Middle East - General Newsdesk

[A300Man-2005]

Route updates:

New colours to be seen in Dubai during the early part of 2006 incude the Shamrock of Aer Lingus and the Crayon Scroll of Virgin, both carriers planning to start services using Airbus Equipment. Dubai seems to remain as the "in" place and all carriers want a piece of the action. For the seasonal rush, British Airways has also re-introduced a Boeing 747-400 for the winter period on one of it's two daily flights, and KLM is also rumoured to increase capacity by the seasonal introduction of a B744.

Regionally, QR is minimising its use of the A320 on Dubai routes, with only two or three sectors per day being operated on the A320. All others will now use the A332, A333 and AB6.

QR's CEO is also "secretly" rumoured to be fuming at bmi British Midlands announcement that they wish to start daily flights to Doha from 26th March 2006, using an Airbus A330-200 from LHR, in competition to QR's own twice daily service. Made all the more humorous by some recent defections from QR to BD.

The above, in addition to the services planned by Lufthansa, will mean that foreign airlines operating to Doha will now be allocated ramp space at either Shoprite, Dasman Centre or LuLu Hypermarket car parks, as there is simply no parking space on the ground at the current airport.

And Britannia Airways (Thomsonfly.com) and FCA plan to operate to Dubai or Sharjah respectively starting next year, offering weekly charter flights on behalf of their respective parent company tour operators, TUI and First Choice. Thomson will be thrice weekly - FCA will be twice. B767-300 equipment will prevail in both cases though.

[28one-to-nine]

That was very informative. Thank you.

[SecurID]

Anyone know which hotel the Virgin and Britannia crews will be staying in? ;)

[BahrainLad]

How can AAB be "secretly fuming" at BD starting flights to Doha when BD will be wet leasing a QR aircraft, QR crew and operating a QR flight number viz...

bmi will also commence a daily service to Doha from Heathrow in the Summer of 2006. The service will commence on 26 March and, subject to government approval, will be operated under a wet lease agreement with Qatar Airways. At the same time bmi's existing codeshare agrement with Qatar Airways will be expanded to allow bmi to sell Qatar Airways flights from Heathrow to Doha under bmi's flight code.

Is the rest of the information from this "Newsdesk" going to be as accurate?

[Captn B'Ollocks]

I was under the impression AAB does all his fuming in public

[A300Man-2005]

Bahrain Lad,

He is "secretly fuming" as he (in reality) doesn't want the brand name of bmi to be anywhere near the State of Qatar, which is his domain.

My information about this bmi operation is entirely different, actually. I am given to understand that bmi wish to operate this in their own right - nothing to do with leasing anything at all from QR (unless it is a temporary stop-gap solution owing to equipment constraints that I may be unaware of).

However, I am always the first to admit when I am wrong and will do so if this turns out to be the case. No intention to mislead or be inaccurate, mate. Sorry. Genuine attempt to update local news.


A300Man

[28one-to-nine]

Thank you for the update.

[BahrainLad]

Fair enough, altho' that's what it says on the website and in an update to FFP member from bmi, and I'd struggle to find out where bmi could get anymore aircraft from (I think they have 9 longhaul routes and only 3 A330s, so they make up for the rest with leases of wierd equipment like Icelandair 757s...)

[loc22550]

Hopefully Lufhtansa and BMI will be more successfull in their operation to Doha than Air France.....They didn´t survived that much in Doha....wondering why........??:)

[A300Man-2005]

A Dubai consortium is planning to buy Thomas Cook PVT, the Indian arm of the Thomas Cook Travel Group, although there are no firm plans as yet to establish an airline entity in line with the rest of the Thomas Cook Group.

First P&O and now Thomas Cook..............even Madam Tussauds! Very soon, Dubai will own everything.

[BYMONEK]

It was the kiss of death to the caribbean when the charters started going there. Next year could see the introduction of the 'brits on tour brigade'.

"Egg and chips four times, two pints of lager and coke for the kids mate"

Mmmmm..................great times ahead! :uhoh:

Quote

" soon Dubai will own everything"
Maybe, but not Emirates Airlines because that would mean giving us all the 15% pay rise promised earlier this year to government employees, right? :rolleyes:

[A300Man-2005]

Singapore Airlines are to start services from Dubai to Moscow in the new year, as an extension of some of their daily services from SIN to DXB.

