Silver Airways stars new nonstop service between Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach

The little boutique style airline based in Florida, Silver Airways recently started a new service between Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach. The services makes it easier for passengers to connect the sensational Daytona Beach, the speed and excitement of the Daytona International Speedway, the Ponce Inlet lighthouse and the beautiful sea turtles of New Smyrna Beach with Fort Lauderdale, South Florida, the Keys, the family islands of the Bahamas and beyond.

Hilton Expands Footprint in Myanmar with Signing of New Hotel in Yangon

Partnership with Crown Advanced Construction Co. Ltd to see 308-key Hilton Times City Yangon open in 2022

Last week hotel giant Hilton announced the signing of a management agreement with Myanmar partners Crown Advanced Construction Co. Ltd to operate a 308-key hotel near downtown Yangon, Myanmar. Set to launch under its flagship Hilton Hotels and Resorts brand, Hilton Times City Yangon marks the company’s continual expansion in Myanmar and will be its first hotel in the Myanmar city when it opens in 2022.

Moxy Hotels Expands in the Southeastern U.S. with Six Bold New Expected Openings

Photo Moxy Hotels / WebWire

Moxy Hotels, Marriott International’s experiential hotel brand, is expanding in the Southeastern U.S. with the recent opening of Moxy Chattanooga Downtown and the anticipated openings of Moxy Atlanta Midtown, Moxy Memphis Downtown, Moxy Nashville Vanderbilt at Hillsboro Village, Moxy Nashville Downtown and Moxy Louisville. Moxy Chattanooga Downtown was the first to open in November, with the remaining openings expected to follow in 2019.

With 35+ hotels currently open in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, Moxy Hotels boldly reinvents the hotel experience. The brand appeals to the young and the young at heart and encourages its guests to play on. Moxy offers a new way of travelling in which smaller is concentration, not reduction – where affordability is not a sacrifice of style, nor a loss of comfort.

Allegiant Announces Aircraft Base in Grand Rapids

State and local officials joined executives from Allegiant recently as the company announced plans to establish a two-aircraft base at Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Allegiant's growth plans in the state include creating at least 66 new, high-wage jobs.  As part of today's presentation, the company also announced service to two new cities – Nashville, Tennessee and Savannah, Georgia.

'The Global Era' - WestJet gets its first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

The handover of the first 787 for WestJet  Photo Boeing

One of Canada's leading airlines, WestJet has entered into what it calls 'the global era' with the arrival of the carriers first widebody Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

The aircraft has been named in honour of the airline's chairman and founder, Clive Beddoe and will be based at the airline's hometown base of Calgary.

"Today's delivery marks a new chapter for WestJet," said Ed Sims, WestJet President and CEO. "Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is one of the most technologically advanced aircraft ever flown and is the perfect platform for our transition to a global network carrier. We look forward to bringing Canadians to the world and the world to Canada in comfort and style."

Value Airline of the Year is ............................Spirit Airlines

Top Airline Industry Award from Air Transport World

The accolades keep coming for Spirit Airlines as the company celebrates a new honour, earning the title of Air Transport World’s Value Airline of the Year. Air Transport World (ATW), part of the Aviation Week Network, recognized Spirt as part of its 2019 Airline Industry Award Winners. Organizers credit Spirit’s industry-leading on-time and baggage delivery performance, the installation of high-speed Wi-Fi to its entire fleet, and the company’s ability to provide low fares, while also investing in the Guest experience.

8 new Air France destinations this summer

For the upcoming peak summer season, in July and August, Air France will for the first time be operating flights to Heraklion (Crete, Greece), Palermo (Sicily, Italy), Olbia* (Sardinia, Italy) and Split (Croatia) on departure from Paris-Charles de Gaulle. 

4 new destinations on departure from Paris-Charles de Gaulle for the 2019 summer season

4 destinations in continuation of the 2018 summer season on departure from Paris-Charles de Gaulle

Construction begins on Airbus’ U.S. A220 Manufacturing Facility

Airbus’ manufacturing growth in the United States advanced another step today in Mobile, Alabama, as construction of the company’s A220 Manufacturing Facility officially launched with a groundbreaking ceremony. The assembly line will satisfy the strong and growing U.S. demand for the A220 aircraft, the newest offering in Airbus’ commercial aircraft product line.

Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus, and Guillaume Faury, President Airbus Commercial Aircraft, led the celebration and welcomed approximately 700 attendees including Airbus and other industry executives, Airbus manufacturing employees, state and national dignitaries, and local community leaders.

Swoop completes its Mexico route launches

Today Swoop celebrates its final of four inaugural flights to Mexico this January. Flight WO604 departs from Abbotsford International Airport (YXX) at 11:00 a.m. PST and arrives at Mazatlán International Airport (MZT) at 4:19 p.m. PST.

Swoop adds Mazatlán to its list of 

flights inaugurated this month

CDB Aviation Reports Record Activity and Growth in 2018, Executing Transactions for 107 Aircraft

CDB Aviation, a wholly owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co., Limited (“CDB Leasing”), announced today a record year for 2018, in which the company executed transactions involving 107 aircraft, rapidly accelerating business to support the continued growth of its industry-leading leasing platform.

TAP receives two more A330-900neo aircraft

Last year in December the Portuguese national carrier, TAP became the first airline in the world to offer its clients unbeatable economic features, greater range and efficiency and the new Airspace cabin on its first Airbus A330-900neo.

This article from Jason Shaw was first published on Aerotime.aero here 

Gatwick long-haul traffic grows in December as 46.1m passengers travel through in 2018

 Number of passengers travelling on long-haul flights from Gatwick last month up +6.1 year-on-year

Long-haul growth drives 2018 cargo surge, 

+16.1% across the year 

A record 46.1m passengers travelled 

through the airport in 2018

London Gatwick’s long-haul routes saw year-on-year growth of +6.1% in December, as a rising number of passengers opted to spend the festive season further afield. The latest figures from the airport on the Surrey / Sussex border are impressive considering the airfield was closed for a number of hours during December after drones were spotted in the flight path and over the runway. 

In the same month that a vital new long-haul connection to Shanghai with China Eastern was launched, routes to the US and Canada continued to thrive, +10.9% overall. Las Vegas proved a particularly popular December holiday option, +50.3% year-on-year.

Routes to Florida favourites Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando were also up +50.1%, +30.7% and +19.2% respectively. New low-cost Norwegian routes to Miami, Rio de Janeiro and San Francisco – all launching in March – will further extend Gatwick’s network of over 60 long-haul routes.

Closer ties between Emirates and flydubai

The strategic partnership between Dubai’s two airlines, Emirates and flydubai, continues to open up the world for travellers since its launch 14 months ago, and is set to grow even further in 2019 with new codeshare destinations to be added.

The partnership, which came into effect at the end of October 2017, has since delivered a number of benefits to both airlines’ customers, such as offering greater global connectivity through more destination choices, flexibility with flight options when planning trips, one integrated loyalty programme, and the convenience of travelling on a single ticket with seamless point to point baggage handling.

Expanded global connectivity for travellers since 

the start of partnership 14 months ago

Exciting new destinations added 

with more to come

Better and quicker connections

One loyalty programme

Wall Street Journal names Delta best U.S. Airline of 2018

Delta A220  photo Delta

For the second year in a row, Delta

has been named the top U.S. airline

 in the WSJ's Middle Seat Scorecard

 ranking of the Best and Worst U.S. Airlines.

Veteran airline reporter Scott McCartney of the Wall Street Journal highlighted Tuesday that Delta continues to find ways to improve during weather-driven irregular operations—of which there were many in 2018— further separating it from competitors.

Some Delta competitors pointed to tough weather conditions and other factors to explain lacklustre operational performance, while Delta was touted for using these challenges to make strategic improvements to irregular operations preparedness. 

More than 75 million people flew with Turkish Airlines last year

Turkish Airlines Airbus             Photo Turkish Airlines

One of the globes fast-growing international air carriers, Turkish Airlines, has released its figures both for December 2018 and the whole year, which revealed the airline flew more than 75 million people during 2018.

For December 2018 the carrier reached an impressive 80.2% load factor and the total number of people that flew with them was 5.5million, up 1% on December 2017's total.  Growth in the number of passengers, revenue per kilometre and load factor, is an important indicator of the continued growth the airline has experienced in recent times, it is also a clear indicator that Turkish Airlines is becoming a truly global carrier. 

