US Miracle Flights arranges 8299 free flights in the last year....

Miracle Flights said it made US airlines give away a record 8,299 free medical flights during the last fiscal year ending 30th April 2018. That is an increase of 73 over last year's previous all-time high of 8,226. The Las Vegas based nonprofit organization provides free commercial air transportation to critically ill children and adults in need of specialized, distant medical care.

Turkish Airlines head to The Comoros

Turkish Airlines has added Moroni - the biggest city and the capital of Comoros Union to its vast gobal network. The airline, the largest in the world in terms of destinations served, started operations to Moroni on the 18th June 2018. 

The Comoros Union is made up of three big islands, which are named The Big Comoros, Anjuan and Moholi. Comoros was named as moon islands by Arabic mariners and also named perfume islands by European countries because of being plenty various scented plant as honeysuckle, orchids and gardenia. The agriculture sector is the biggest share of the country economy and the climate of the Comoros is tropical which makes it an exciting and rewarding place to visit. 

Following the addition of the Moroni flights, Turkish Airlines now reaches 122 countries with 304 destinations across the globe, of which 53 are in Africa.   The carrier will operate to Moroni three times per week and it will be in connection with Seychelles flights.

Moroni flight times as scheduled from June 18th;

Flight No.	Days	Departure		Arrival
TK 748	Monday, Wednesday, Saturday	IST	01:40	HAH	13:30
TK 749	Monday, Wednesday, Saturday	HAH	16:40	IST	04:10 +1

All times subject to change

LOT to start London City to Budapest direct service next year

LOT has announced the new direct flight from London City Airport to Budapest, starting on February 18th 2019.

The Polish Airline says tickets for the new service start from £135 round trip and will operate twice daily on Embraer Jets.

Air Canada Inaugurates Three New Non-Stop Domestic Routes

The Canadian legacy carrier Air Canada inaugurated the first of three new, non-stop domestic services from BC communities with the departure of AC1976 from Kamloops to Toronto. Tomorrow, Air Canada will inaugurate new non-stop seasonal services from Victoria to Montreal, and from Nanaimo to Toronto. These newest domestic long-haul services are operated onboard the airline's leisure carrier Air Canada Rouge, which will be celebrating its fifth birthday on July 1.

"We are very pleased to launch the only non-stop services from Nanaimo and Kamloops to Toronto, and from Victoria to Montreal in time for the busy summer travel period. The convenience of these new services makes it easier than ever for customers from other parts of our network to travel to beautiful British Columbia's Vancouver Island and Thompson Okanagan areas. Customers from Nanaimo, Victoria and Kamloops now have the convenience of non-stop flights to Toronto and Montreal, where unparalleled connecting options are also available throughout our far-reaching North American and global network," said Benjamin Smith, President,  Airlines and Chief Operating Officer at Air Canada.

The new non-stop services were welcomed by several Mayors:

Aeromexico to start two new routes in November.

One of the leading Mexican airlines, Aeromexico has announced two new services starting this November. The carrier will operate to the new destinations in Central America and the Caribbean from its home base hub, Mexico City.  Beginning on 2nd and 10th November the airline will begin offering flights to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and Liberia, Costa Rica.

Both routes will be operated by Embraer 190 with passenger capacities of 99, including 11 seats in  Premier.

The flight schedules are as follows:

Mexico City - Punta Cana

AM2654 11:30pm - 06:10am - Friday and Saturday.

Punta Cana - Mexico City

AM2655 12:00pm - 03:10pm - Friday and Saturday.

Mexico City - Liberia, Costa Rica

AM2656 08:15am - 11:05am - Friday and Saturday.

Liberia, Costa Rica - Mexico City

AM 2657 12:05pm - 03:05pm Saturday and Sunday.

The schedules are in local time for each country and subject to change without notice.

Aeromexico's Chief Revenue Officer, Anko van der Werff, weighed in: "These routes are evidence of the major effort we put into offering a better product to our clients. Moreover, this is the first time Mexico City will be connected directly to Liberia and Punta Cana."

"As a result of these two new routes, our passengers can now reach 10 different destinations in Central America and the Caribbean. This is on top of operating around 210 weekly routes with 23,000 available seats every week. With the launch of these routes, we're continuing to reinforce our commitment in offering the best connectivity and flight experience to all of our passengers."

The airline will also be increasing its capacity on the Mexico City – Vancouver route between 15th December this year and March next year with a third flight on Saturdays.  The flight is scheduled to depart Mexico City at 0820 arriving Vancouver at 1240 with the return timed to leave at 1405 and land back in Mexico City at 2155. 

