Air Astana Resumes Flights To International Destinations

Air Astana (KC) will resume international services between June 20 and July 1, 2020, from Almaty and Nur-Sultan to destinations in Georgia, South Korea, and Turkey.

*Air Astana continues repatriation flights between Almaty and Seoul every Monday throughout June.
Additionally, on 3 July, the airline will launch an entirely new service from Almaty to Batumi on Georgia’s Black Sea coast.

The airline will operate Airbus A320/A321 and Embraer E190-E2 mainly for its international flights.

On 1 May, KC resumed flights between Almaty and the capital Nur-Sultan and expanded the domestic network by mid-May to include regional centers across Kazakhstan.

According to aviator.aero, the airline recommends that passengers traveling abroad independently check the health requirements in their country of destination, but does specify specific arrival requirements for Georgia, South Korea, and Turkey.

Upon arrival in Kazakhstan, passengers coming from Georgia and South Korea will undergo thermal checks and will need to complete a health questionnaire.

Passengers arriving from Turkey will also be subject to thermal checks, complete a health questionnaire, and undergo a COVID-19 test within 48 hours of arrival, if not immediately present.

Passengers excluded from the health requirements include members of state delegations from Kazakhstan, members of official delegations of foreign states, and international organizations arriving in Kazakhstan at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Also excluded from the measures are members of diplomatic missions, consular offices, and missions of international organizations accredited to Kazakhstan, members of their families, and airline crews.

Nursultan-based Air Astana is Kazakhstan’s national airline and operates domestic and international flights. Its main operational hubs are Nursultan International Airport (NQZ) and Almaty International Airport (ALA).

The last time we heard from the flag carrier was back in September 2019, when it had taken delivery of its first of seven A321LR on order.

The jetliner, on lease from Air Lease Corporation (ALC) was the seventh A320neo family aircraft received by the airline, which includes three A320 and three A321.

GERMANY: Eurowings To Fire 300 Staff At Head-Office

Eurowings, the low-cost airline owned by Lufthansa , said it would cut a third of the jobs at its headquarters as part of wider efforts to return the German airline group to profitability after a major state bailout.

We have around 1,000 staff at head office and of those we will reduce 300, Eurowings Chief Executive Jens Bischof told a briefing in Duesseldorf.

Germany threw Lufthansa a 9 billion euro ($9.8 billion) lifeline on Monday, agreeing a bailout which gives Berlin a veto in the event of a hostile bid for the airline.

Bischof, in remarks did not give figures for job reductions in other operational areas at Eurowings, which employs a total of around 4,000 staff.

He said the outcome would depend on negotiations with staff representatives and how work is allocated in future between Lufthansa and Eurowings. It would likely take until 2023 before activity returns to last year's levels.

GERMAN airline Eurowings is reactivating its base in Spain holiday island Mallorca in another good sign for the recovery of the Balearic Island tourism sector.

The airline, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, will be taking off from Mallorca capital Palma next Saturday June 27 with a flight to German city Hannover following a break of some three months due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The company will be operating more than 50 flights a week from Palma, going up to nearly 170 by the end of July, with connections to 16 airports in Germany and Austria.

To begin with Eurowings will operate with two A-320 aircraft stationed at Palma’s Son San Joan airport, going up to three over the summer

We are very pleased that Eurowings Europe is able to take off again, commented Eurowings Europe Managing Director Robert Jahn.

He also thanked company employees, who he said had had to endure a lot of uncertainty and show staying power in the past weeks.

Eurowings will take off again at the end of June with its international flight operation Eurowings Europe. The first flight after a break of around three months will take place on 27 June at 07:45 from Palma to Hanover.

With the reopening of the Mallorca base, Eurowings is underlining its position as Germany’s largest holiday airline. With the additional aircraft stationed on the Balearic island, Eurowings is operating a flight schedule that supplements numerous Mallorca connections at major Eurowings locations such as Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne/Bonn with additional destinations in Germany and Austria.

Eurowings primarily operates flights from Mallorca to Berlin, Bremen, Dresden, Hanover, Leipzig, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Munich, Munster-Osnabruck, Nuremberg and Saarbrucken. In Austria, Eurowings connects Salzburg and Innsbruck with Mallorca.

With the beginning of the summer holidays in some German federal states, Eurowings will again offer more than 50 Mallorca flights per week. During the peak holiday season from the end of July, the number of flights will then increase to 168 weekly Mallorca flights.

