TTN

In Brief

Share  

Air Arabia Abu Dhabi expands to Pakistan

AIR Arabia Abu Dhabi, the capital’s first low-cost carrier, introduced a new service to Faisalabad, Pakistan with direct flights from Abu Dhabi from August 10 and a new service to Multan from August 11.

The twice-a-week service offers greater connectivity and value-for-money options making it easier and more convenient for customers to travel between the two countries.

Customers can now book their direct flights between Abu Dhabi and Faisalabad or Multan by visiting Air Arabia’s website, by calling the call centre or through travel agencies.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, Air Arabia’s customer journey has been upgraded to include all safety measures that are in line with the highest international measures.

 

Cathay offers Premium Economy from Dubai

CATHAY Pacific introduced its Premium Economy Class to customers flying the Dubai – Hong Kong route on the airline’s new A350-900 from August 6.

The technologically advanced Airbus A350-900 is configured in a three-class layout with 280 seats, comprising of 38 Business Class, 28 Premium Economy and 214 Economy seats. Each state-of-the-art cabin class on the A350-900 provides a whole new experience for passengers, with its extra-wide cabins including new seats, innovative inflight entertainment interface and inflight connectivity.

“We are thrilled to not only announce the operation of the Airbus A350-900 to the UAE, which will allow us to cater to the wider cargo and passenger demand, but also the introduction of a brand new cabin class on this route,” Vishnu Rajendran, Area Manager, Middle East, said.

“Given the current situation, we would like to give our customers a choice to travel in a more spacious cabin, while also providing a premium product with features such as an immersive inflight entertainment system, LED mood lighting, 50 per cent quieter cabins, as well as wi-fi connectivity, enabling our guests to have a luxurious and worry-free travel experience.”

 

Corporate air travel to recover slowly

WITH revenues hit due to the Covid-19 outbreak, companies are looking for ways to cut down on expenses. This has brought attention to corporate air travel.

Before the pandemic, corporate travellers represented about half of all major airline revenue, amounting to 1.7 per cent of the global GDP. However, owing to the ongoing crisis, airline travel for business is expected to shrink permanently by 19 per cent, PRNewswire reported.

Beroe Senior Analyst Anusree Mohan said: "When travel restrictions were imposed worldwide, businesses replaced direct meetings with virtual ones to contain the pandemic's spread. Many businesses adapted to virtual meetings and have realised that not all meetings must be in-person.

"Businesses have also realised huge cost savings on air travel spend. In the future, airline travel will be a more mindful and thought-out way of travelling, allowing employees to have a better life balance and employers to have a better return on investment," Mohan said.

Beroe is leading provider of procurement intelligence and supplier compliance solutions.

 

Gulf Air now flies daily to Maldives

GULF AIR, the national carrier of Bahrain, increased its direct flights to the Maldives capital, Male, on a daily schedule, starting from August 15.

The route has been very popular in the recent months due to the relaxed rules and regulations for passengers to enter the Maldives which led passengers from Bahrain, the GCC and Europe to prefer the destination to many other Indian Ocean choices, the airline said.

Gulf Air’s Acting Chief Executive Officer Captain Waleed AlAlawi commented: “The decision to increase our flights to Male is a classic example of demand and supply. We witnessed a growing demand for travel to the Maldives, being a year-round destination and one that’s open for tourism. Going daily with our flights is a fantastic feature for passengers to be able to depart or return on any day of the week depending on their calendars.”

Spacer