04.01.2022 - 16:55 UTC
Kuwait Airways (KU, Kuwait) has pulled its flights to Sri Lanka after general sales agents (GSAs) and local airline offices fell behind on paying out foreign exchange income to the airline, according to Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times.
The airline made no official announcement, nor was it immediately available for comment. However, flights between Kuwait and Colombo Int'l, the capital of Sri Lanka, are currently not bookable on the airline's website, nor are any Kuwait Airways flights scheduled to Colombo at present.
The airline had only resumed operations to Sri Lanka in September 2021.
Sources in the know told the Daily Financial Times that Kuwait Airways’ “yields were also too low in comparison with the expense of operating the flight to Sri Lanka” where landing costs were deemed high.
The withdrawal is expected to last an extended period of time and will mostly affect migrant worker traffic from Sri Lanka to the Middle East.
This comes amid news reports from Sri Lanka that the country’s finance ministry has been asked to...
07.12.2021 - 15:25 UTC
The Zimbabwean government has allocated ZWL1.5 billion Zimbabwean dollars (USD4.1 million at RBZ rate) for the recapitalisation of Air Zimbabwe (UM, Harare Int'l), to be used towards the acquisition of new aircraft, route expansion, digitalisation, and a lean workforce.
This was disclosed by Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube during his 2022 national budget speech on November 25. He said the recapitalisation was in support of the national airline’s six-year strategic turn-around plan.
“Air Zimbabwe is now a commercially viable company following the conclusion of the scheme of reconstruction in June 2021. This was achieved after approval by Cabinet of the national airline’s debt assumption and the settlement of its domestic debt and part of its foreign debt,” Ncube said. As reported previously, Harare had approved the airline's reconstruction scheme in May 2021. The carrier's liabilities had amounted to USD30 million in foreign debt and ZWL349 million (USD873,000) in local exposure. Domestic creditors were actually owed USD349 million, but their debts were converted to new Zimbabwe dollars at the official 1:1 rate.
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07.12.2021 - 04:07 UTC
The Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) is to review the public services obligation agreement (PSO) to improve the current services provided by Malaysia Airlines subsidiary MASwings (MY, Kota Kinabalu) on rural routes in Sabah and Sarawak, the Malaysian states on the Indonesian island of Borneo, according to Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
Speaking at the formal opening ceremony of the new MYR450 million ringgit (USD106 million) Mukah Airport in Sarawak on December 4, Ismail Sabri said this would include reviewing the objective of rural air services (RAS), the financial implications involved, routes and frequency of RAS flights, fares, aircraft utilisation on routes, and the subsidy distribution mechanism for users of the services, reported the Straits Times. "These are among the efforts undertaken by the government to ensure the people, especially those residing in the rural areas, can have access to the best services," he said.
He said MASwings had started providing rural air services in Sarawak and Sabah in 2008, through a RAS agreement signed on July 3, 2008. A new...
29.10.2021 - 00:39 UTC
Air Incheon (KJ, Seoul Incheon) has transitioned to an all-B737NG fleet following the retirement of its last B737-400(SF) in late September.
HL8271 (msn 24912), a 30.4-year-old aircraft originally delivered in a passenger configuration to Malaysia Airlines in 1991, was last tracked operating flights in South Korea on September 28, 2021. Air Incheon had used the freighter since 2013 and was its first post-conversion operator. Over the course of October 2-5, 2021, the aircraft was ferried to the United States. It has been acquired by Frontera Flight Holdings and was re-registered as N73FF on October 14, 2021. It is currently in storage at Laredo and will be operated by Mexico's Aeronaves TSM, a sister company of Frontera.
The Korean cargo carrier operated another B737-400(F) but retired it in 2019, the ch-aviation fleets history module shows.
Air Incheon has replaced the retired -400(SF) with its third B737-800(SF), HL8503 (msn 28535). The 21.8-year-old aircraft, on lease from Vx Capital Partners, was delivered to Seoul Incheon on October...