Airbus try to blackmail the British Government

The European aviation giant Airbus is trying the blackmail the British Government over Brexit its been confirmed this week.  Airbus has confirmed it will sack its entire UK workforce of over 14,000 people and completely leave the UK in the event of a "no-deal" Brexit.

The aerospace giant that has taken billions of pounds of UK taxpayers money in the form of subsidies and tax breaks over the years directly employs 14,000 in a number of sites including Bristol, Stevenage and Portsmouth.  According to some calculations, a further 110,000 people are employed indirectly by suppliers to Airbus - and their jobs are not at risk.

Viva Aerobus will take off to Mexico City from New York

Viva Aerobus, Mexico's ultra-low-cost airline, announces that it will be flying to Mexico City from John F. Kennedy International Airport. This new route will start operations on October 18th with a daily flight and with prices starting from USD $99.

''The opening of new connectivity options, with affordable prices, will bring New York and Mexico closer. It will continue positioning our country [Mexico] as a great tourist world power. It will facilitate the air access of New Yorkers to Mexico City and, from there, to any of our wonderful travel destinations", mentioned Ambassador Diego Gómez Pickering, Consul General of Mexico in New York.

This is the second international route of Viva Aerobus to/from Mexico City and will start operations on October 18th.
Viva Aerobus will offer a daily flight with prices starting from USD $99
In its first year of operation, more than 132 thousand seats will be available to travellers.

Jet Airways take delivery of first 737 Max

Boeing and Jet Airways celebrated the delivery of the airline's first 737 MAX aeroplane, earlier this week.  

Jet Airways will be first Indian carrier to fly the 737 Max aeroplane, "The new 737 MAX is a critical element to our future growth strategy and we are proud to become the first airline in India to introduce this brand new aeroplane to our customers," said Naresh Goyal, Chairman of Jet Airways. "The 737 has been the backbone of our dynamic fleet for many years and we are excited to leverage the superior capabilities of the new 737 MAX. The improved economics and efficiency as well as the passenger pleasing features of the MAX will enable us to strengthen our position as India's premier airline."

Virgin name new CEO

Shai Weiss will take over the top job at Virgin Atlantic when the current boss Craig Kreeger retires at the end of the year.

Shai Weiss started at Virgin Atlantic in 2012 and took up his current role as Cheif Commercial in January 2017. The airline confirmed the move this week as well as announcing its new corporate strategy, named Velocity that will see its partners Delta Air Lines and the Air France-KLM Group taking greater ownership of Virgin and at the heart of the UK based carrier future.

"As we embark on Velocity, I consider this to be the ideal time to pass the leadership baton to Shai and for me to begin a new chapter," Craig Kreeger said.

The airlines' founder, Richard Branson said Craig Kreeger had done a "fantastic job" during the five years of his tenure at the top of Virgin Atlantic. "He has focused our people on providing the best customer service by refreshing our onboard experience, bringing in new planes and bringing us closer to our partner Delta," Branson stated. 

Peter Norris, Chairman of Virgin Atlantic looked forward and said that he believed Shai Weiss had "an unwavering commitment to excellence and a relentless ability to challenge the status quo".

The UK airline also recently announced it would start a service to Los Angeles from Manchester from 22nd May 2019 on a 287-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft. 

Happy birthday WestJet Encore.............

It seems like only last week we were getting messages out of WestJet's Calgary office that they were starting a new regional airline with two Bombardier Q400 aircraft. In fact, that was back in June 2013 and the airline was called, WestJet Encore, which actually started operations on 24th June in 2013!

To celebrate five years of service the company is offering some special fares, or a birthday sale if you wish, passengers can book now using promo code E52VZ30 that will give them up to 20 percent off Econo base fares between 20 select destinations in Canada and anywhere WestJet flies. Travellers can take advantage of savings by booking by June 25, 2018 (9:59 p.m. MDT) for travel between September 5 and December 15, 2018. This offer is valid on WestJet flights between 20 Canadian airports and anywhere WestJet flies including Brandon, Nanaimo, Deer Lake, Fredericton, Kamloops, Fort McMurray, Quebec City, Moncton, Comox, Thunder Bay, Grand Prairie, Gander, Sydney, Sudbury, Fort St. John, Prince George, Terrace, London (ON), Penticton and Yellow Knife. Blackout dates and other restrictions apply.

Since it started with just the two Q400's the airline offshoot of WestJet has operated more than 300,000 flights and has expanded its fleet to 47 Q400's 

Swoop swoops in for first flight.

The new ultra-low-cost-carrier Swoop has launched its flying programme with its first flight from Hamilton to Abbotsford which was warmly greeted with a water cannon salute.

