air transport

1,356: that's the number of train journeys analysed in a report by the European Commission, which wants to boost the share of rail travel within the European Union. The report (available in English only), entitled "How fast are rail trips between EU cities and is rail faster than air?", shows that air travel is still in the...

If there is one airline in the world that is particularly suffering from a hostile political and economic environment, it is Finnair. The Finnish airline had built its success on a niche positioning, linking Europe and Asia. But three years of Covid have affected traffic in Asia. Not least because of the bans on...

Are we heading for the demise of another national airline? There is every reason to believe so in Malta. The management of Air Malta has been a disaster for over a decade. Several local newspapers have reported senior government officials talking about a likely refusal by the European Union to provide further aid...

Air Transat is strengthening its presence in France. The scheduled carrier, which tends to focus on the leisure market, is now present at seven French destinations (Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, Paris CDG and Toulouse). The airline also operates scheduled flights to Brussels and Basel-Mulhouse. During the summer, Paris-Roissy CDG is linked to five Canadian cities...

Last month at ITB Berlin, Qatar Airways announced the opening of seven new routes, including 3 in France. Nice-Doha will be the first route to return to the network. It will resume on 9 May with four weekly flights on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Flights depart from Nice-Côte d'Azur at 4pm and arrive...

Turkish Airlines is now offering free and unlimited messaging services to all passengers on international flights. The only limitation is that they must have internet access. Turkish Airlines has launched its new "Enjoy Limitless Messaging" campaign. Messaging services include WhatsApp, Messenger and iMessage. The CEO...

On the face of it, the airlines linking Europe and Asia can rejoice. After the absolute lows of 2020 and 2021, traffic has in fact recovered in 2022. And it continues to grow at the start of this year. However, there is a downside. The rebound is much weaker than expected. Inflation and the Russia/Ukraine war...

"Africa accounts for 18 % of the world's population, but only 2.1 % of air transport activity (freight and passengers combined). "Focus Africa" aims to close this gap, so that Africa benefits from the connectivity, jobs and growth associated with aviation," explains Willie Walsh, IATA's Director General at the...

Since 26 March, the official start of the summer schedules, Air India has strengthened its presence in the UK. The Indian national airline has launched 4 new routes from London Gatwick to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Kochi and Goa. Each of these destinations is served three times a week by the airline's Boeing 787 Dreamliner...

2022 ended rather well for US airlines. According to statistics from the US Department of Transportation (DOT), US carriers carried 853 million passengers, compared with 658 million the previous year. This represents a year-on-year increase of 30%, equivalent to 194 million more passengers. With this result, the...

On Monday 27 March, Germany is preparing for a total strike across all transport services. The strike will affect trains, airports and even motorway companies. It's a situation reminiscent of what's happening in France, and one that the German Airports Association (ADV) is quick to point out, with talk of an escalation in the...

In the space of two decades, Gulf airlines have become essential to India's integration into international air transport. Thanks to them, business travellers can reach more than a dozen cities on the sub-continent. Qatar Airways offers the most extensive network with 13 destinations, followed by Saudia with 10 stopovers. Emirates and...

Following the inauguration of the Papeete - Seattle route on October 4 and the announcement of an extension to Paris of the twice-weekly service for the summer 2023 period, Air Tahiti Nui is announcing a new extension of the Papeete - Paris route via Seattle for the next IATA Winter season. From 12 June 2023, the new service...

Twin Jet, the French airline specialising in regional transport, is expanding its network and from 17 April will be offering flights between Lyon and Lille airports. The airline will be offering 9 weekly flights with two frequencies per day from Monday to Thursday and a single frequency on Fridays. This route, mainly...

Emirates continues to add new frequencies to its global network, with seat capacity up 31% year-on-year. With the introduction of its summer programme, the airline is boosting capacity, particularly in Asia and Australia. Europe and Africa are also benefiting from improved frequencies. Emirates "against the tide": 2...

Saudi Arabia is now clearly demonstrating its ambition to be the emerging and dominant destination in the Gulf over the next few years. Major tourism infrastructure projects have been announced one after the other, and now it's the turn of air transport. Last October, the government announced that it was working on the launch of a new national airline. It is already starting to take off.

Air Transat has just announced that it will be offering direct flights between Lyon and Montreal next winter. This decision transforms a seasonal flight into a permanent service between the two cities. The airline, which operates up to one daily flight between the two cities during the summer season, will be offering three flights a week in winter. The frequencies at...

While the upturn in tourism in Thailand is once again filling the planes to Bangkok and Phuket, the Thai national carrier is continuing to increase its frequencies, but without any real boom in supply. In its summer timetable, which comes into effect on 26 March, Thai Airways International will be offering a network of 39 destinations, nine of which are intercontinental (Europe, Asia, Africa,...

Tuesday 7 March marks a new day of action against pension reform. As a result, further disruption to transport services is expected in France. One flight in five is expected to be cancelled at Paris-CDG on 7 and 8 March. The cancellation rate is expected to reach 30% at Orly, Beauvais, Bordeaux,...

Etihad Airways has just announced that it has been forced to suspend all online check-in for its flights. This suspension covers a period of nine days, from 4 to 12 March. The only exception: online check-in for passengers starting their journey from the Abu Dhabi hub will still be possible on 4 and 5 March....