Aerospace

Nolinor the well known charter outfit from Canada has created a scheduled offshoot low cost carrier called ‘Off We Go’ or OWG as the livery would have us know. Apparently launching end of August it’s determined to brush off the Coronavirus stigma facing the travel sector and start affordable flights from its home in Quebec to leisure destinations. Featuring the 737-400 the carrier will have 158 TiSeat E2 seats by Expliseat which are lightweight but pretty bare bones. But what we are more puzzled by is the livery which seems to be the offshoot of a thruplet between Southwest, Norwegian and Virgin Atlantic. Don’t get us wrong, we love this bold graphic and modern look. “Owg” – as it will probably be phonetically known as – ticks all the regular LCC boxes, bright bo...

Fly better. That’s Emirates‘ marketing slogan. It’s the same marketing campaign that has featured the likes of Jennifer Anniston, onboard bars, showers, all-aisle access and swathes of space. The problem is, Emirates has – since the A380 entered its fleet – offered two products, a 777 and A380 business class product that couldn’t be more different. Emirates has always marketed its A380 product as its point of difference, but is going to find itself struggling against its ME3 competitors Etihad and Qatar unless it brings back the behemoth A380s quickly. As Qatar Airways‘ CEO has already suggested, the double decker isn’t currently suitable for immediate travel demand post-COVID 19 and both Qatar and Etihad haven’t announced when theirs will return. The Emirates 777 busine...

Friday July 17, 2020 saw another casualty due to the Coronavirus. British Airways announced that its fleet of Boeing 747 aircraft, also known as ‘The Queen of the Skies’, are likely to have flown their last scheduled commercial service. While that might not mean ‘never-ever’, unless there is an unprecedented swing back to normality the carrier will turn its attention to the cheaper to run and more modern twin-engine fleet. British Airways was a staunch supporter of the B747, and had the largest commercial fleet of the type at one point. However, after nearly five decades of service and millions of miles flown around the globe, it is proposed that the airline’s remaining fleet of 31 747-400 aircraft will be retired with immediate effect as a result of the devastating impact th...

MEA doesn’t often feature on TheDesignAir, as it has slipped under the radar for a while with its older fleet and less-than-design approach to aviation. However it seems the airline has turned a corner and is featuring firmly on our radar now. While not as ‘bells and whistles’ as many other Middle Eastern carriers, it has certainly grown up with the first of its ten A321neos featuring a modernised livery and smart interior brought to life by Beirut based Joe Farah Design Studio. The livery is fresh, and better balanced, with the blue coloured swash elongating and ‘weighting’ the plane, creating a dynamic fluid image. The use of red green and blue, being the core additive colour model of light is a difficult palette to master. After all, these basic colours reflect a child lik...

Vistara was one of the last airlines we covered pre-lockdown who received a brand new jet. The carrier’s 787 certainly showed this airline meant business and its latest arrival, a brand new Airbus A321neo shows Vistara is living up to its promises.  The aircraft – which is part of a hefty order of 50 from the Airbus A320 Family signed in 2018 – arrived in Delhi this morning. This addition makes Vistara the first airline in South Asia to offer lie-flat beds on a narrowbody aircraft and one of the few such airlines across the world. The airline is positioning itself as a true premium carrier for India, and the A321 features just 188 seats across three cabin classes with 12 in Business Class , 24 in Premium Economy and 152 in Economy. Vistara has decided to kit the airc...

The board of directors at NokScoot has decided to liquidate the company. NokScoot’s shareholders will deliberate the same at a General Meeting to be held in 14 days time. The airline is a Joint Venture between Scoot – a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines and Thailand based Nok Air. The airline started operations in 2014. Thailand has been particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Early in the pandemic cycle, South East Asia was high on impact and had led to cancellations and this was followed by a complete travel ban across the world. A large portion of NokScoot’s revenue was dependent on inbound tourism from China – which was impacted for one or the other reason in the last two years. NokScoot operated to Delhi four times a week from Bangkok Don Mueang. The airline has ...

​The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for declaration of Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh as an International Airport. Kushinagar Airport is located in the vicinity of several Buddhist Cultural Sites like Sravasti, Kapilvastu, ​​Lumbini (Kushinagar itself is a Buddhist cultural site) and declaration as an “International Airport” will offer improved connectivity, wider choice of competitive costs to the air-travellers.  It will result in boosting of domestic/international tourism and economic development of the regions.   Kushinagar is located in the north-eastern part of Uttar Pradesh about 50 km east of Gorakhpur and is one of the important Buddhist pilgrimage sites. Kushinagar airport is around 55 km from Gorakhpur ...

I have keenly followed a couple of markets and the most interesting ones have been those between India and UK, USA, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UAE. No wonder that these are also the most sought after markets for airlines from India. While India – USA is open skies, the rest four have seen airlines clamour to get the rights, slots, codeshare arrangements and everything possible to not just get a slice but a larger one! The last few years have seen airlines be ambitious about long haul travel with narrow body aircraft with Spicejet and IndiGo achieving those ambitions as they inducted the new generation aircraft – the Boeing B737 MAX and A320neo family respectively. This helped opened up routes like Delhi – Hong Kong from Spicejet and Bengaluru – Hong Kong for IndiGo. Narrow body no...

There are few industries which are impacted as bad as Aviation by the current pandemic. Airlines have got aid from governments, yet there have been airlines which have gone into voluntary administration or grounded. Amidst this, JetBlue and American Airlines have announced a strategic partnership. American Airlines had also signed a strategic partnership with Alaska Airlines in February 2020. This will create seamless connectivity for travelers in the Northeast of USA and more choice for customers across their complementary domestic and international networks. In addition, the relationship will accelerate each airline’s recovery as the travel industry adapts to new trends as a result of the pandemic. The partnership includes an alliance agreement that proposes code share and loyalty...

India has been in lock down since March 2020. This meant that all scheduled commercial operations were suspended which took a hit on cargo as well. Airlines devised ways to continue cargo operations with Spicejet being on the forefront – converting three Q400 aircraft to freighters by removing seats. Both Spicejet and IndiGo started operating cargo only flights with even cargo on seat options. The focus on cargo has led to some interesting developments. In the first quarter of FY 2020-21, total agriculture exports are estimated to be 20,368 MT. This was done despite most of the period being in lock down. Domestically, agriculture cargo uplift at origin airport has been estimated at 7,519 MT. While the focus on cargo increased, a few first’s were recorded. “Langra, Chausa and Banar...