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Air France KLM and GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A., which comprises the GOL and VARIG brands, have signed a commercial cooperation agreement which will enable the 15 million customers who are members of AIR FRANCE and KLM’s “Flying Blue” and GOL’s 6 million “Smiles” frequent flyer programmes to have access to new Frequent Flyers benefits and destinations. Beginning May 1, …

Hello Bangalore Aviation supporters, it is Friday, and trivia time again. This week’s question: Which was the last flight of Concorde ? You will have to take a giant leap backwards to find the answer, but it is right here on Bangalore Aviation. Remember to check back on Monday for the answer.

Jet Airways announced plans to launch a new service to Dubai from Chennai, as well as a second service on the Mumbai Dubai sector, from April 23 using its two class Boeing 737-800 narrow body aircraft. The airline currently has two daily flights to Dubai, one from Mumbai and one from New Delhi. The schedules of the announced new flights …

2008 was the year reality struck home in the Indian airline industry. One whiff of the downturn exposed the lack of robust business planning, and abundance of financial vulnerability of Indian carriers, leaving all of them battered and bruised, some more than others. We saw mass-scale defaulting on payments by carriers in India to everyone from airports to aircraft manufacturers. …

For today only, value airline JetBlue Airways is offering seats on sale for just $14 each way on non-stop flights between San Francisco International Airport and both New York City/JFK and Los Angeles/Long Beach for travel from today through April 8, 2009. The $14 fares to/from San Francisco are available until 11:59 p.m. MDT today, April 2, 2009, or until …

Call it post 26/11 jitters, but an quick reacting flight attendant and under-cover commandos caused a security flap and high drama at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. An Air India Airbus A320-200, IC-401 from New Delhi to Kolkata with 104 people on board, was lined up awaiting clearance for take-off when a woman passenger, an off duty flight attendant …

In repeat incident, another Eurocopter AS332L2 Super Puma helicopter, this one operated by Bond Offshore Helicopters, has crashed off the north east coast of Scotland in the North Sea with 16 on board. Unlike the last time, when all persons on board survived, this time it appears 10 persons have lost their lives. The Coastguards says the incident happened about …

Austrian Airlines’ Boeing 767-300ER registration OE-LAE became the first European airline aircraft to successfully convert and add winglets. This following American Airlines successful conversion and implementation of the blended winglets made by Aviation Partners Boeing. Austrian Airlines is in a pioneering position since its committed to the conversion at an early stage, and will now enjoy “clear competitive advantage over …

Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) has beaten four other competing airports in the Indian sub-continent and bagged the Routes Asia Airport Marketing award from its customers — the airlines. Congratulations to Marcel Hungerbuehler and his team, most especially Ashutosh Chandra who leads airline marketing efforts at BIAL. The airlines within Asia nominated five airports whose marketing efforts during 2009 made a …

A Jetlite Boeing 737-800, registration VT-SJH performing flight S2-320 from Kolkata to New Delhi with 140 persons on board, was forced to make three landing attempts due to weather and a fault Instrument Landing System at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. The flight was on approach to New Delhi’s runway 29, when a thunderstorm went into its final approach …

The new domestic departure terminal 1D at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) at New Delhi will commence operations in two phases from April 11 and April 18. With the exception of Go Air, all airlines from the old departure terminal 1B will move to terminal 1D, along with Kingfisher Airlines who will shift from terminal 1A. Go Air will …

Qatar Airways launched its Doha Houston daily non-stop service yesterday linking the world’s energy capitals and marking the carrier’s 84th destination. The new route is Qatar Airways’ third daily non-stop service to the United States adding to the existing daily services to Washington D.C. and New York City. Qatar Airways is using its two brand new Boeing 777-200 Long Range …

The three month old stand-off between travel agents and Singapore Airlines on the zero commission issue shows no signs of abating. Both sides have tried to negotiate but remain apart. If anything, the dispute has entrenched both sides in to their respective stands even further. In the latest move to pressure the Singapore national carrier, Indian travel agents will send …

A JetLite flight to Bangalore was delayed by 45 minutes and boarding on several flights had to be suspended for 10 minutes on Sunday evening after a passenger Saptarishi Basu, complained that his laptop had gone missing from the security hold. Around 5 pm, Basu, who was to board the JetLite flight to Bangalore, went in for security check. On …

Firstly, many thanks to all the Bangalore Aviation readers who participated in last week’s trivia question – Which is the longest scheduled commercial airline flight ? For the purpose of definition I placed four criteria for an ultra long-haul non-stop flight: Operated by a commercial airliner with a definite schedule No intermediate stop-over point within its scheduled duration More than …

A host of new and updated services to and from India announced this week. Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) will launch new flights to Bangalore, Lucknow, and Kozhikode (Calicut) over the next few days. The airline has commenced operating three flights a week to Lucknow; two flights a week to Bangalore from today, March 30, 2009 and four flights a week …

Two deliveries of “first” of aircraft model occurred on March 27th. Airbus delivered the first A330-300 to Finnair, out of an order for eight. Powered by General Electric CF6-80E1 engines, the new aircraft is in a two class configuration 42 Business, 229 Economy for a total seating for 271 passengers. On the same day, Boeing delivered the first 777 Freighter …

According to OAG’s (Official Airline Guide) March 2009 report, the world’s airlines have scheduled 4.9% fewer flights for March 2009 compared with the same month last year, with a 3.3% drop in capacity, according to the latest statistics from OAG, the world’s leading aviation data business. This is the eighth successive month of declines, and represents a reduction of more …

Two Air India employees have been arrested after the vigilance department of the airline found they were allegedly involved in human trafficking and transported two women to the US showing them as their wives. Deepak Salvi, a office superintendent, and Hemant Morade, an operator, were arrested for allegedly illegally transporting two women posing as their wives to the US and …

As a part of its growing offerings to woo business passengers, SpiceJet announced the launch of a breakfast menu available for sale on all flights that depart before 9.30 am. The single type continental breakfast tray is available at a discounted price of Rs 100 ($2) if it is pre-ordered at the time of booking the ticket. The same is …