American Congratulates DFW International Airport

American Airlines has sent congratulations to its largest hub, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), on being named Airport of the Year today by Air Transport World (ATW), the leading monthly magazine for the global airline industry. The airport joined an impressive list of past winners around the world to receive the honour.

In recognizing DFW, ATW noted the airport’s continued record growth and traveller enhancements that include modernized facilities, updated amenities, added concessions and the opening of the largest duty-free store in the Western hemisphere.    

Air Asia halts system upgrade

AirAsia Airbus A320neo                   Photo Air Asia

The low-cost airline Air Asia has cancelled a proposed system upgrade to its reservations processes that would have taken down all platforms for a number of hours this weekend.

As we reported on Monday, the company had planned to take down all possible routes to make reservations on its flights as well as kiosk and online check-in from 2.00pm on Saturday, 19 January 2019 (GMT +8) to 3.00am on Sunday, 20 January 2019 on airasia.com.

"This is a rather long period of unserviceability across all platforms for a major company, " Anders Axelsen, an IT Infatratucture advisor told Air101 "Most firms utilise a separate back-up or secondary system to mitigate disruption. Alternatively, they instigate changes at one delivery output or area at a time." he said, indicating that at least one avenue for passengers to make reservations or changes would remain operational. 

Now, AirAsia says "AirAsia will postpone a planned upgrade of its Navitaire New Skies reservation system due to unforeseen circumstances. - All systems will function as normal this weekend, and guests will be able to book flights, check in and manage their bookings as usual."  The airline also said it would carry out the upgrade at a later date, yet to be advised. 

ANA to test autonomous bus at Haneda Airport

All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan's largest and 5-star airline for six consecutive years, is beginning the second stage of testing for an autonomous, driverless bus at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

ANA is conducting these trials with Aichi Steel, SB Drive Corp., Advanced Smart Mobility Co., Ltd., NIPPO CORPORATION, and NEC Corporation. Together, these companies will begin testing the autonomous bus today in a series of trials running through Jan. 25, 2019. The test will be conducted with an autonomous driving technique equivalent to Level 3*1 and will be limited to the restricted area of Haneda Airport where aircraft and cargo vehicles are located. If these trials are successful, ANA aims to implement the driverless bus technology into the airport by 2020. 

*1 Level 3 means that the autonomous system is operating, but when the system is unable to respond correctly, a human driver in the vehicle can take over the driving.

"At ANA, we are constantly striving to move the industry forward," Shigeru Hattori, Senior Vice President of ANA. "This autonomous bus will help ease the flow of traffic in the airport and help enhance the traveling experience for passengers. In addition to boosting convenience, the autonomous bus will also allow for safer travel within the airport and we will continue the tests until the technology reaches our high safety grade."

The first phase of testing was conducted in February 2018 in partnership with SB Drive Corp. In addition to ANA’s trials at Haneda this time, testing will also take place at Narita, Sendai, and Nagoya airports by other companies.

Alaska Airlines names three vice presidents

Photo Alaska Airlines

The Alaska Airlines board of directors has elected three new company officers: Constance von Muehlen, senior vice president of maintenance and engineering; Ron Calvin, vice president of inflight; and Jenny Wetzel, vice president of labour relations.

Beginning Jan. 21, von Muehlen will lead Alaska's maintenance and engineering employees, and all safety, compliance and operational performance of the airline's mainline Boeing and Airbus fleet. Most recently, von Muehlen led Horizon Air's operational performance strategy as the airline's chief operating officer, where she oversaw the customer service, inflight, pilot, maintenance and system operations control teams. Prior to Horizon, von Muehlen was Alaska's managing director of airframe, engine and component maintenance.

More flights on offer from Porto says TAP Air Portugal

Photo TAP

TAP Air Portugal's new destinations from Porto are  Brussels, Lyon and Munich are now on sale thr airline confirmed this week.

Flights to the capital of Belgium, beautiful Brussels, begin on 1st July this year with not one, but two daily flights. Departures from Porto are at 0700 and 1735, arriving in Brussels at 1030 and 2105 respectively.

TAP operations to Lyon, France and Munich, Germany, will begin on 1st September 2019. Flights to Lyon will be twice daily: departure from Porto at 0630 and arrival in Lyon at 0935 and departure from Porto at 1830 and arrival in the French city at 2135.

For Munich, TAP operations will begin with a daily flight departing from Porto at 12:15 and arriving in the German city at 1555 p.m.