Business Aviation

Newest route to be launched next week:

Qatar airways privilege club offers Qmiles redemption for Ramadan

Qatar Airways’ award-winning Privilege Club loyalty programme is rewarding its members with a 50 per cent saving on awards to selected destinations during the holy month of Ramadan.

Designed to encourage members to take a break during the fasting month, the offer is spread across a number of Middle East routes operated by Qatar Airways from its Doha hub. Stretching from Dubai and Abu Dhabi to as far afield as Damascus and Beirut, the offer provides Privilege Club members with tremendous savings.

The offer is valid for all Privilege Club members and is eligible for return flights in Economy Class only. Travel

 must be completed between September 10 and October 15.

In addition, Qatar Airways is offering double Qmiles on its new Doha - Nagpur route being launched on September 23. The offer, valid until November 30, is available on the twice-weekly services to the central Indian city - Qatar Airways’ seventh destination in India.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the airline had won tremendous amount of support over the years from frequent flyer members of the carrier’s Privilege Club loyalty programme.

“From time to time, we introduce promotions as a thank you to our Privilege Club members and this latest one is just as tempting as they will be able to experience travelling Qatar Airways to some fantastic destinations across the Middle East,” he explained.

Al Baker explained that in addition, Qatar Airways was offering members double Qmiles on the airline’s newest route to Nagpur being launched next week. The addition of Nagpur takes Qatar Airways’ capacity to India up to 44 non-stop flights a week across seven Indian destinations.

The other cities being Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Trivandrum and Cochin. Qatar Airways launches its eighth Indian gateway city on December 12 with daily scheduled flights to the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

Qatar Airways currently operates a modern fleet of 58 all-Airbus aircraft to 78 destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Far East, Indian subcontinent and North America.

The highlight of Qatar Airways’ 2007 expansion has been the launch of flights to New York (Newark) and Washington DC - the airline’s first move into the North American market.

From September 23, Qatar Airways launches twice-weekly flights between Doha and the central Indian city of Nagpur. Starting November 27, the carrier launches four flights a week to the Swedish capital Stockholm. Daily scheduled services to the western Indian city of Ahmedabad are due to begin on December 12.

Qatar Airways is one of only five airlines in the world with a Five Star ranking for service and excellence awarded by Skytrax, the independent aviation industry monitoring agency.

Apollo, Deccan Aviation sign MoU on air ambulance service

Apollo Hospitals Enterprises today entered into an agreement with Deccan Aviation to launch air ambulance service from Bangalore. The service would be provided to link the New Apollo Hospitals, on Bannerghatta Road, a 250-bed multi-specialty tertiary care unit, a joint statement said.

The services are being provided by helicopters and Deccan Aviation is providing the entire logistical support.

“As air evacuations can be expensive, we are in talks with insurance companies to include air evacuation in medical insurance policies so we can extend this to everyone who may need the service” said Dr Umapathy Panyala, COO, New Apollo Hospitals, Bennerghatta Road, Bangalore, in the statement.

“While Deccan Aviation will provide the helicopter and take care of aviation logistics, Apollo emergency specialists will take care of the medical aspects by providing trained personnel, equipment and medical care during the flight”, he added.

Air ambulance services are used in cases where transport by ground ambulance could endanger the life of a patient or in remote areas where there is no ground accessibility.

Apollo air ambulance provides state-of-the-art advanced life support equipment on board its aircraft.

PTI

Global airline catering to make India hub

India’s booming aviation sector has prompted the world’s largest airline catering and in-flight solutions provider LSG Sky Chefs to make India its major hub and open four new facilities in the country next year.

“We are planning new facilities at Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata,” Chief Operating Officer, Asia-Pacific, H K Cheung told PTI here.

LSG Sky Chefs is the sole independent international airline caterer in India and has a presence at the old airports of Hyderabad and Bangalore.

It is building facilities at Hyderabad and Bangalore to replace the existing ones.

“India is a major market where there is a strong demand for top-quality in-flight catering services,” Cheung said.

The market size is around USD 100 million and growing, Cheung, who was in the Thai capital to attend the International Travel Catering Association (ITCA) Asia-Pacific conference, said.

India has a large middle class but the number of air travellers is comparatively small, Cheung said. However, the boom in Indian aviation industry is here to stay and the number of air travellers is increasing at a rapid pace, he added.

PTI

Singapore Airlines operate A380 to Sydney

Singapore Airlines will begin scheduled services with the new Airbus A380 between Singapore and Sydney from next month.

The A380 will operate a daily return flight, replacing one of the three Boeing 747-400 services on the route. It will be departing Singapore in the evening and arriving into Sydney in the early morning, and return, departing Sydney in the morning and arriving into Singapore in the early afternoon.

The 471-seat aircraft is configured in three classes, 12 Suites (on the main deck), 60 Business Class (on the upper deck) and 399 Economy Class seats (on both decks).