Russia’s S7 Airlines has announced a codeshare agreement with newly launched Cyprus Airways, which began operations on June 1 with a Larnaca to StPetersburg Airbus A319 service.
The flights are performed 3 times a week, according to S7 Airlines. A connection for Rhodes and Heraklion flights, which Cyprus Airways will begin later this month, will be available for passengers from St Petersburg.
British Airways come up against further problems.
After the IT meltdown 10 days ago which came with some very damaging PR to BA the union Unite have announced plans for a 4 day strike beginning on June 16th.
Unite represent the ‘mixed fleet’ contracted cabin crew at British Airways Heathrow base only and the dispute has been ongoing for several months. Initially the dispute was over pay with the union claiming that the advertised annual wage by BA was not being achieved. Anyone who took strike action has had their staff travel benefits removed and it was hoped a settlement to the long running, heated dispute could be achieved but it appears BA have refused to re-instate travel benefits immediately after a yes vote to the new pay offer.
BA have said like on previous occasions all of their customers who are travelling on the proposed strike days will get to their destinations.
BA will plan to achieve this by operating flights with less cabin crew (BA are normally above the legal minimum), using trained cabin crew volunteers from other parts of the business, Sub-chartering other aircraft and by consolidating flights.
Several Middle Eastern carriers including Etihad, Emirates and Fly Dubai have suspended flights to Qatar following accusations of the country supporting terrorism. UAE, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar.
In response Qatar Airways has stopped all flights to those countries.
Airspace restrictions have been put in place, severely limiting routings from Qatar.
Flag pins are worn to inform passengers various languages their crew are able to communicate in and their nationality.
Emirates have said ‘there was a communication error’.
The airline has now said that no crew members will be required to wear pins if they do not wish to whatever nationality they are.
This communication error comes after the previous one last week where Emirates sent an email saying ‘WTF’ to a customer who was trying to claim compensation for a delay.
Aeromexico are leading the way in answering their customers queries. They have been using Facebook Messenger Chatbots to communicate with their customers.
Aeromexico have said 4 out of 5 of customers ask basic servicing questions, bots respond with pre-prepared answers, but the bots can find a further 15% of answers to questions on the website.
This leaves just 5% of questions being re-directed for human input. This of course reduces costs for the airline but also gives its customers instantaneous answers rather than having to wait for a human.
Other airlines are using or testing Facebook Messenger Chatbots but Aeromexico say they are the leaders in this new innovative way of communicating.
Eurostar plan to offer direct trains from London to Amsterdam by the end of the year, sparking a major price war with airlines.
Initially there will be two trains a day and the journey from St Pancras International to city centre will take just under four hours.
Tui has launched an investigation after two crew members and 25 passengers on a flight from Orlando were affected by nausea and dizziness shortly after take-off.
The Thomson Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner had just left the Florida airport for Bristol on Sunday when two cabin crew members reported feeling ill.
Four people were taken to hospital, with the rest receiving medical treatment at the airport.
The 787’s new design means that unlike conventional aircraft, it does not draw cabin air in from the engines, making fumes from them unlikely to be the cause.
Emirates has apologised to a passenger after she received an offensive message after seeking compensation from the airline.
Claire Finch applied for €600 in compensation after her flight from Manchester to Dubai was delayed.
Her application was successful, but shortly after she received confirmation a second email arrived from the airline with the subject line ‘Wtf..’. The email continued: “… is she on about?!?’
Ms Finch received an apology letter from an Emirates executive, only after she complained in the media