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flydubai last week touched down in Milan Bergamo Airport (BGY) to a water cannon salute and warm welcome by the airport officials. This marks the start of flydubai’s five-times weekly operations to the city, growing its network in Italy to four points including Catania, Naples and Pisa. Flights to Milan Bergamo Airport (BGY) started on 10 March with a five-times weekly service. The carrier will increase the frequency to a daily service from 18 April 2023. Emirates will codeshare on these routes and the flights will operate from Terminal 3 at Dubai International (DXB), offering travellers more seamless connections through Dubai’s international aviation hub.

Etihad Airways has launched reciprocal interline partnerships with three new airline partners – Philippine Airlines (PAL), Austrian Airlines (OS) and Airlink South Africa (4Z), while re-launching interline links with Biman Bangladesh and codeshares with Air Seychelles (HM) and ITA Airways (AZ). The deal means customers of all airlines involved will enjoy enhanced connectivity to destinations across each other’s networks, can book on a single ticket and only have to check in once at the start of their flight, with their baggage checked through to their end destination.

Emirates has boosted operations by 31% (total ASKMs) since the start of its financial year and has further plans to ramp up seat capacity in its latest published northern summer schedule starting 26 March 2023. In the past months, the airline has planned and executed the rapid growth of its network operations - reintroducing services to 5 cities; launching flights to 1 new destination (Tel Aviv), adding 251 weekly flights onto existing routes; and continuing the roll-out of service enhancements in the air and on the ground. Emirates continues to scale up its A380 operations with the reintroduction of the iconic double-decker across its network: Glasgow (from 26 March), Casablanca from (15 April), Beijing (from 01 May), Shanghai (from 04 June), Nice (from 1 June), Birmingham (from 1 July), Kuala Lumpur (from 01 August), and Taipei

Virgin Atlantic is formally joining SkyTeam, the global airline alliance. The move means Virgin Atlantic becomes SkyTeam’s first and only UK member airline, enhancing the alliance’s transatlantic network and services to and from Heathrow and Manchester airports. Virgin Atlantic customers will now benefit from a consistent, seamless customer experience, across 1,000 global destinations in over 170 countries. Customers can conveniently book every SkyTeam member flight on a single ticket, checking in with baggage just once through to their final destination.

Emirates and Philippine Airlines (PAL) have signed an interline agreement to boost connectivity for passengers of both air carriers to new points on each other’s networks via Manila and Dubai, using a single ticket and one baggage policy. Now in effect, the reciprocal interline partnership provides Emirates’ passengers access to 19 Philippine domestic destinations operated by Philippine Airlines, including Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod, Cotabato, Davao, Iloilo, Kalibo and more, as well as two Asian regional points via Manila. Philippine Airlines’ passengers also benefit from access to Emirates’ global network and seamlessly connect to 21 cities operated by Emirates beyond Dubai to European destinations such as London, Rome, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Paris and Kuwait, as well as to Jeddah and other points in the Middle East , Africa and India.

Emirates has announced that it will boost its operations to and from Cairo to 28 weekly flights, effective 29 October, 2023. The additional flights provide more options for customers to connect to Dubai and beyond with enhanced schedules and the opportunity to enjoy more of the Emirates A380’s signature experience. The operational boost will see Emirates operating four daily flights, thrice daily on the A380 and a daily service on the Boeing 777. Cairo has the highest deployment of Emirates A380 services in the MENA region, outside of Dubai. The additional services and upgrade of seat capacity on the Dubai-Cairo route will help meet high demand to and from Cairo and support the country’s tourism revival with the addition of more than 2,200 weekly seats in each direction.

Emirates has announced that it will boost its operations to and from Cairo to 28 weekly flights, effective 29 October, 2023. The additional flights provide more options for customers to connect to Dubai and beyond with enhanced schedules and the opportunity to enjoy more of the Emirates A380’s signature experience .The operational boost will see Emirates operating four daily flights, thrice daily on the A380 and a daily service on the Boeing 777.

Etihad Airways is expanding its European network this summer with the introduction of a new direct service between Abu Dhabi and Lisbon, effective from 2 July 2023. The airline will be connecting Abu Dhabi to Portugal’s capital city right in time for the summer holidays, with three weekly flights scheduled to be operated on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, is showing it means business by increasing services to Frankfurt, Germany. From 1 May, the airline will add an extra four services a week to its current daily frequency, bringing the total number of flights to Frankfurt up to 11 weekly. The additional flights will be operated by one of Etihad’s ultra-modern Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, designed with customer comfort in mind, boasting 28 seats in Business and 262 in Economy.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has rolled out complimentary unlimited in-flight Wi-Fi for all Business Class customers, as well as its PPS Club members and PPS Club supplementary card holders. In addition, KrisFlyer members now enjoy free three-hour Wi-Fi plans when travelling in Premium Economy Class and free two-hour Wi-Fi plans when travelling in Economy Class. Customers who are not KrisFlyer members, and members who may have consumed their complimentary plans, may take advantage of SIA’s new attractive and simplified Wi-Fi price plans. These range from US$3.99 (approximately S$5.25) for one hour, US$8.99 (approximately S$11.80) for three hours, and US$15.99 (approximately S$21.00) for the entire flight1.

Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s leading carrier, is set to launch a new passenger flight to Copenhagen, Denmark as of 22nd of May 2023. The new flight will be operated five times a week except on Tuesdays and Sundays. With the launch of the flight, Copenhagen will become a crucial gateway for Ethiopian Airlines in northern Europe and southern Scandinavia. Thanks to the wide network of Ethiopian Airlines across Africa, the new flight will enhance the air connectivity between Europe and Africa thereby facilitating trade, tourism and diplomatic relations of the two regions.

Emirates has announced that it will reintroduce its flagship A380 to Casablanca as part of the airline’s ramp up of operations to Morocco. Starting from 15 April, the airline will replace the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft currently used between Dubai and Casablanca with its flagship A380 to meet growing demand on the route. The A380 service, operating as EK751 departs from Dubai at 0730hrs, arriving in Casablanca at 1255hrs. EK 752 departs from Casablanca at 1445hrs, arriving in Dubai at 0115hrs the following day.

Qatar Airways announced it has signed a comprehensive codeshare agreement with Air Serbia, the flag carrier of Serbia, allowing passengers seamless travel to over 40 destinations when travelling on each other’s networks effective 01 February 2023. Qatar Airways currently operates five weekly flights between its hub in Doha, Qatar and Belgrade, the Serbian capital. The codeshare agreement opens up a host of new exciting destinations for its passengers to use a single booking to continue their journey to European countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia among others served by Air Serbia.

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, will be introducing two exciting routes this year, connecting Abu Dhabi to Copenhagen in Denmark and Düsseldorf in Germany. Launching 1 October, the flights will provide business travellers and holidaymakers in the UAE and these key European cities with convenient travel options to and from Abu Dhabi, with four weekly flights to Copenhagen and three weekly flights to Düsseldorf. The flights will be operated using state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, offering one of the most comfortable experiences in the sky with 28 seats in Business and 262 in Economy.

Emirates will ramp up frequencies to Hong Kong with a daily non-stop service from its Dubai hub, starting from 29 March 2023, adding to its existing daily flight from Dubai to Hong Kong via Bangkok and increasing the airline’s operations in the market up to 14 weekly flights. The resumed service will provide more capacity, choice and flexibility for travelers, as the airline continues to expand its global operations in line with sustained demand for international travel

Emirates has announced it will scale up its A380 operations with the iconic double-decker returning to Glasgow (26 March 2023), Nice (1 June 2023) and Birmingham (1 July 2023). The airline has also announced it will resume its second daily service to Stansted starting from 1 May 2023, utilising its wide-body Boeing 777-300ER aircraft fitted with its renowned ‘Game Changer’ First Class product. With the return of the second daily flight to Stansted, Emirates will ramp up its operations to London with 11 daily flights, including six times daily to London Heathrow and three times daily to Gatwick. The airline continues to expand its global network and increase capacity in line with growing travel demand.

Türkiye’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines, and Mongolia’s flag carrier, MIAT Mongolian Airlines recently signed a codeshare agreement. The signed agreement between two flag carriers will enable both carriers to provide more flexibility of choice to their respective passengers on direct flights between Türkiye and Mongolia along with further flights connecting via İstanbul. On the agreement Turkish Airlines CEO Mr. Bilal EKŞİ stated: “Both flag carriers enhanced their solid collaboration via signing this codeshare agreement and by increasing frequencies reciprocally between Istanbul and Ulaanbaatar. As a result, more Turkish and Mongolian passengers will be able to visit these two unique and beautiful countries, Türkiye and Mongolia. Besides, we will connect more destinations in light of the existing beyond points in the newly signed codeshare agreement.”

Delta will offer fast, free Wi-Fi in partnership with T-Mobile to all customers on board most domestic mainline flights beginning Feb. 1 – the first major U.S. airline to offer free Wi-Fi as a core element of its customer experience The airline will offer the service on more than 700 Viasat-equipped aircraft by the end of 2023. Delta also announced plans to bring free Wi-Fi on international and regional aircraft by the end of 2024.2

Etihad Airways is boosting its flights to Bangkok, Thailand by doubling its frequency. From 26 March 2023, the airline will fly twice a day on the Abu Dhabi – Bangkok route, providing a total of 14 weekly nonstop services to Bangkok Airport (BKK). The flights will offer Etihad’s award-winning service and comfort across both Business and Economy Class cabins.

The national airline, the second largest carrier in Abu Dhabi by seat capacity, launched 13 new destinations in 2022 and expands convenient, affordable travel for all. Wizz Air currently flies to a total of 36 destinations to 25 different countries from Abu Dhabi and is ready to accelerate and expand operations further in 2023, providing cost-effective, unique experiences for travel lovers looking to explore. The airline is now the second largest carrier in Abu Dhabi by seat capacity and continues to deliver on its promise of making travel possible for everyone and contributing to the continued development of the tourism sector in the UAE.