The number of Australians employed by the Emirates Group is set to top 5,000 as the airline prepares to open a service centre in Adelaide, Emirates says. Australians make up the fourth largest national group among the 130 nationalities working as Emirates air crew, according to the carrier. In all, Emirates Airline and Group (including
Qantas will allow frequent flyers to upgrade their seats at the gate following a trial of the new system launched in May. Previously, processing of upgrade requests stopped a few hours before flight, meaning that any premium seats left vacant by last-minute cancellations, no-shows or missed connections remained empty. Qantas Loyalty chief Lesley Grant said
China Southern Airlines will increase its flights connecting Australia and the UK from three per week to daily, citing strong passenger demand months after Qantas scaled back services on the route. China Southern’s “Canton Route,” launched in June, connects Melbourne and Sydney to London Heathrow via China Southern’s hub in Guangzhou, with a connection time
Airbus has delivered the front fuselage for the first flyable A350 XWB test aircraft (MSN1) to the Final Assembly Line in Toulouse. The 21 metre long section, which arrived pre-equipped with its systems, will be mounted in a giant assembly jig where it will be joined to the centre and aft fuselage sections during the
Dutch planemaker Fokker placed 23 aircraft during the first half of 2012, including six to Australian airlines, the company has reported. Australian FIFO carriers Network Aviation and Alliance ordered five Fokker 100 jetliners and one Fokker 50, respectively. Network, a Qantas subsidiary, operates a current fleet of seven Fokker 100s, while Alliance operates five Fokker
Qantas will add more than 1700 seats per week on services between Melbourne and Tasmania and increase capacity to Canberra beginning later this year, the airline announced today. The changes, which go into effect from October 29, include an increase from two to three daily flights between Melbourne and Hobart and five extra weekly flights
