According to Oman’s Tourism Ministry, the data confirms a rebound in travel to Oman despite adverse travel advisory advice which dampened demand in the first quarter of the year.

Minister Abdulmalik Abdullah Al Khalili said: “Travel to Oman has rebounded strongly with most of Oman’s key tourism source markets recording remarkable year-on-year growth.

“This data also highlights the positive impact of Oman Air’s services to our larger volume markets such as France, Germany and the UAE. Arrivals from France and Germany continue to increase since the start of non-stop services in late 2009. We expect similar positive outcomes from Oman Air services to Zurich in October and Moscow in November.”

The ministry is expecting 2011 will be a record year for tourism activity based on forward bookings, increased air services, including air charters to Salalah, and an increase in cruise ship arrivals next season.

Additionally, new developments such as the Royal Opera House Muscat and new resorts and hotels across Oman are expected to attract new business to the sultanate.

The Royal Opera House Muscat is to open this month with a world-class season of performances and the Ministry of Tourism will host the 3rd Global Geotourism Conference in Muscat from October 30 to November 1, 2011.

From the end of the month the carrier will offer six non-stop flights per week from Doha to Frankfurt shortening the flight time by more than an hour and a half.

“Qatar is one of the most dynamic growth markets in the Gulf region and it has long been on our wish list to bring a non-stop Lufthansa service to the Doha-Frankfurt route,” said Peter Pollak, Lufthansa’s general manager UAE and director Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq. “We are pleased to offer the superior travel comfort of six non-stop flights weekly to our customers soon.”

The Lufthansa flights will be operated with an Airbus A330/A340 aircraft in a three class cabin configuration, featuring first, business and economy class.

The airline’s long-haul fleet is currently being refitted with an all new first class product as well as with ‘FlyNet’, the most advanced onboard broadband internet hotspot worldwide. Furthermore, a new, fully-flat business class product will be introduced onboard in 2012.

Randa El Massry, sales manager for Qatar said: “We are delighted to see enhanced services for our customers. We trust the new service will be welcomed by business and leisure travellers alike, who will now have an even more efficient access to Lufthansa’s Frankfurt gateway with flights to more than 200 destinations, among them 21 non-stop services to North America.” In North America, Lufthansa serves 21 destinations and countless more in co-operation with code share partners United Airlines JetBlue.

Lufthansa also recently launched its ‘Doha Winter Special’ promoting flights from Qatar to numerous destinations in Europe with special rates available for booking up to October 11 for travel before March 31, 2012.

Travellers flying with Lufthansa can enjoy the benefits of the carrier’s frequent flyer programme Miles & More.

And the company’s Oil & Energy Club provides an array of immediate benefits, mainly for travellers who have not yet reached frequent-traveller status, one of them being access to the airline’s frequent traveller and business lounges.

Luxury fleet operator Prime Limousine provides all chauffeur services for Etihad Airways’ premium guests in the UAE, with trained chauffeurs to ensure the highest standard of service across the fleet.

“It is not every day that we deliver 100 vehicles to a customer like Prime Limousine. Etihad’s choice of an Audi fleet is an endorsement of Audi’s prestige and high standards, sending a strong message to our retail customers as well as potential fleet customers,” said Audi Middle East corporate sales manager, Stephan Zeh.

“Etihad is pleased to bring our unique vision of air travel – personalised, attentive and premium quality – to include the beginning and end of the journey for our first and business class guests. In co-operation with Prime Limousine, we will be able to make travelling with Etihad an even more enjoyable experience with the addition of the 100 new Audi A6s,” said Lee Shave, Etihad Airways vice president guest experience.

Egypt’s national carrier Egyptair has resumed direct flights to Iraq after a break of 21 years.

The service was scrapped in 1990 following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the first flight since then took to the air at the end of August with around 30 people on board.

Chairman Hussein Massoud said the carrier will now fly four times a week to Baghdad and three times to Erbil, capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan.

flydubai scores Ukraine hat trick

Flydubai has launched flights to Kiev, Kharkiv and Donetsk as part of its commitment to open up routes previously underserved by direct air links to the UAE.