A total of 16 airports in Germany and Austria will then be connected to Mallorca with Eurowings again. The airline had opened its first location in non-German-speaking countries in 2017 on Mallorca.

Eurowings thus became the leading carrier for flights to Mallorca to Germany and Austria.

With the end of the worldwide travel warning and the lifting of travel restrictions for Spain, customer interest in sunny destinations is growing by leaps and bounds. Therefore the airline has decided to reactivate its crews based in Palma.

Eurowings Europe will initially start operations with two Airbus A320s and increase to three aircraft over the summer. The airline also operates additional international stations for Eurowings in Salzburg (Austria) and Pristina (Kosovo).

We are very pleased that Eurowings Europe is able to take off again, said Robert Jahn, Managing Director of Eurowings Europe. I would like to thank our guests for their patience and understanding during this difficult phase.

And I would especially like to thank our Eurowings Europe team, who had to endure a lot of uncertainty and show staying power in the past weeks.

We are all the more pleased that we can now start again and be there for our holiday guests.

Mallorca is booming with Eurowings, which uses A330 wide-body to Palma Airport.

Eurowings is offering more than 160 additional flights by Airbus A330 from Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf over the next three months.

Eurowings is strengthening its position as Germany’s largest holiday airline. The Lufthansa subsidiary is expanding its route portfolio in the direction of South-East Europe and will be flying to Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast on a large scale for the first time in summer 2020.

The two new up-and-coming holiday destinations being offered are Varna and Burgas.

Flights will be available from six German airports from 6 July. In addition to the major Eurowings stations in Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Stuttgart, the airports of Munich, Hanover and Leipzig will also be directly connected to the Bulgarian coast from July.

The airline’s programme will then include more than 20 weekly flights to Burgas and Varna. Among the European sunshine destinations, Bulgaria is becoming the new holiday favourite for inexpensive summer holidays, both for families and for the younger public.

JORDAN: Domestic Flights Resume After Lockdown

Aqaba’s King Hussein International Airport resumed operations for domestic flights on Thursday with the arrival of two flights from Amman following the pandemic-induced grounding of planes.

Aqaba Airports Company (AAC) General Manager Nasser Al Majali announced the arrival and departure of domestic flights operated by local airlines, including Royal Jordanian, Jordan Aviation and Fly Jordan, stressing that the airport will “stringently adhere” to health measures.

In pictures and videos that circulated on social media, passengers are seen wearing gloves and face masks during the arrivals.

ASEZA Commissioner for Tourism and Economic Development Shurahbeel Madi told Al Mamlaka TV that the first flight carried 170 passengers, which he said indicates that there is recovery.

Chief Commissioner of the Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission (CARC) Captain Haitham Misto announced earlier on Thursday that permits were granted to Queen Alia International Airport and King Hussein International Airport, in addition to local airlines, to resume operations.

Earlier last week, Tourism Minister Majd Shweikeh had announced an array of programmes to encourage domestic tourism, mainly the Urdun Jannah programme that supports local airlines through a designated JD1 million for daily flights between Amman and Aqaba, which cost travellers only JD40 for going and return.

She also announced that support will be given to tourism service providers who are participating in the Urdun Jannah programme in the governorates, at a cost of JD1.2 million, in addition to assistance for hotels and camps in Petra.

Passengers Unwilling To Fly Now

People are less willing to fly now than they were at the height of the coronavirus lockdown, according to research carried out for the airline industry’s main trade group.

Only 45 per cent of those polled in late May and early June said they’d be prepared to board a plane within one or two months of restrictions being lifted, down from 60 per cent in April, the International Air Transport Association said on Tuesday.

If anything, consumers have actually got rather more cautious and we have a majority saying now that they would wait more than six months before travelling, IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce said in a press briefing. The survey is telling us that passengers are rather cautious.

Airlines around the world have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, and signs are the recovery won’t be quick.

Other indicators also point to an uncertain demand environment. New bookings are down 82 per cent from a year ago, according to IATA, improving only slightly from a low point in April.

Reservations are also being made far later, with 41 per cent of people booking within three days or less of their journey last month, compared with 18 per cent in 2019. Demand for long-haul flights remains close to zero.

The trade group, which represents 290 airlines, called for an extension to waivers of the so-called use-it or lose-it airport slot rule through the winter season in light of the lack of forward visibility.

The rule, requiring carriers to use 80 per cent of slots, has been suspended through October 24 in the European Union.

