AVIATION

Emirates Skywards members soar to new heights

Emirates Skywards, the award-winning frequent flyer programme of Emirates Airline has announced a significant enhancement to its offering with the introduction of ‘Platinum’, a new tier which sits above Blue, Silver and Gold. The Platinum tier has been developed to enhance the travel experience for frequent travellers and to offer additional benefits to members who have earned over 150,000 Miles.

“This is a significant development for Emirates Skywards. The new tier is designed to show our most valued customers how important they are to Emirates and to offer greater recognition and benefits to those who choose to fly with us on such a frequent basis. The additional benefits have been introduced to add an even higher level of comfort, flexibility and convenience for our Platinum members. On top of our superior product, world-class service and fast expanding network in six continents with 18 new destinations opened in the last 15 months and two new destinations, Algiers and Haneda, to be added soon, the new Emirates Skywards Platinum tier is definitely another reason to make Emirates the airline of choice,” said Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ Executive Vice President, Passenger Sales Worldwide.

For the first time, Platinum members will receive exclusive benefits usually reserved for First Class passengers, including First Class check-in, baggage delivery and access to the First Class lounges in Dubai with a guest. They can continue to use all Emirates Lounges around the world, also with a guest, and they will receive 20 kgs of additional baggage, regardless of their class of travel.

Platinum members will be guaranteed an Economy Class or Business Class commercial seat at Flex fares and receive access to an Economy Class or Business Class ‘Last Seat’ Flex reward.

Gold Emirates Skywards members who are eligible for Platinum status will be automatically upgraded to the new tier and will start receiving benefits from 1 April 2013. To qualify for Platinum status, members need to earn 150,000 or more tier Miles within a rolling 12-13 month period, compared to the existing qualification criteria of 50,000 Miles for Gold members.

Emirates Skywards continues to develop its programme across all membership tiers with recent enhancements to its reward offerings including partnerships with Alaska Airlines, JetBlue and easyJet, TAP and more in the pipeline for 2013.

Russia allows grounded Aeroflot Superjets to fly

Russia's aviation agency has reauthorised Aeroflot to fly four of its Sukhoi Superjet 100s, days after ordering their grounding because of technical problems, the manufacturer said Friday. Sukhoi Civil Aviation said in a statement that Rosaviatsia renewed three of the operating licenses on Thursday, followed by the fourth on Friday.

It added it had resolved the technical issues that forced Aeroflot to ground almost half of its 10-strong fleet of the aircraft, the first to be made in post-Soviet Russia. Sukhoi, which makes the plane along with international partners, announced the grounding on Tuesday, adding that all the planes would be resuming flights by the end of the month at the very latest.

The Superjet has had technical incidents with its landing gear and leak detection systems since it started flying in 2011. However the company insists that relatively minor technical issues are a common problem on a brand new plane design.

AFP

US airline merger latest in global consolidation

Thursday's merger between American Airlines and US Airways marks the latest in a series of recent deals that has consolidated the airline industry.

May 2004: Air France buys Dutch airline KLM. The airline, now known as Air France KLM, is one of Europe's biggest with 75.8 million passengers. With 586 aircraft, the airline travels to 230 destinations in 113 countries.

May 2005: while in bankruptcy, US Airways merges with regional carrier America West to form the fifth biggest American airline.

It currently transports around 80 million passengers to more than 190 destinations.

April 2008: Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, forming a company with 722 planes and traveling to 320 cities in the world. September 2009: Germany's Lufthansa takes overs Austrian Airlines to become the biggest airline in Europe.

May 2010: Continental Airlines and United Airlines announced their merger, creating a carrier with 700 aircraft flying to 370 destinations in 59 countries.

August 2010: Chile's LAN and Brazilian peer TAM combine to form Latin American giant LATAM.

AFP

Air Arabia’s 2012 net 55% profit surge

Sharjah-based budget carrier Air Arabia said on Saturday that its 2012 net profit soared 55 percent on an annual basis to $115.8 million, as it expanded its network and passenger numbers rose.

Revenues for the Middle East's first and largest low-cost airline stood at 2.9 billion dirhams ($790 million), an increase of 21 percent compared with 2011, it said in a statement.

Passenger numbers grew 13 percent to 5.3 million in 2012, with a seat load factor of 82 percent for the whole year. In the fourth quarter, net profit came in at $22.6 million, six percent up from the corresponding period in 2011.

“The year 2012 saw Air Arabia expand its global network by entering new markets, taking more aircraft deliveries,” Chairman Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammad Al-Thani said in the statement. Air Arabia, which began operations from the Emirate of Sharjah in 2003, now has two other hubs in Egypt and Morocco. It operates a fleet of 33 narrow-body Airbus A320 that serves 83 destinations, nine of which added in 2012.

Aviation industry dons shark skins to cut fuel consumption

FRANKFURTFeb 17, 2013 Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a flying shark skin.

In its never-ending quest to develop more aerodynamic, more fuel-efficient aircraft, the aviation industry believes the ocean's oldest predator, the shark, could hold the key to cutting energy consumption.

Germany's biggest airline Lufthansa announced earlier this month that two of its Airbus A340-300 jets would take part in trials starting this summer to test the properties of shark skin in flight.

For the two-year trials, eight 10 by 10 centimetre (4 by 4 inch) patches of a new type of coating are being painted on to the fuselage and wing edges of the aircraft.

A new state-of-the-art varnish, developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (FAM) in Bremen, attempts to mimic the skins of fast-swimming sharks. The sharks' skin is covered in tiny riblets that reduce turbulent vortices and the drag they cause, thereby diminishing surface resistance when moving at speed.

The phenomenon of the streamlined shark skin has been known for about 30 years and has fascinated research scientists in a wide range of fields, from military applications to aerospace and aeronautics and from naval construction to wind technology.

More recently, its use in sports such as swimming and athletics has brought the special properties of shark skin to much wider attention.

High-tech swimsuits were developed that enabled athletes to move ever faster through water, breaking one swimming record after the next until the suits were eventually banned as unfair in competition.

In the past, says Volkmar Stenzel, the project's head at the Fraunhofer Institute, sheets of plastic imitation shark skin were glued to the aircraft's exterior.

India’s Kingfisher shares dive on bank loan recall plan

Shares in India's debt-laden Kingfisher Airlines plunged as much as five percent Wednesday after banks said they would start recalling loans worth $1.5 billion, pushing it closer to collapse.

Kingfisher, controlled by Indian liquor baron Vijay Mallya, slid five percent -- the maximum daily limit -- before clawing back some losses to trade down 4.58 percent at 10.62 rupees in early afternoon.

The fall came after the airline's creditor banks announced late Tuesday they would begin recalling outstanding loans worth around $1.5 billion that could pave the way for sale of Kingfisher assets held as collateral.

“We have decided to recall (initiating the recovery process) the loans given to Kingfisher Airlines,” Shymal Acharya, a deputy managing director of state-run State Bank of India, which heads the consortium of bank lenders, said.

However, Acharya said after the meeting in Mumbai that the board of each bank that is owed money would decide individually how it seeks to recover its funds.

A spokesman for Bangalore-based Kingfisher said on Wednesday he could not immediately comment on the banks' decision to start recovering the loans.

The carrier, whose planes have been grounded since October, has never made a profit since it began flying in 2005. It owes vast sums to banks, airports, fuel suppliers and its staff.

Kingfisher has a number of real estate assets that it put up as collateral against its loans, including its office in financial hub Mumbai.

It posted a net loss of 7.55 billion rupees ($142 million) in the three months to December.

“We had given them many chances to come back with a specific positive action plan about their restart plans.

AFP