The other two extensions that SQ currently operates are IST and CAI.

[ruby tuesday]

AF did not succeed in Doha due to limited frequency and poor timings - it was one of their business type flights with and extended range A319 if I recall? The service goes to key oil and gas destinations within range obviously - but poor/limited connections at CDG as well bad departure times ex DOH meant the uplift was insufficient to continue. I think it still goes to Saudi though?

[newscaster]

Virgin Nigeria also rumored to start LOS-DXB-BOM and LOS-DXB-DEL service in second quarter 2006.

[A300Man-2005]

Emirates confirms that they will commence services to Copenhagen during 2006. Services will operate in two classes on Airbus A330 equipment, initially 4 x weekly.

[loc22550]

Cambodia as well seems to be on the EK planning soon.

[ruby tuesday]

CPH a good destination as plenty of Lebanese and other ME nationals located there. MEA used to operate I think? Or to STO not sure...
QR were offered this route several years ago but did not have HO management with the ability to seriously evaluate it...

[A300Man-2005]

I am hearing rumours that Emirates has abandoned its plans to start services to Copenhagen. Anyone able to confirm? (Sorry if its already been posted elsewhere).


Dubai ATC / anyone - I have noticed a hefty increase in Charter traffic flying into Dubai in the last few weeks, and was wondering if these are seasonal services, diversions or aircraft leased-in by regional operators who need the capacity?? Anyone able to confirm?? Namely Air 2000/First Choice Airways Boeing 757-200, Hamburg International Boeing 737-700, Condor-Thomas Cook Boeing 757-300, Novair International Airbus A330-200, Monarch Airlines Boeing 757-200 (several visits by this one).

Thanks.

AB6

[newscaster]

Yes EK are not doing CPH due to the cartoon fiasco, they will start it when the issue has cooled down cosiderably for the general public.

VK have also now confirmed nonstop Lagos-Dubai service to start in June.

[A300Man-2005]

Was I the only person to get a free haircut yesterday (almost) at 16:00hrs local time (approx) when an Eritrean Airlines B767 came in to Dubai at an extremely low altitude on final approach?

Man - that was low. Anyone else see it?

I see aircraft landing 24/7 into DXB but I have never seen a Boeing this low, flying over the surrounding suburbs.

[A300Man-2005]

Various News Updates:

Emirates will commence direct flights between Hamburg or Dusseldorf (TBA) and New York JFK in October 2006, using Boeing 77W Aircraft. (-300ER).

Qatar Airways will replace the A320 with A300-600 on all flights to Moscow soon.

Qatar Airways will replace the A300-600 with the A330-200 aircraft on all flights to Frankfurt and Milan Malpensa from June (some of the daily rotations already go on A330).

QR will also use the A320 and A300 on certain days of the VIE rotation, as opposed to A319LR.

QR's main daytime flights to LHR (including QR001) will operate on A340-600HGW aircraft from the 1st August 2006. In addition, the third (overnight) flight will also be transferring to A340-600HGW aircraft from 2nd September 2006 (5 time per week), but will remain on A330-300 for Saturday an Sunday overnight flights.

QR's services to Paris will now be operated only on A330-300 series aircraft in three classes.

QR is exploring the possibility of commencing new flights to Birmingham and Glasgow in the UK, using two-class A330-200's.

Qatar also hoping to operate some new services via SIN to Australia using A330-300 aircraft.

Ethiopian will start using a B747-400 on some of it's flights to Dubai, withe the aircraft continuing onwards to the Far East. The aircraft will be leased from MH.

[popay]

A300, hi there.
Qatar also hoping to operate some new services via SIN to Australia using A330-300 aircraft.

Why hoping? I though we were supposed to start it a while ago, but didn't get the traffic rights. Do you think QR will get the rights soon? When do you think will QR be able to start?
Thanks.

[A300Man-2005]

Hopes before end of 2006 Popay. (MEL)

[thebusman]

Interesting new route,

Emirates will add a 3rd flight on its Dubai to New York JFK route on Oct 29th. Unlike the other 2 flights which operate nonstop, this flight will operate daily via Hamburg using a 777-300.