flydubai to move Kiev ops from Sikorsky to Boryspil in 4Q18

Air Arabia Abu Dhabi (3L, Abu Dhabi Int'l) will commence operations on July 14 using a pair of A320-200s initially. An airline statement said the start-up's inaugural route will be a 3x weekly service from Abu Dhabi Int'l to Alexandria Borg el Arab followed by a weekly service to Sohag the day after.

“In these extraordinary times, it gives us great pride to launch Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, the capital’s first low-cost carrier," Tony Douglas, Group Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Aviation Group, said. "This joint venture between Etihad and Air Arabia will offer greater convenience and direct access to the UAE’s thriving capital for new markets worldwide, beginning with two key Egyptian routes, and expanding in time."

Air Arabia Abu Dhabi is the fourth AOC in the Air Arabia stable of carriers after Air Arabia (G9, Sharjah), Air Arabia Egypt (E5, Alexandria Borg el Arab), and Air Arabia Maroc (3O, Casablanca Int'l). With the lifting of COVID-19 restrictive measures around the world, all three...

Emirates (EK, Dubai Int'l) is planning to "redefine" its business model in the post-COVID world and will focus more on bringing travellers into Dubai rather than relying heavily on the connecting traffic via its hub at Dubai Int'l, Chief Operating Officer Adel al Redha told Reuters.

"Surely what used to work for us in the past is not going to work for us going forward," al Redha said.

He underlined that the airline would start deploying smaller aircraft in 2023 when deliveries of its thirty firm-ordered B787-9s from Boeing are due to commence. This, as well as closer cooperation with narrowbody-operating sister carrier flydubai (FZ, Dubai Int'l), will give the airline more flexibility.

"Going forward, we cannot sustain long-term operating on that kind of fleet. We need to inject the smaller type," al Redha said.

The COO underlined that not all of Emirates' 114 A380-800s will be reactivated in the short-term, although he did not give any further details about the timeline for the type's redeployment. He underlined...

flydubai (FZ, Dubai Int'l) has announced that it will resume scheduled operations from Dubai Int'l, initially to 24 destinations in Europe, Africa, and Asia, on July 7, 2020.

The airline said that its initial network would cover services to:

• Addis Ababa;
• Alexandria Borg el Arab;
• Almaty;
• Amman Queen Alia;
• Baku;
• Beirut;
• Belgrade;
• Bucharest Otopeni;
• Dubrovnik;
• Isfahan Int'l;
• Juba;
• Kabul;
• Khartoum;
• Kyiv Boryspil;
• Kraków;
• Lar Larestan;
• Nur-Sultan Nazarbayev;
• Prague Václav Havel;
• Sarajevo;
• Shiraz;
• Sofia;
• Tbilisi;
• Tehran Imam Khomeini;
• Yerevan.

"We will continuously add destinations and flight frequencies to the network, and we expect this to increase to 66 destinations over the course of the summer. This, of course, will be dependent on countries being able to open up and accept international travel," Chief Commercial Officer Hamad Obaidalla said....

Emirates (EK, Dubai Int'l) laid off at least 600 pilots, predominantly first officers certified on the A380-800 type, in a round of group redundancies on June 9, Moneycontrol has reported.

According to ch-aviation sources, the airline also laid off as many as 2,400 cabin crew members.

Reuters' sources indicated that cuts could affect nearly a third of the carrier's workforce, which includes 4,300 pilots and 22,000 cabin crew.

The airline did not confirm the size of the cuts but admitted it was "right-sizing" its personnel.

"Given the significant impact that the pandemic has had on our business, we simply cannot sustain excess resources and have to right-size our workforce in line with our reduced operations," a spokesperson told Reuters.

Emirates added that it was doing "everything possible" to preserve as many jobs as possible.

Meanwhile, the carrier's sister firm flydubai (FZ, Dubai Int'l) has also confirmed that it would cut up to 800 jobs, including 200 pilots, as it seeks to downsize its B737-800 fleet.