Former Qantas executive Rob Gurney has been appointed to a senior role with the Flying Kangaroo’s alliance partner Emirates. Gurney will start on October 1 as Emirates’ divisional vice president for commercial operations in Australasia, the airline said in a statement on Friday. He replaces Bryan Banson, who is leaving the Dubai-headquartered carrier on October 10. “The
Etihad Airways has used the rollout ceremony of its first Airbus A380 to publicly debut the airline’s new livery. The first of 10 A380s on order, the aircraft (wearing the UAE registration A6-APA) was rolled out to guests and media at Airbus’s Hamburg, Germany facilities in a ceremony on Thursday evening. The A380 is yet to
Airbus’s re-engined development of its A320 narrowbody airliner, the A320neo (New Engine Option), made its first flight on Wednesday. The first A320neo development aircraft, F-WNEO MSN6101, took off on its maiden flight from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport at 1200 local time. Onboard were test pilots Philippe Pellerin and Etienne Miche de Malleray and flight test engineers Jean-Paul Lambert, Manfred Birnfeld and Sandra Bour-Schaeffer.
Airbus has presented a bullish outlook for air travel, forecasting more than 31,000 new aircraft deliveries will be needed over the next 20 years to meet demand. And carriers in the Asia-Pacific were expected to take the bulk of the orders in the next two decades as low-cost carriers continue their rapid expansion, particularly in
International passenger traffic posted a second straight month of weak growth in July as healthy increases in North America was offset by weakness in the South Pacific, Asia and South America. The monthly premium traffic monitor report from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said total traffic grew 2.6 per cent in July, compared with
Virgin Australia will introduce what it calls a business/first class seat on transcontinental routes from Perth as part of one of the most dramatic upgrades of cabin product even seen by an Australian airline. Unveiled in Singapore on Wednesday, Virgin chief executive John Borghetti promised the travelling public that the new offering, to be rolled