Representing its entry into Ukraine, the three new routes bring flydubai’s total operational network to 44 destinations and pave the way for UAE football fans looking to travel to Ukraine for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2012.

The carrier’s inaugural flights to Ukraine’s capital Kiev and its second major city Kharkiv took off from Dubai on September 16 and flights to the eastern city of Donetsk commenced a day later.

Bahrain Air goes back to Kathmandu

Bahrain Air resumed Kathmandu flights with a daily operation from September 21.

The Nepalese capital was first introduced as a Bahrain Air destination in March 2009, with three flights a week, although the service was later halted.

Under the re-launch, Flight BN513 will depart from Bahrain after midnight, with an early morning arrival in Kathmandu, while the return flight BN514 will travel to Bahrain in the morning, allowing connections to other flights on the Bahrain Air network, including Doha, Riyadh and Jeddah.

ExecuJet adds managed fleet

ExecuJet Europe has added six new aircraft to the managed fleet since April this year and is continuing to add on average one aircraft a month.

And ExecuJet Middle East, headquartered in Dubai, also continues to grow its managed aircraft fleet with the addition of a new Challenger 850. The aircraft is placed on ExecuJet’s UAE Air Operators Certificate and is available for charter flights.

ExecuJet Middle East business development director Paul van der Blom said: “We are very pleased with the new addition to the fleet. The Challenger 850, although not a new aircraft for us, is the first of this type on our commercial register and the owner is a repeat customer who we thank for his continued trust in ExecuJet.”

While maintaining a keen focus in areas such as cost management and flexibility, the carrier aims to develop its collaborations within the Lufthansa Group putting a particular emphasis on sharpening its brand profile and exploiting its size to build even better customer relations. 

“With the vast range of products on the market today, it’s primarily through our brand that we can stand out as a service provider,” says Holger Hätty, the airline’s chief commercial officer. “It’s our brand that is a byword for top product and service quality, for closeness to our customers and for traditional Swiss values.”   

He added that the management board views Swiss’ manageable size (compared to many of its competitors) as a vital asset, saying: “Our size enables us to stay closer to the customer and to respond even better and more specifically to their individual wishes and needs.”     

A new logo is to be adopted from this month showing the Swiss tailfin with its Swiss cross design, reflecting the livery of the company’s aircraft and enabling the carrier to be instantly recognised as ‘the airline of Switzerland’, even from afar.      

Advertising and promotional materials will also be given a clear new look with the focus on the company’s aircraft and their Swiss cross tails.

The carrier has also launched a new top-quality service commitment with the claim ‘Our sign is a promise’.

“I am convinced that, with our stronger brand profile, we will be better able to survive and thrive in a competitive market that is growing tougher each year,” said CEO Harry Hohmeister. “And I’m equally certain that we will continue to live up to, and further build on, our aspiration of being Europe’s leading airline in product quality and profitability terms.” 

“Echoing the rationale behind our brand profile, it is certainly a boon for Swiss here in the region to be more recognisable as the airline which stands for quality service. By mere association to the Swiss cross design, our customers know that we are committed and serious in delivering quality that exceeds their expectations,” said Martin Massüger, director, head of sales Middle East, Africa, Pakistan and Iran.

In what is now the country’s largest travel firm and its first public/private partnership, to be called Oman Air Holidays, the national carrier’s existing holidays division will merge with Bahwan Tours for inbound deals and with Bahwan Holidays to push outbound travel on the routes served by the airline.

The two organisations will share markets, personnel and systems and Oman Air’s chief commercial officer Abdulrazaq Alraisi said: “Oman Air is pleased to announce a historic partnership with Bahwan Travel Agencies, which will deliver even greater choice, quality and value for our customers around the world.”

Scat Air operates from Shymkent Airport in Kazakhstan and flies to major cities in Asia, Europe and Africa such as Sharm el-Sheikh, Bahu, Almaty, Dushanbe, Dubai, Tashkent, Yerevan or Tbilisi. Its fleet includes several Antonov aircraft, Boeing 757-200 and Yakovlev Yak-42 aircraft.

