UAE Aviation News and Discussion Thread (Part 2)

[AltinD]

Anyway, with the real fiasco their Airport is turning out to be, I wouldn't be surprised if Qatar Airways would start loosing their apeal.

[killerk]

Originally Posted by AltinD

Anyway, with the real fiasco their Airport is turning out to be, I wouldn't be surprised if Qatar Airways would start loosing their apeal.

I keep hearing about this airport issue they are having!! What exactly is the problem? I mean for an airport that is almost complete to delay its opening by 1.5 yrs, it has to be something serious!

[EmiratesAirline380]

Originally Posted by AltinD

Shouldn't that be a Doha - Athine - New York? Plus, they are going agressively into investing in Greece, so it wuldn't be a problem to get the permit from the Greek Goverment

Yeah it should be, but they said they may even upgrade the flight to an A380 after a few months of service, so clearly they are trying to pick up passengers flying from Greece to the US. So this is different to EK's DXB - JFK via Hamburg a few years ago.

[firoz bharmal]

Kingfisher up 5% on news of Eithad close to buying stake

Shares of Kingfisher Air (KFA) rose 5% to Rs 15.67 on news that Etihad Airways is close to buying a 48 percent stake for a little over Rs 3000 crore, according to a Mumbai Mirror report.

A formal announcement of the deal could come around December 18, the birthday of KFA's flamboyant chairman, Vijay Mallya, the newspaper said, without saying how it got the information.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad will initially buy a 30 percent holding in December and a further 18 percent by next August, the paper said, adding Etihad and Kingfisher refused to deny or confirm the stake sale.

Battling stiff competition and high operating costs, Indian carriers have been in talks to sell minority stakes to foreign investors. Etihad was reported to be eyeing buying a stake in Jet Airways, India's largest airline by total passengers carried.

KFA, which Mallya launched with much fanfare in 2005, was once India's second-largest airline by domestic market share. For most of this year, the carrier has struggled to pay its staff and has not flown since early October due to protests and safety concerns. According to one estimate, it is saddled with roughly USD 2.5 billion in debt.

[Face81]

Originally Posted by EmiratesAirline380

I doubt they'd ever be given such rights to operate like that. Everyone knows, that if EK is allowed to do that, they will flood the market and eliminate the competition, but you never know... A few weeks ago, Qatar Airways said they plan to introduce a Athens - New York service.

EK already have 5th freedom rights in the US and Australia, so it's a lot closer to reality than you think

[m-man]

PointsPay, the innovative solution that enables members of Etihad Guest loyalty program to convert their miles into cash, has been a huge success since its launch at the end of September 2012.

PointsPay is exclusive to Etihad Guest and gives members the ability to spend miles at more than 30 million outlets worldwide.

Since the launch to more than 1.8 million Etihad Guest members worldwide, more than 163 million Etihad Guest Miles have been loaded onto PointsPay plastic and virtual cards worldwide.

More than 23 million miles have been redeemed and used to purchase goods from over 1,000 merchants, in 450 cities, in 60 different countries.

http://www.albawaba.com/business/pr/...es-cash-455666

[noir-dresses]

Any thoughts people on Delta's 49 percent buyout of Virgin Atlantic ? Rumors also floating around that Richard might sell the reamaining 51 percent shares to Air France one day.

Well looks like Etihad are going to have a serious partner in England finally. As we all know Etihad has formed a partnership with AF/KLM not so long ago who are Skyteam members. Also can see Etihad swinging Air Berlin from One World to Skyteam very soon. Even Alitalia is part of Skyteam, Etihad are connected in all of Europes biggest economies/aviation hubs now except Spain. Even Moscow is a go since Aeroflote is part of Skyteam.

Abu Dhabi is going to be a very, very serious transit hub one day, and lets not forget they're ties with Virgin Australia.

Kingfisher rumours, etc, etc

I have a feeling we're going to be seing Abu Dhabi's airport getting even more expansion soon with the direction this is going in.

The London region has the most amount of air traffic, with New York/Newark region in a close second. Once the UAE's airports are done building/expanding one day it's going to take over the number one spot for avaition traffic.

[AltinD]

Originally Posted by killerk

I keep hearing about this airport issue they are having!! What exactly is the problem? I mean for an airport that is almost complete to delay its opening by 1.5 yrs, it has to be something serious!

