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Zambia Skyways, a local airline company, is to launch direct flights to London and Dubai in partnership with Air Zimbabwe effective from Dec. 1 following an investment of 4 million U.S. dollars, local newspaper Zambia Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

Zambia Skyways would wet lease aircraft from Air Zimbabwe, which has two B767s, three B737s and three MA60s in operation, the paper cited the company’s managing director Suleman Patel as saying.

A wet lease is a leasing arrangement whereby a company agrees to provide an aircraft and at least one pilot.

Zambia Skyways would also serve the Lubumbashi route to the Democratic Republic of Congo with five flights every week and daily flights between Lusaka and Harare, capital of Zimbabwe.

The London route is pegged at 800 dollars for return flight while the Dubai route would cost 500 dollars for return flight.

Currently, the British Airways is the only operator of the London route in Zambia.

Original Article

BY KEITH BENMAN
kbenman@nwitimes.com
219.933.3326

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Monday, November 27, 2006 12:34 AM CST

SkyValue USA will be flying into Gary with high hopes of soaring where previous airlines have stalled.

It won’t be easy, according to air industry observers and local travel agents.

“I think the problem they will have is they are going after the greater Chicago market, which I would throw Gary into, so they’re competing with the bigger airlines out of Midway and O’Hare,” said Roger King, senior analyst for transportation with CreditSights, a provider of independent credit research.

SkyValue flights from Gary/Chicago International Airport to five leisure destinations, including Las Vegas and Orlando, start Dec. 15. (more…)

Xiamen Airlines became the first carrier to cancel a firm order for Boeing’s 787 aircraft, said Flight International, citing an unnamed person close to the airplane maker.

The Chinese airline canceled three 787 orders as part of a review, which may include switching the 787s for six 737-800s, the London-based trade publication said on its Web site. (more…)

Brazilian airline Varig suspended 27 flights on Friday, the country’s airport management company Infraero said.

Varig, which is on the edge of bankruptcy, suspended 27 flights, 13 of them from Rio de Janeiro.

As well as that, Brasilia airport sealed one of its runways for 90 minutes after a Varig aircraft lost a part of its landing gear, after the plane had already landed safely. (more…)

The award, presented at the Middle East Contact Centre World Forum 2006 (CCW 2006) in Dubai, comes soon after Gulf Air winning the coveted Skytrax ‘best onboard catering’ award, for the third time in a row.

Ruth Birkin - front and centre - with a handful of the 190 Omani strong workforce in the Gulf Air Call Centre team in Knowledge Oasis - Muscat

“We are delighted at the recognition,” says Gulf Air President and Chief Executive James Hogan.

“Customers these days are demanding a more positive customer experience, not just service. It needs tremendous amount of dedication, persistence and people skills to deliver that experience especially when managing a centre that handles more than 125,000 calls a month on an average and employs more than 190 staff members, 90 per cent of whom are Omani nationals.” (more…)

Flavour and presentation, once sacrificed in the name of convenience, will be surrendered no more thanks to quick-freeze technology and onboard processing ovens. Trans-Canada Airlines is abandoning the old style of serving pre-cooked food preserved in warming ovens. Instead, travelers will be served frozen meals reheated minutes before consumption. It’s just like a fine meal prepared at home. “I defy you to tell the difference,” challenges a TCA stewardess in this CBC Radio interview.

HIGH POINT — Josephine Tyburski spent 44 years working for Alitalia SpA — the Italian national airline — in New York. After receiving a diagnosis of lung cancer in 2004, she came to High Point to be with her daughter and to get medical treatment here.

She and her family expected that the airline would help take care of her. It had promised to do so by paying for extra medical bills, said Tyburski’s daughter Georgina Bell, 35.

It didn’t end up that way. (more…)

U.S$3.5 billion of net assets have been wiped off the opening balance of airlines on transition under IFRS, according to KPMG International’s Disclosure Handbook: Accounting and Financial Reporting in the Global Airline Industry which is launched today at the IATA Annual General Meeting in Paris.

KPMG International surveyed the 2005 public financial regulatory filings of 23 of the world’s airlines, including Air France, KLM, British Airways, and United that currently or in the near future will report under U.S. GAAP or IFRS. The report aims to highlight some of the key financial reporting trends and issues that impact airlines. It considers their critical accounting policies, disclosures around transition from previous GAAP to IFRS; and disclosure of risk (or cautionary factors). (more…)

Unisys Corporation’s subsidiary in Germany has recently signed a contract with Hahn Air Systems GmbH, the IT subsidiary of Hahn Air Lines GmbH, for the implementation of Unisys Airline Core Systems Solutions (AirCore). The solution will control business-critical processes of the Hahn-Air eTops passenger system for selling and distributing airline tickets in more than 50 countries.

AirCore solution enables airlines to offer their tickets worldwide via various distribution channels and to manage other service activities, such as marketing campaigns, car rentals and hotel room bookings. Hahn Air Systems GmbH will offer AirCore functions as an Application Service Provider (ASP). (more…)

The Managing Director, Dr. Yele Akinrolabu and his team is about concluding a deal to acquire a leading airline in Nigeria to boost its operation. In the next few months, NICON Airways is expected to be one of the country’s top domestic commercial airlines.

Airlines in Nigeria desirous of operating local routes were asked to have a minimum capital base of N500 million, N1 billion for those that are to ply the regional routes and N2 billion for airlines eyeing international routes.