest in the world still operating under its original name. KLM has released a celebratory ad to commemorate the milestone. The film is called “To More Memories Together,” and follows three generations of KLM crew. KLM said about the film: “The film tracks KLM’s evolution from …

German flag carrier Lufthansa has announced that it will begin operating direct flights between Munich and Bangalore from 31 March 2020. The flight will be operated five times weekly by an Airbus A350-900. The airline already operates a daily flight to Bangalore from Frankfurt using the Boeing 747-8i.   On Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the flight will take …

A British Airways Boeing 777-200ER registration G-YMMU, operating flight BA119 from London Heathrow to Bangalore Kempegowda airport returned to London Heathrow airport soon after take-off due to a technical issue. The cause of the issue is being investigated by the engineers, and no determination on what caused the issue has been made as of the time of this report. The …

KLM Cityhopper has announced its intention to purchase 35 Embraer E195-E2 aircraft at the Paris Air Show today. The deal which will be finalised after the show will incude 15 firm orders and options for 20 more aircraft. Pieter Elbers, President & CEO, KLM “Embraer has been a key partner for KLM and Cityhopper over the past ten years. Our …

Update – Confirmation from KLM KLM has confirmed our report. In a statement, the airline said “From 28 October 2019, KLM will fly between Amsterdam Schiphol and Bangalore on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The flights with the Boeing 787-9 offer 30 seats in the World Business Class, 45 seats in the Economy Comfort Class and 219 seats in the Economy …

British Airways has announced that Bangalore will be the first destination in India for its new Airbus A350-1000. Bangalore will be the fourth worldwide destination for the BA’s A350 – the airline’s launch destination for the type will be to Madrid. The A350 service to Bangalore will begin on 1 January 2020 and as currently scheduled will be the first …

British Airways has launched its new long-awaited business class seat. The ‘Club Suite’ will offer enclosed suites with a door, industry standard flat-bed seats, direct aisle access with a 1-2-1 seat configuration. The seat will also feature 18.5-inch inflight entertainment screens, high definition gate-to-gate programming, and PC / USB power. The Club Suite will first feature on the airline’s first …

The Lufthansa group has placed an order for 20 Boeing 787-9 and 20 additional Airbus A350-900’s. The order which is worth $12 billion at list prices (as confirmed in the group’s statement, airlines always negotiate a heavy discount from the list price). Deliveries of the new aircraft will be between 2022 and 2027. The new aircraft will primarily replace four-engine …

A few weeks back I had written about British Airways’ plan to repaint one of their Boeing 747s, with a retro British Overseas Aircraft Cooperation (BOAC) livery. The livery was the standard BOAC livery between 1964 and 1974. The aircraft G-BYGC entered the paint shop at Dublin Airport on 5 February, with the aircraft having been repainted and put back …

British Airways has announced changes to their premium economy – “World Traveller Plus” offerings. As part of the airline’s five-year £6.5 billion-pound investment plan, BA will update the cabin’s furnishings, service and dining options. Carolina Martinoli, Director of Brand and Customer Experience, British Airways “This latest tranche of our £6.5bn investment is set to improve World Traveller Plus and customers …