Total incompetence ignorance and petty arrogance by the people in charge. They even parted ways with the American consultant HOK. They don't even allow the contractors to do their work, and there are cases of undone work inside the terminals that involves the supplying of big steel sections and beams that have no way to be transported there because the shell is closed, then you have platform doors that are stuck and don't open because they were installed too early (or let say the rest of the work carried out for more then it should) and they don't let the contractors to enter and maintain them (ie making them operational)

I have a couple of friends who works in Doha now and they want to come back to Dubai, they see a big mess, rampant corruption and graft (apparently Abu Dhabi in the 90s with the Grand Mosque issues, was a breeze of fresh air in comparison)

[Parisian Girl]

Tuesday, 11 December 2012 10:49 | Written by Steven Thompson

Air Arabia is the first UAE carrier to operate scheduled flights to Sialkot, which becomes the airline’s 82nd destination worldwide.

The inaugural flight, G90567 will take-off from Sharjah International Airport on Thursday, January 10, 2013.

http://www.routes-news.com/news/item...ni-destination

[Parisian Girl]

By Andy Sambidge | Tuesday, 11 December 2012 5:56 PM

Emirates Airline said on Tuesday it will increase capacity on its Accra-Dubai route from January 1 due to growing passenger demand.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/emira...te-482427.html

[firoz bharmal]

So on 1stJan,2013 will be opening of C3..........

[AppleMac]

Flying the Dream - Seventy Five Years of "Open Skies" in Dubai

[Parisian Girl]

by Andy Sambidge on Dec 13, 2012

Emirates Airline said its fleet will expand by five aircraft this month as the carrier adds three new A380s and two new Boeing 777s.

http://www.arabiansupplychain.com/ar.../#.UMpCDW9RWbc

[m-man]

The World Travel Awards, also known as the 'Oscars of the travel industry', were given away on Wednesday at a ceremony in New Delhi.
It seems like the place to visit for either an ecotourism or food experience is Peru as the country received awards for "World's Leading Culinary

Among the winners in the airline categories, Etihad Airways was voted as the "World's Leading Airline" for the fourth consecutive year. The Abu-Dhabi based carrier also received the "World's Leading Airline First Class" award. 2012 has been a particularly good year for the carrier. At the Skytrax World Airline Awards in July 2012, the company received the "best first-class" title for the third consecutive year, as well as "best first-class seats" and "best first-class catering."

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Travel...e1-972653.aspx

[m-man]

Dec 14 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways is spoilt for choice in India: It could decide to be a white knight to billionaire Vijay Mallya's beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines. Or the Gulf carrier could snap up a smaller stake in Jet Airways, which controls a quarter of the domestic Indian market. The latter looks the better bet.

Etihad's arrival would have a reasonable chance of convincing the Indian government to reinstate Kingfisher's licence. However, any equity injection would probably have to go hand-in-hand with Kingfisher's creditors writing off some more of its $1 billion in long-term debt. That could be tricky: banks are nursing 70 percent mark-to-market losses on the shares they received as part of a debt-for-equity swap in March 2011. Though liquidation would be the worst outcome, lenders will still drive a hard bargain

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8BD00820121214

[luv2bebrown]

Originally Posted by AppleMac

Flying the Dream - Seventy Five Years of "Open Skies" in Dubai

Fantastic video.

[Elktest]

A380 Emirates A6-EEA acceptance flight

[Elktest]

today acceptance flight A6-EEE (MSN112) and last week A6-EED recheck flight (MSN111)

with luck on the next 2 weeks 3 delivery flights from A380 Emirates MSN108, MSN111, MSN112

[m-man]

Air Berlin has established its loyalty programme as a separate company, and sold 70 per cent of the business to Etihad Airways, with plans to “strengthen the existing partnership between Etihad Guest and Topbonus”.

The move will see the Topbonus programme partnering with PointsPay, an app allowing points and miles to be exchanged for cash. Etihad Guest was the first loyalty scheme to sign up to the PointsPay programme.

The value of the transaction is €200 million, consisting of a cash injection of €50 million, and debt financing of €150 million, with Air Berlin receiving €184 million as part of the transaction.

For more information visit etihadairways.com, airberlin.com.

Report by Mark Caswell

http://www.businesstraveller.com/new...e-in-air-berli


This is a very exotic investment.
I heard couple of local banks refused to fund this deal.

[m-man]

Etihad Airways said on Tuesday it has already recouped its initial $105m investment in Airberlin, 12 months after announcing their alliance.
The airlines said in a statement that they generated more than €100m in additional revenues so far, outstripping initial estimates.
The partners also said that the year-old alliance has also delivered more than 300,000 passengers onto each other's networks.
The companies added they have also begun implementing a detailed procurement strategy to bring multi-million dollar savings for both airlines.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/etiha...ed-483256.html

Looking forward to see how will this reflect on FYE2012 financial results.