Cebu Pacific is set to commence direct flight from the beautiful coastal town of Puerto Princesa Palawan to Hong Kong. This is a milestone for the budget carrier as the first airline to fly directly between the two cities. This new route will afford tourist and holiday makers the opportunity to fly directly to the island without having the need to connect via Manila or Cebu. The new Palawan to Hong Kong Route will officially commence on the 17th of November, 2019. Tickets for the inaugural flight have since gone on sale. Furthermore as part of the airline route expansion, another international route is set to commence from Clark International Airport to Guangzhou China. This will also make the carrier the first airline in the Philippines to link the two cities.The inaugural Clark to Guangzhou flight will commence on the 11th November, 2019. In a statement to mark the occasion, the Vice President Commercial of the airline Alex Reyes noted that “With direct air service between Cl...

RwandAir, has been named this year’s most promising airline in the world by the Arabian Travel Awards.This marks the second time in a row that the airline will scoop this prestigious award. The award ceremony which was held in Dubai United Arab Emirates on Friday 25th October, 2019 was well attended by key players in the aviation and travel industry at large. To mark the occasion, RwandAir’s Chief Executive Officer Yvonne Manzi Makolo stated that "as a fast growing airline, the award encourages us to work harder and continuously improve on our service offering.” RwandAir continue to grow from strength to strength despite mitigating operational challenges. This year alone the airline launched flights to DR Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, the Chinese commercial hub of Guangzhou, and the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. The Government of Rwanda also performed the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of a massive new international airport in Kigali. This is a bold move by the ...

Airbus has launched an extensive tour of the Pacific region to showcase the  A220 , its latest family member. The aircraft being used for the tour is an  A220-300  leased from Latvia’s airBaltic, which will visit nine destinations in seven countries. These will include three stops in Asia on the return journey to Europe. The first stop of the tour will be the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, home to the region’s A220 launch customer Air Vanuatu. The aircraft will then visit Australia (Sydney and Brisbane), New Zealand (Auckland), New Caledonia (Noumea) and Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby). On the way back to Europe, the aircraft will stop in Cambodia (Phnom Penh) and India (Bangalore and New Delhi). Static displays are planned at each stop, as well as demonstration flights for airline executives and other invited guests. The A220 is the only new design aircraft in the 100-150 seat market and incorporates state-of-the-art technologies, the latest aerodynami...

Kenya Airways (KQ) has introduced a new seat product- Economy Comfort, which is set to enhance customer comfort and experience. Economy Comfort features increased seat pitch of 9cm more than the average Economy Class seats. The Economy Comfort seats are located in the first three rows of Economy Class hence availing 27 seats per aircraft. Additionally, passengers traveling in these seats will enjoy more benefits such as a reserved overhead cabin for their carry-on luggage, special inflight products and priority disembarking from the aircraft. KQ has been implementing different strategies to boost its revenues and retain a competitive edge in the market all geared towards a turnaround of the business. The product offering will support the airline’s network expansion initiatives. KQ now has more long-haul routes on its network such as New York, Rome and Geneva in addition to Amsterdam, London, Paris, Bangkok, and Guangzhou. “Due to the high demand for Extra Legroom Seats in...

An Emirates aircraft, with its distinctive livery featuring a stylised version of the UAE’s national flag on the tailfin and the bold gold lettering in Emirates’ very own typeface, is instantly recognisable. But Emirates also has a massive fleet of special liveries featuring large decals that cover huge sections of the fuselage. The decals have often been used to celebrate Emirates’ sponsorship of major global sports teams – like the Real Madrid and Arsenal liveries or a special ICC Cricket World Cup decal.  These flying billboards have also been used to raise awareness of fantastic causes such as the United for Wildlife decal which featured seven endangered species to highlight the scrouge of the illegal wildlife trade. We’ve also seen a special Year of Zayed decal to celebrate the UAE’s founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and 40 of Emirates’ fleet are currently flying the around the world with huge Dubai Expo 2020 liveries. Emirates released s...

Korean Air will launch new flights to Clark, the Philippines, and Nanjing, China, on October 27, and Zhangjiajie and Hangzhou, China, on October 28. From October 27, Korean Air will operate the Incheon-Clark route seven times a week, Incheon-Nanjing route four times a week, and from October 28, the airline will operate the Incheon-Zhangjiajie route three times a week and Incheon-Hangzhou route twice a week. There have been an increase in the number of tourist from Korea and China to the Philippines. This new route to Clark is a direct response to the huge influx of Korean tourist and also a mean of expansion of route network. Clark is a resort town on the central island of Luzon in the Philippines, which is about two hours by land north of Manila, the capital city. The Puning Hot Springs and Subic Beach are well-known tourist destinations, and demand for tourism has been rising steadily recently. Nanjing, China, is well-known as the center of electronics, petrochemical and a...

Two members of cabin crew working for South African Airways have been arrested in Hong Kong on suspicion of attempting to smuggle cocaine with a street value of nearly USD$3 million (HKD$23 million / R45 million) into the territory.  Officials from Hong Kong’s Customs and Excise department launched what appears to be an intelligence-led operation last week which resulted in the seizure of 18.3 kilograms of Cocaine. See picture below. The special operation, which was codenamed “Bullseye”, snared the two cabin crew members in what Hong Kong’s customs department is calling it’s largest drug trafficking case involving crew members in the last decade.  A spokesperson for the airline confirmed that two of its crew members had been arrested having worked separate flights from Johannesburg. “We confirm that two of our employees have been arrested in Hong Kong on suspicion of being in possession of drugs, the two employees were operating on two separate flights that were orig...

Emirates first Airbus A380 flight to the Egyptian capital Cairo landed in style on Wednesday, October 2. The A380 debut was given a ceremonial water-cannon salute as it touched down at Cairo International Airport. The Captain of the flight was by Egyptian Captain Hesham Essawy as part of the normal and tradition of Emirates in milestone events and UAE national first officer Abdullah Alyammahi. Recall Emirates only recently deployed the A380 to Muscat Oman from Dubai.The world's shortest A380 scheduled commercial flight route. In a statement to mark the occasion, Adel Al Redha, Emirates Chief Operating Officer stated that "We hope to play a part in Egypt's success by supporting trade and tourism, and bringing the country closer to the world". Emirates plans to deploy the jumbo jet on the Dubai Cairo route on a scheduled basis. Picture credit: Emirates Airline.

Air France took delivery of its first Airbus A350 at the Airbus delivery centre in Toulouse (France). This new more environmentally-friendly latest-generation aircraft is equipped with 324 seats, with 34 in the Business cabin, 24 in Premium Economy and 266 in Economy.By 2025, the company will welcome a total of 28 Airbus A350-900s into its fleet. Air France’s Airbus A350 will make its first commercial flight on October 7. It will be gradually deployed to six destinations in 2020. In a statement to mark the occasion, Anne Rigail, CEO of Air France, “The arrival of a new aircraft is always a unique and highly emotional occasion in the life of an airline. Along with all Air France staff, we are extremely proud to welcome the Airbus A350, one of the world’s most efficient long-haul aircraft in terms of environmental, economic and operational performance. As from October 7, our customers will be able to discover optimal comfort and service on board these new cabins.The arrival of thi...