airlines

In the space of two months, two airlines have just announced changes to their frequent flyer programmes (FFPs). And unfortunately for the members concerned, all the new rules adopted over the last few years mean a downgrading of their programme and now of their status. Today, almost all airlines award...

For a long time, Luxembourg Findel airport remained dormant, content with its traffic of businessmen from the financial world and European institutions, while at weekends, charter flights took mainly German holidaymakers to the sun. Between 1997 and 2010, passenger traffic fluctuated between 1.2 and 1.6 million. And yet...

Benjamin Smith, CEO of the Air France-KLM group, accompanied by Anne Rigail, CEO of Air France, and Pieter Elbers, Chairman of the Management Board of KLM, explained in advance of a meeting with investors: "In a competitive and rapidly changing environment, the Air France-KLM group has everything it takes to regain its place...

What if tomorrow's aircraft were not as we know it today, i.e. with a tubular fuselage, wings stretched like birds' and jet engines fuelled by paraffin? Admittedly, that's a long way off, as most of the projects are still in the engineers' computers. But we're almost there. Last June, KLM and...

On the eve of celebrating 70 years of flying in Canada, Air France has just sent out a strong signal in this strategic market. "Toulouse", the first Airbus A350 delivered a month ago by the European aircraft manufacturer, now serves Toronto daily from Paris CDG. On 27 October, passengers on flight AF 356 from Paris CDG airport to...

Lufthansa is adapting to passenger demand for greater integration between rail and air, and more rail connections on the shortest domestic routes. From mid-December, the German airline, in cooperation with its partner Deutsche Bahn, will be increasing the number of its connections to the airport...

Air New Zealand has been flying direct to London from Auckland for 37 years, the only airline to offer such a service from Europe. Launched with a Boeing 747-400 on 25 August 1982, the route linked Auckland to London-Gatwick via Papeete and Los Angeles. Air New Zealand transferred the...

Last July, the European Union gave the go-ahead for the takeover of the British regional airline Flybe by a consortium called "Connect Airways" comprising Stobart Group (40% of the capital), Cyrus Capital (30%) and the airline Virgin Atlantic Ltd (30%). As of January 2020, Flybe will no longer operate under the new name of Virgin Connect. The liveries of the...

What is the deployment schedule for the new economy class unveiled by Qatar Airways in Paris? Frédéric Gossot - This new economy class will first be installed on the A321neo, scheduled for delivery in 2020. 50 aircraft are on order, ten of them in the long-range version. The...

How is LOT Polish Airlines' traffic developing? Yann Saint-Sorny - Following our restructuring in 2015, we launched a six-year development plan, which began in 2016. And the results are remarkable. We have a network of 105 destinations, compared with 45 in 2015, and we should be carrying more than ten million...

It was certain that Aigle Azur's France-Algeria network would whet the appetites of the competition. Now it's done: at the beginning of the week, Transavia CEO Nathalie Stubler confirmed on various radio stations that the airline was interested in taking over a dozen routes operated by Aigle Azur. The low-cost carrier operates...

A small thunderclap in the skies of international aviation. Delta Air Lines has announced its intention to acquire a 20% stake in LATAM Airlines Group SA, currently South America's largest airline with 143 destinations from half a dozen countries on the semi-continent. The transaction will cost Delta 1.9...

With its limited domestic market, Ljubljana attracted few air carriers, giving Slovenia's national carrier, Adria Airways, a virtual monopoly. Of the 27 destinations served by Adria Airways, eleven have effectively disappeared. Only six routes were in competition with the national carrier, including Brussels, London and Paris. The disappearance of Adria represents...

A brief announcement on Monday evening, barely noticed: the Slovenian national airline Adria Airways announced that it was temporarily suspending its flights on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 September. On Wednesday, the carrier explained that it would have to extend the suspension to this Thursday and Friday. A message on the Adria website explained that "the airline is currently...

This is Garuda Indonesia's ninth timetable change in Europe this year, effective from October 1. The previous eight changes affected the Jakarta-London route, which was cancelled twice, offered with a stopover in Amsterdam, then transformed into a Bali-Jakarta route, and finally transformed into a flight...

Delta will soon be offering a new option on the transatlantic route. On 22 May 2020, the American airline will add a new daily service between Paris and Boston, doubling its offer between the two business destinations. The new flight will leave Paris CDG at 3.40pm and reach Boston at 5.30pm. On the return leg, business travellers will...

Long-haul low-cost carrier XL Airways has suspended ticket sales from 19 September due to financial difficulties within the company. "For over a year, management has been negotiating with several buyers. These negotiations have been unsuccessful, and the company must now place itself under the protection of the Court...

With the suspension of Aigle Azur flights, one particularly important route for the French market has suddenly been deprived of a third of its seat capacity: the route between France and Algeria. According to the DGAC's annual statistics, traffic between the two countries accounted for 4,555,767 passengers in 2018, a figure...

"Committed to creating a more sustainable future for air transport", KLM has announced the abolition of one daily rotation between Brussels Zaventem and Amsterdam Schiphol airports from 29 March 2020, replaced by 25,600 seats in Premium or Standard classes on board Thalys TGVs. The Dutch company, which currently operates five routes between...

Challenging the centralisation of the French air transport model, and the omnipotence of Paris-CDG: this is the ambition of the major regional airports, and in particular the Nice hub. With this in mind, Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur has found a major ally on the transatlantic route: after unveiling its ambitions for Toulouse airport, Air Canada...