AVIATION

Kingfisher flies to Colombo

Kingfisher Airlines, launched daily direct flights from Colombo to Bangalore and Colombo to Chennai from last week. The airline is hoping to add more destinations to India soon.

The introduction of these flights marks the continuation of the second phase of international route expansion plans of Kingfisher Airlines. Earlier in January Kingfisher Airlines launched daily direct services between Mumbai and London Heathrow.

Commenting on the launch, Vice president Global Sales, Kingfisher Airlines Limited Siva Ramachandran said, “ The initial response to the launch of these new flights has been extremely encouraging and we look forward to rapidly establishing our presence in the Sri Lankan market.”

Kingfisher Airlines is India’s first and only 5-Star airline that covers all segments of air travel from low fares to premium service and offers most flights by any single airline network in India.

With a fleet of 87 aircraft, Kingfisher connects 73 cities and operates 442 flights a day.

Kingfisher is a private airline based in Bangalore, India. In a short span of time Kingfisher Airline has carved a niche for itself.

The airline offers several unique services to its customers.

The airline is owned by Vijay Mallya of United Beverages Group. Kingfisher Airlines started its operations with a fleet of 4 Airbus A320 aircrafts. It was the first airline in India to operate with all new aircrafts. Kingfisher Airlines is also the first Indian airline to order the Airbus A380.

SriLankan offers ‘Hot Seats’

SriLankan Airlines has introduced ‘Hot Seats’ for the benefit of all Sri Lankans and friends of Sri Lanka travelling to and from Sri Lanka. ‘Hot Seats’ offers the best fares for travel on SriLankan on designated tickets purchased in advance.

This is a great opportunity that will benefit Sri Lankans around our network now and in the future, as the airline hopes to make this an ongoing offer, a media release from the airline said.

SriLankan’s ‘Best Fare Guarantee’ for tickets purchased on its website means that lower fares simply can’t be found anywhere else. The best way not to miss this chance is to log into the airline’s website to check the fares before a decision is made to purchase air tickets.

Head of Worldwide Sales of SriLankan, Mohamed Fazeel said: “SriLankan is now in a position to reduce ticket fares and that’s just what we have done.

First we removed our fuel surcharge on fares throughout almost our entire route network, and now the opportunity has come to provide low fare ‘Hot Seats’.”

This offer is available only on the airline’s website www.srilankan.aero and the number of seats available per flight is limited and will vary subject to demand. For example, there are ‘Hot Seats’ available in January for travel in April, but there are still some Hot Seats left on certain flights in February.

General Manager SriLankan Holidays, Amith Sumanapala said: “These are the hottest rates on offer. We are giving these incredible discounts to almost all our destinations in Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and the Far East. This is our way of rewarding customers who book ‘Hot Seats’ in advance.”

Hot Seats tickets are limited to flights operated by SriLankan Airlines, and are not available on those operated on codeshare agreements with other airlines.

iPod/iPhone connectivity for all passengers

Singapore Airlines announced that all customers, including those in Economy Class, on its brand new A330-300 aircraft will be able to enjoy iPod and iPhone connectivity through the new KrisWorld, its award-winning inflight entertainment system.

Singapore Airlines is the first in the world to have this unique feature in its Economy Class cabin, after it made its debut on the Airline’s all-Business Class A340-500 aircraft last year.

The facility forms part of the new multi-port panel conveniently placed next to each customer’s individual inflight entertainment screen.

Besides the iPod and iPhone connectivity facility, the multi-port panel contains a USB port, enabling customers to listen to their own music, view their photos or read PDFs.

It will also contain an audio-video input, which enables them to plug in their portable media players, to watch their favourite videos via the inflight entertainment system.

The introduction of the iPod and iPhone connectivity feature means that customers will now be able to use their favourite iPod and iPhone videos and songs through the inflight entertainment system onboard. iPod and iPhone integration is currently available on Singapore Airlines’ A340-500 all-Business Class non-stop flights between Singapore and Newark and Singapore and Los Angeles.

In addition, Singapore Airlines Economy Class customers travelling on the A330-300 can also look forward to the Airline’s latest product and service offerings, currently available on the Airline’s newer aircraft i.e. the B777-300ER and A380 aircraft.

This includes the new Singapore Airlines Economy Class seat, ergonomically designed to provide customers with an unsurpassed level of comfort. Each seat also comes with a larger 26cm monitor to access the inflight entertainment system.

Singapore Airlines’ A330-300 aircraft, the first of which was delivered to Singapore Airlines today, will be deployed on routes to Australian and Japanese cities, progressively from end March 2009.

Travellers win Skywards Miles from Emirates
 

Three air travellers were given a flying start to the new year by Emirates when the award-winning Dubai-based airline presented them with 250,000 Skywards Miles from its frequent flyer programme.

Anoop Kundanmal, Preethilal Fernando and Praveen Viswakumaran each won 100,000, 75,000 and 75,000 Skywards Miles from Emirates at the conclusion of a promotion conducted by the airline in association with the Trans Asia Hotel.

All they had to do was to fill in detachable coupons on tags attached to their laundry by the hotel’s laundrette and spend Rs 7,500 or more at one of its signature restaurants to participate in the promotion.

The Skywards Miles won can be redeemed for free tickets on Emirates, for upgrades or a host of other benefits. “The response to this promotion was most encouraging,” said Emirates’ Sales Manager in Sri Lanka, Devika Ellepola. “It was a pleasant and engaging little surprise to the customers of the Trans Asia’s laundrettes, and provided Emirates with a novel medium to communicate with this segment.”

One of the world’s fastest-growing international airlines, Emirates operates 17 services a week from Colombo to Dubai and four services a week from Colombo to Singapore.

Eithad code-share agreement with Bangkok Airways

Etihad Airways and independent Thai regional carrier Bangkok Airways have entered into a code-share agreement covering linking the Abu Dhabi-based airline’s expanding global network with popular Thai tourist destinations Phuket and Koh Samui.

Under the deal, the Abu Dhabi-based airline will place its two-letter ‘EY’ code on Bangkok Airways’ flights between the Thai capital city and these popular islands.

The announcement is part of Etihad’s plan to extend further its global network and brings to 12 the number of code-share agreements now operated by the airline. James Hogan, Etihad Airways CEO, said: “Asia is an important market for Etihad and there is huge demand amongst our customers to travel beyond the Thai capital, which this new code-share agreement now allows.

We are expecting the new services to be extremely popular, particularly with leisure travellers looking for a luxury beach break on two of Asia’s most beautiful islands.” Captain Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, the President of Bangkok Airways, said: “Koh Samui and Phuket are regarded as our favourite destinations for visitors worldwide.

To cooperate with Etihad, as one of the leading and fastest-growing airlines in the world, not only increases access for passengers who would love to explore the beauty of these famous destinations, but also help promote and accelerate tourism industry in Thailand. We strongly believe this new cooperation will be very successful.”

Continued Puttipong: “With a steady increase in tourist arrivals over the years from the Middle Eastern countries, we hope to tap into this partnership to further increase the passenger numbers from that region, not only to Thailand but to our destinations beyond. As one of Thailand’s leading airlines, we would like to welcome all visitors to our country”

Since launching services to the Thai capital in April 2004, Bangkok has quickly established itself as one of Etihad’s most popular business and leisure travel destinations, with average seat factors last year exceeding 80%.

Aviationrecord.com