Air Arabia Enters Russian Cities: Moscow & Yekaterinburg

This month Air Arabia launched its first direct service to Russia, offering flights to Moscow which will soon be followed by flights to Yekaterinburg. These two destinations are the carrier’s fifth and sixth in the Commonwealth of Independent States and the sixty ninth overall. In addition, the Air Arabia website will feature an option for the Russian language – in addition to Arabic, English, French, Italian, German or Spanish.

Its interesting that Gulf carriers have such a strong emphasis on customers in Europe and East Europe. Will there be a time in the future when a carriers website offers Turkish, Armenian, Farsi and Urdu?

Oman Air wins Airline of the Year award at France's Laurier d'Or du Voyage d'Affaires

Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, has collected The Gold award at the International French Travel Market IFTM-Top Resa, France's primary international travel and tourism trade fair. The carrier won the Gold Award in the Airline of the Year category, ahead of Korean Airlines and Qatar Airways. 

The nomination comes after18 months in which the carrier has introduced new airbus A330 aircraft to its fleet. It has also been the first airline in the world to provide full mobile phone and wi-fi connectivity onboard its wide-body aircraft.

The carriers connectivity system utilises the Airbus ALNA V2 system, using Honeywell’s SwiftBroadband solution, via OnAir and Inmarsat and was recognised at the 4th Annual Aviation Business Awards.

Gulf Air, Panasonic Global Communications & Live TV

"We are bringing to you, for the first time in the world, a fully integrated broadband connectivity offering high speed internet, very fast mobile data speeds, voice over the internet (VOIP), streaming videos and the world's first in-flight live TV satellite stream across continents." said Gulf Air CEO Mr Samer Majali.

Gulf Air will have the Panasonic Global Communications Suite fitted across their entire fleet in the near future.

The new Global Communications Suite offers passengers access to internet, mobile phone services and live TV services. The carrier will offer two-way broadband speeds of up to 50 Mbps. The addition of live TV streaming  means travellers will be able to watch football matches while in the air and the service will also stream channels such as Euronews, BBC World News and BBC Arabic.

Mahan Air Expands Footprint Through Travelport, Galileo and Worldspan

Iran based Mahan Air has agreed to make its inventory available to Travelport agency users at rates equivalent to the carrier’s web fares. Hopefully in the near future major Online Travel Agents like Expedia and Opodo will add Mahan Air flights to their offerings. The carrier has upgraded its GDS connectivity on Galileo and Worldspan  to ensure real-time access to its fares and inventory. Other functionality upgrades include interactive seats, and real time schedule updates. As of 2011 the carrier handles 13% of all international flights from Iran and 8% of all domestic flights. Its good to hear of regional carriers expanding their accessibility and updating their overall booking systems, hopefully this effort extends into other areas like customer service and loyalty programs.

RAK Airways First Year

This month, RAK Airways is celebrating its first anniversary with a sales promotion. A limited number of tickets to all RAK Airways destinations will be on offer through a promotional fare available for booking from October 9th to October 10th and will be valid for travel through to March 28th 2012.

In addition RAK Airways will offer many customer friendly perks such as free shuttle service between other emirates and RAK International Airport and free parking for passengers who wish to drive to RAK International Airport.

Indian airlines & Gulf routes

In early 2011, India became Dubai’s biggest tourism source after 186,478 travellers from India stayed in hotels across Dubai through to March.

Passenger demand on routes that link the UAE and India is becoming more competitive – Emirates and Etihad have reduced Air India’s market share on these routes, while Air Arabia and flydubai have expanded their networks to include Hyderabad, Mumbai, Lucknow, Delhi and Chennai. 

The forthcoming launch of international flights by India’s fastest growing carrier, IndiGo, with plans to link 14 destinations across India to Dubai may present some competition for UAE based carriers. IndiGo features return flights to Dubai starting at US$222.

Qatar Airways, Inflight Connectivity & OnAir

Qatar Airways inflight connectivity infrastructure is set to take a big leap with the launch of the Airbus A350XWB in 2013, equipped with OnAir's full cabin communications. OnAir's connectivity services will be deployed throughout Qatar Airways' full 80-strong A350XWB fleet, adding to the the services on the carriers Airbus A320 and Boeing 787 fleets. 

OnAir's service allows passengers to use their mobile devices for calls, text messaging, email and mobile data and Internet access. It works similarly to international roaming, with usage costs being billed by the passenger's operator in the regular bill. OnAir's inflight telecoms services are currently in use with 12 airlines operating over five continents.