Turkish Airlines has had a torrid 12-months but its Chairman has delivered an upbeat assessment of the carriers future. He hopes that Turkish will be back on track by 2018.
One airline going from strength-to-strength, Qatar Airways, has said that it wants to launch its own short-haul airline in India.
Elsewhere, theres an interesting report that claims certain airlines are deliberately leaving Israel off their in-flight maps. British Airways is reducing its seat pitch to a rather snug 29″ on certain flights and U.S. airline stocks took a tumble as a result of Storm Stella.
The full summary continues below.
Turkish Airlines Optimistic for the Future After a Tough 2016
13th March 2017 – Courtesy Skift
Turkish Airlines Chairman, Ilker Ayci, has said that his expecting a moderate increase in passenger numbers this year and even better results to follow. He said “from 2018 onwards, we will be seeing our historical growth rates.”
After a turbulent year of terrorist atrocities and political unrest in Turkey, the airline posted losses of $13 million last year. Passenger numbers only rose by 2.5% compared to a yearly average of 16% in the 4 preceding years.
Reacting to the slowdown in demand, Turkish Airlines grounded 30 aircraft and even pulled the plug on 20 destinations in November. However, Ayci is hopeful that the airline will be a position to start flying all of the grounded jets soon.
Qatar Airways is Looking to Launch its Own Airline in India
09th March 2017 – Courtesy The Points Guy
In didn’t take long for Qatar Airways to react to a new Indian law that allows direct foreign investment in the country. The airline has announced plans to launch a 100% Qatari-owned, short-haul airline in India. The CEO of Qatar has said that a formal application would be submitted “soon.”
Other foreign airlines have already entered the Indian airline market through joint ventures with domestic investment partners. Etihad Airways owns a stake in India’s second-largest airline, Jet Airways. Air Asia and Singapore Airlines have also made a play for the Indian market.
Are Airline’s Omitting Israel from their Inflight Maps on Purpose or by Accident?
09th March 2017 – Courtesy The Telegraph
Academics from the University of Minnesota have conducted research, examining whether airlines deliberately omit the State of Israel from their in-flight maps. The two researchers studied 111 airlines to examine who was failing to show Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv, Nazareth and Haifa – or for that matter, the country itself.
Airlines that made no mention of Israel included Etihad, Saudia, Qatar Airways, Kuwait Airways and EgyptAir. A spokesperson for Etihad Airways explained the absence of Israel because it only shows destinations that it or one of its codeshare partners fly to.
Both Royal Jordanian and Turkish Airlines depicted Tel Aviv but didn’t show the country in which it resides.
British Airways Passengers are Set to Feel a Lot More Snug
013h March 2017 – Courtesy Skift
Seat pitch on British Airways domestic flights is set to be reduced from 30″ to 29″ later this year. The change will effect A320 and A321 aircraft in the airline’s fleet. It’s a move that BA is making to squeeze more seats on its jets to better compete with low-cost rivals.
However, commentators have noted that this shrinking of seat pitch will leave British Airways passengers in worse shape than those at Ryanair.
U.S. Airlines Cancel 6,500 Flights in the Wake of Late Winter Storm
13th March 2017 – Courtesy Fortune
Airlines have cancelled approximately 6,500 flights between Monday – Wednesday as a result of storm Stella that was set to batter the northeast United States. But there’s been another consequence apart from stranded passengers resulting from the disruption.
Shares in U.S. airline stock took a tumble amid concerns that the storm will negatively impact airline results that were already worse-than-expected.
