flydubai to move Kiev ops from Sikorsky to Boryspil in 4Q18 ch-aviation PRO exclusive

Turkish Airlines (TK, Istanbul Atatürk) resumed services from Istanbul Atatürk to Sulaymaniyah on January 26, 2019, following a 16-month-long ban imposed by the Ankara government, Anadolu news agency has reported.

According to Flightradar24 ADS-B data, the maiden flight to the airport in the semi-autonomous Kurdish north of Iraq was operated with A321-200 TC-JNP (msn 7516). The service is now scheduled as 7x weekly using a mix of A319-100, B737-800 and A321-200 equipment.

The Head of the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority Ali Khalil Ibrahim said that Iraqi Airways (IA, Baghdad) will also shortly resume its services from Sulaymaniyah to Istanbul.

The Turkish flag carrier suspended the service on September 29, 2017, after Baghdad shut off Kurdistan's international flight connectivity following its unilateral independence referendum. Iraq restored international service to both Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in March 2018 but Turkey has only done so for the former airport.

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Sulaymaniyah, besides Iraqi Airways, sees scheduled regional services by Qatar Airways, Caspian Airlines, flydubai...

Lion Air (JT, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) has threatened to cancel its outstanding order for 188 Boeing B737 MAX Family aircraft over what the Indonesian LCC said was unfair treatment in the wake of October 29 crash near Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta, Bloomberg has reported.

"I feel betrayed. I'm preparing documents to propose cancellations. Everything is still under consideration now," co-founder Rusdi Kirana said.

Kirana did not disclose why exactly he felt Lion Air was mistreated by the American manufacturer. After the crash in October, the first ever hull loss of a B737-8, it surfaced that Boeing did not inform its customers nor included information about the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) in its manuals, a system devised to assist in keeping the aircraft stable but which can also confuse pilots and cause unprompted pitch variations.

The crash also put in doubt safety oversight procedures at Lion Air.

"Ethically, nobody should give their opinion to the preliminary report. I'm one of their biggest buyers. Right now we are in a difficult situation. As a partner,...