Tiara Air is based in Aruba, in the southern Caribbean Sea. The company was founded in 2006 and it currently flies to Curaçao, Punto Fijo in Venezuela, Bonaire and Riohacha in Colombia. Tiara Air owns three Short 360 aircraft.

Hahn Air has implemented agreements with more than 240 airlines, which are available for issuance to more than 85,000 travel agencies worldwide.

The Stevies is the only global, all-encompassing awards programme honouring great performances in business.

ADAC is to receive honours for the Best Home Page of a website, Best Overall Web Design and Best Corporate Event, for Formula 1 2010, as well as two honoury recognitions for Best Online Press Room and Best Support Department of the Year.

Around 500 Seattle workers flanked the gleaming, carbon-composite aircraft as it was slowly towed towards its Japanese buyers at a podium outside the planemaker’s production plant.   

‘Embodied in this incredible machine are 95 years of Boeing aerospace know-how,’ said Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney at the handover ceremony, acknowledging the long, rocky road the Dreamliner has travelled.

Supplier problems, late design changes and a two-month strike on the production line have put the new aircraft more than three years behind schedule.

Under Boeing’s programme accounting, which allows it to smooth out costs over many years, McNerney said the 787 was already profitable. He said cash from sales of each plane will outweigh costs per plane later this decade.

“I cannot wait to see the day when the skies of the world are filled with 787s,” said ANA chief executive Shinichiro Ito, whose airline originally expected to receive its first 787 in May 2008.   

Hundreds of Boeing workers were taught on the eve of the ceremony how to bow in unison as a mark of respect for ANA’s Ito, whose company formally took control of the first of its 55 Dreamliners in September.

‘Thank you for your patience,’ one Boeing employee hollered at Ito during the ceremony. The event was a tonic for Boeing workers after the last-minute cancellation of the delivery of the first 747-8 freighter to Cargolux just the week before.

“I can tell you that Etihad will have two aircraft with operational onboard internet by December this year and five aircraft by March, 2012,” said Etihad CEO James Hogan at the World Broadband Forum in Paris.

“Three of those five aircraft will be Airbus A330-300s, which will operate between Abu Dhabi and cities like Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Munich and Paris. And we are right at the point now of settling on a fleet-wide connectivity solution for the years to come.”

He added airlines around the world now faced pressure from customers to make broadband internet access standard on all flights but cautioned the industry to invest wisely in wireless innovation.

“Perhaps the biggest challenge is to stay in synch on this incredibly fast and exciting journey into the future. Annually, airlines invest billions in aircraft and millions in in-flight entertainment and other trappings, years before the aircraft enter service,” said Hogan.

“Changes in technology move at the speed of light... There is an ever-present danger of investing heavily in a system or hardware that is likely to be obsolete by the time it rolls off the production line.”

In a wide-ranging speech concerned with the effects of the internet revolution on the aviation industry, Hogan said wireless processes enabled huge financial savings to be made.

“The associated changes now deliver around $18 billion in efficiency savings each year, some of which is passed on to customers, some of which enables continued reinvestment,” he said.

He added Etihad’s online sales in July, 2011, were up 71 per cent on the previous year.

“The day is approaching when the greater part of our selling and CRM will be digital, particularly via smartphone and tablet devices,” he said.

Hosted by Mubadala Aerospace, in partnership with Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) and Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat), the summit will take place in Abu Dhabi from April 16 to 19, 2012. 

An exclusive, invitation-only  event, it will bring together international and regional senior executives from across the aerospace, aviation and space sectors promoting cross-industry thought leadership and looking at future growth strategies.

There will be two days of high level debate-led discussions on aerospace, aviation and space, followed by two days of field trips to aerospace and aviation facilities. There will also be closed door discussions, a private procurement meeting programme and a careers development programme targeting vocational and professional development.

“We believe that this inaugural event will continue over time to become a cornerstone meeting for industry leaders within the global calendar,” said Homaid Al Shemmari, executive director of Mubadala Aerospace. “The decision to create and hold a global aerospace summit in Abu Dhabi demonstrates the growing importance of the Gulf region to the industry as a whole, but also reflects the need for a dedicated, high-level forum focused on the future of the overall aerospace industry.”