The airline also celebrated another amazing milestone of already reaching 100,000 tickets sold, which is quite amazing. The airline is flying new 189-seat Boeing 737-800NGs of which it currently has two, but is expected to increase fleet size to 10 aircraft by the end of 2019.

 WestJet's Swoop will mainly operate domestic flights in Canada and routes include the following destinations Abbotsford, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Halifax as it starts, with more destinations coming online as it receives its new aircraft. The carrier says its fares will be on average 30-40% less than the typical national airlines.

Wizz start seven new routes in Poland - the fasting growing airline in Europe continues its massive expansion plans

It's a very bust time for one of Europe's fasting growing airlines, Wizz Air, as they celebrate the commencement of seven new services from Warsaw to Podgorica and from Katowice to Faro, Málaga, Podgorica, Memmingen, Kharkiv and Porto. 

The new low fare routes provide countless opportunities for leisure and business travellers to plan their trip to these popular destinations with fares from just PLN 39/€9.99/£8.75

The first WIZZ flight took off from Poland, Katowice in May 2004 and since then the airline has continuously increased its network, offering now a total of 160 routes to 30 countries from 8 Polish airports. As part of its great expansion across Europe, the airline commences 7 new routes from Poland this week.

The airline continues to invest in its local base from Katowice by allocating the 2 additional modern Airbus A320, a further investment of $ 202 million, and creating new jobs with the company - 178 local crew in total (180 by the end of the year). The next Cabin crew recruitment session will be held in Katowice on 29 June.

Wizz Air comes to the rescue of passengers left in the lurch by British Airways to Tel Aviv

One of Europes fasting growing low-cost airlines, Wizz Air has come to the rescue of those passengers of British Airways who had their cheap tickets cancelled simply because the airline cocked up and sold them too cheaply.

Wizz Air UK has offered special fares to the BA customers whose flights to Tel Aviv were cancelled by the airline because of a pricing error.  The affected passengers can take advantage of a special return fare with Wizz Air, the largest international airline operating at Tel Aviv, of GBP 80* one way or GBP160* return.  The fares are for travel up to Wednesday 18 July 2018 and are subject to availability on each flight.  Bookings can be made on https://wizzair.com/#/rescue until Sunday 25 June 2018. Customers will need to provide evidence of the cancelled BA booking.

Air Malta to start flights to Kiev

Air Malta has obtained sales assistance in the Ukraine with new representation by Discover the World in conjunction with the new weekly flight from Malta to Kiev beginning this June.

The airline of the lovely, friendly and picturesque Maltese Islands has been in service since April 1974 and currently, operates a fleet of 10 Airbus A320/219 aircraft, including the new A320neo.  It provides an essential service connecting Malta to 36 scheduled destinations in Europe, North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean.  Air Malta offers an additional 150 destinations through codeshare agreements with a number of quality airlines. The airline carries 1.8 million passengers every year, with approximately 80 percent coming to Maltese Islands for leisure purposes.   

Delta orders 20 new CRJ900 Aircraft with Atmosphere cabins

Canadian manufacturer Bombardier and American air carrier Delta Air Lines confirmed yesterday the long-awaited order of 20 CRJ900 aircraft – which makes them the launch operator of the new ATMOSPHÈRE cabin on the CRJ Series regional jets.

Based on the list price for the CRJ900 aircraft, the firm order is valued at approximately $961 million!

“We are thrilled that Delta continues to select the CRJ Series as the airline looks into the future growth of its regional operations,” Fred Cromer, president, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft said of the deal worth US$961 million at list prices. “Together with Delta, we have driven the development of regional aviation in the U.S., and we are looking forward to further enhancing regional air travel with the launch of the new ATMOSPHÈRE cabin with our long-standing and esteemed customer,” he added.

The Trump supporting Delta Air Lines is a long-standing customer of the Bombardier CRJ  and CSeries aircraft and expects to take delivery of the first of the new jets towards the end of this year.

The airline plans to configure the aircraft in a comfortable two-class regional jet configuration with 70 seats featuring the new ATMOSPHÈRE cabin.   This new cabin offering from Bombardier is said to set a new standard of passenger experience in the regional jet market segment. Key features of the new interior are comprised of larger passenger living space, wheel-first roller bag capability, more spacious lavatory, increased cabin connectivity options, all integrated in a contemporary design and material choices. In fact, the ATMOSPHÈRE cabin design allows each passenger to carry and store an “oversized” roller bag within the aircraft cabin bins which minimizes the need to check bags at the counter or the gate.