World first for Oman
Oman Air, the national carrier of Oman, became the first airline in the world to offer the full connectivity suite (mobile onair and internet onair) on its commercial widebody aircraft when began the roll-out of full mobile phone and wi-fi connectivity across its brand new Airbus A330 fleet last month.
The move gives passengers in first, business and economy classes the opportunity to make and receive mobile phone calls, SMS, use email and the internet and keep up to date with social networking media, such as Facebook and Twitter.
Code-share agreement
In line with a newly established partnership between Turkish Airlines and Spanair, both airlines are now able to share codes on designated flights. The code-share agreement enables Turkish Airlines to use its code, ‘TK’, on domestic flights operated by Spanair.
Likewise, on Turkish Airlines’ flights to Barcelona, Madrid and Ankara, Spanair can use its code, ‘JK’.
Domestic passengers in Spain will now be able to connect to Turkish Airlines’ network of 119 international and 37 domestic routes including destinations in Turkey, Europe, North America, South America, Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East.
Interline deal for Safi
Safi Airways, the leading international carrier from Afghanistan, has announced interline agreements between Safi Airways and Lufthansa, United Airlines, Emirates and Qatar Airways. The agreements allow passengers travelling to and from Kabul from international destinations served by the partners to benefit from reduced lead time and also enjoy single-fare tickets from all these network airlines which include the sector flown by Safi Airways.
The co-operation with United Airlines will be of special interest for US citizens who have to comply to the Fly America Act. The day flights from Kabul to Frankfurt with Safi Airways, which connect onto United flights to major US cities with just two-and-a-half connection time, are fulfilling the conditions of the Act.
Malaysia flights increased
Emirates Airline has added an extra daily connection between its home base of Dubai and the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, bringing the total number to 21 weekly, non-stop flights.
The additional flight, EK408, will depart Dubai daily at 2.40am arriving in Kuala Lumpur at 1.30pm and the return flight, EK409, will depart Kuala Lumpur at 9.45am the following day, to arrive in Dubai at 12.45pm.
New routes for Kingfisher
Kingfisher Airlines, India’s only five-star airline rated by Skytrax, has announced that the Indian government has granted it traffic rights to operate on seven new international routes.
The new return routes are New Delhi to London, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Dubai and Mumbai to Colombo, Bangkok and Dubai.
The flights on the New Delhi–London–New Delhi and New Delhi–Hong Kong–New Delhi routes will be operated using Airbus A330 aircraft while flights on the other routes will use the Airbus A320 family of aircraft.
The start dates for the launch of flights on these new routes will be announced at a later date.
Web check-in launched
Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, has launched web check-in and advanced seat selection.
Gulf Air passengers flying from Bahrain can now check in online at gulfair.com by selecting the check-in tab on the homepage 24 hours in advance and up to 90 minutes before the scheduled departure of their Gulf Air flight. They can also select a seat of their choice using the online interactive seat map, change their seat and print their boarding pass before arriving at the airport.