Air Arabia connects Sharjah and Vienna

AIR ARABIA, the Middle East and North Africa’s first and largest low-cost carrier, now offers direct flights between Sharjah and Vienna.

The non-stop six-hour flight to Vienna, will operate four times a week, on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and will be expanded to daily flight service as of mid-December.

Julian Jäger, joint CEO and COO of Vienna Airport, said, “In recent years, we have seen a significant rise in number of tourists from the UAE and Vienna is a popular destination amongst Arab travellers. The city of Vienna greatly benefits from Air Arabia’s new direct flight connection to Vienna Airport. We have registered close to 13 per cent growth on flights to the Middle East since the beginning of the year. We look forward to welcoming even more visitors from the Middle East to this beautiful city. Furthermore, passengers from Vienna will get to visit and explore the cultural diversity of UAE, courtesy the new flight service from Sharjah.”

Flynas now connects Calicut and Lucknow

FLYNAS, the Saudi national air carrier and leading low-cost airline in the Middle East, is launching its new direct international flight to Lucknow and Calicut, as part of its global expansion plan in 2019. This step will raise the number of flynas’ destinations in India to four including previously launched, direct flights to New Delhi and Hyderabad.

flynas will operate three weekly flights to each destination, and the first flight is scheduled from Riyadh to Lucknow on October 15, while the second and third flights are scheduled for October 17 and October 18 respectively. Furthermore, flights between Riyadh and Calicut and Dammam and Lucknow will commence from October 16, 2019.

flynas launched its direct flights between Riyadh and New Delhi, on July 1, this year and the direct flights between Riyadh and Hyderabad in June 2018. New destinations, as per its expansion strategy for the next phase, include Lahore, Islamabad, Algeria, Erbil, Baghdad, Sarajevo, Vienna, Batumi, Tbilisi, Baku and other domestic and international destinations.

Air Astana wins five-star rating from Apex

THE Airline Passenger Experience Association (Apex) has awarded Air Astana a five-star rating in the Major Airlines category for the second year in a row at an award ceremony in Los Angeles on September 9, 2019.

The rating was based on passengers’ online reviews from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. More than a million flights were covered among 600 airlines in the world. Passengers evaluated carriers according to 5 parameters: seat comfort, on-board service, food and drinks, entertainment system and Wi-Fi service. Just over 20 global airlines, 13 major and two regional airlines reached Five Star status as determined by their passenger ratings.

The Apex Award is the European rating agency, which evaluates the level of passenger service worldwide. The rating is considered one of the most prestigious and reputable in the airline industry.

AUH received 4.5m passengers in summer

ABU DHABI International Airport (AUH) has welcomed over 4.5 million passengers during the summer months, demonstrating the airport’s popularity with travellers heading to and leaving Abu Dhabi, as the airport seeks to offer a wide range of attractive routes, smooth operational efficiency and high customer satisfaction.

During the summer period, the top five destinations that saw the highest share of traffic through Abu Dhabi International Airport were: London, Delhi, Bombay, Cairo and Cochin, which together processed 900,104 passengers between these cities and Abu Dhabi International Airport. During Eid Al Adha period, falling between July 7 and July 17, Abu Dhabi International Airport processed 713,297 passengers arriving, departing and transiting.