That will give airlines the flexibility they need to focus on meeting passenger demand as it evolves, free from the burden of trying to predict what their schedule might look like a year from now, IATA Chief Executive Officer Alexandre de Juniac said.

IATA forecasts airlines will lose a combined $US84 billion ($122 billion) this year and almost $US16 billion in 2021, more than three times the outflow after the 2008 slump.

Declining fares mean they’ll need to fly 80 per cent full just to break even, so that most will carry on losing money even as services resume, it said, predicting yields will be down 18 per cent globally this year.

TURKEY: Onur Air Resumes Domestic Flights June 26, July 15th For International Flights

The low-cost Turkish airline Onur Air will resume domestic flights on June 26 and international flights on July 15, the company announced Tuesday.

Onur Air said in a statement that it will resume operations with new safety and health measures implemented following more than two months of suspension of flights as part of the restrictions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Flights were suspended on March 28 amid worldwide coronavirus restrictions.

The airline will operate one daily round trip between Istanbul and the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya and the Black Sea city of Trabzon and a trip to the Aegean resort town of Bodrum four days a week, starting from July 26.

Onur Air CEO Teoman Tosun said the company’s priority is to ensure maximum security for the passengers and to offer the cheapest prices available.

Our aircraft are being disinfected in line with national and international health standards to prevent the spread of the virus, Tosun said.

The spread of the virus suspended touristic activity from March as Turkey was quick to close its borders and halt flights and other modes of transportation.

Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines, SunExpress its joint venture with Lufthansa and major budget airline Pegasus have already resumed domestic flights between major routes in the first week of June, after the lifting of travel restrictions due to the pandemic.

The airlines had been scheduled to resume limited international travel from mid-June and are waiting for permission to fly from national and international authorities.

The Low Cost Airlines Market report provides a detailed analysis of global market size, regional and country-level market size, segmentation market growth, market share, competitive Landscape, sales analysis, impact of domestic and global market players, value chain optimization, trade regulations, recent developments, opportunities analysis, strategic market growth analysis, product launches, area marketplace expanding, and new innovations.

Top Companies in the Global Low Cost Airlines Market are Fastjet, Mango, Fly540, Dana Air, JamboJet, Skywise, Onur Air, Bahrain Air, Airblue, Air Arabia, Flydubai, Air Asia X, FlySafair, Sama, Nas Air, Ease On Air, Jazeera Airways and Others.

Onur Air is a low-cost airline with its headquarters in the Technical Hangar B at Istanbul Ataturk Airport in Yeşilköy, Istanbul, Turkey.

It operates mostly domestic scheduled services, as well as a wide range of charter flights out of its base at Istanbul Airport. Its aircraft and crews also operate for its partly owned leisure subsidiary Holiday Europe.

Onur Air was established on 14 April 1992 and started revenue operations using a wet-leased Airbus A320 with a flight to Ercan in North Cyprus on 14 May of that year.

Onur means proud, self-esteem in Turkish. Over the next years, the Onurair fleet grew, so that by the end of 1995, it included nine aircraft.

Previously its head office was in Florya, Bakırköy, Istanbul.

In 1996, Ten Tour acquired ownership of the airline. By 1997 McDonnell Douglas MD-80 twin-jet airliners had been added to the fleet. Due to a recession, Onur Air had to reduce the size of its fleet to 13 in 1998, and then to 9 in 1999. Since then the airline has expanded again.

As of 6 April 2019 all of Onur Air's flights from their former base at Ataturk Airport have been relocated to the new Istanbul Airport.[

In August 2019, Onur Air established a new, partly-owned subsidiary named Holiday Europe for leisure flights between Europe and destinations around the Mediterranean. Onur Air provides aircraft and crews for the new brand.

On 17 June 2003, Onur Air Flight 2263, a McDonnell Douglas MD-88 registration TC-ONP overshot the runway at Groningen Airport Eelde following an aborted take-off. There were no injuries, but the airline was accused of security breaches.

On 12 May 2005, Onur Air was denied access to Dutch airspace for a month. Several incidents were the cause of the suspension of the airline. Negotiations took place between the Dutch authorities and Onur Air and on 24 May 2005 Onur Air had permission to fly from and to the Netherlands again.

On 1 January 2007, the cargo hold of a McDonnell Douglas MD-88 aircraft burst open upon landing at Ataturk International Airport, spilling luggage onto the runway.

On 7 September 2007, an Airbus A321 aircraft lost cabin pressure on a charter flight from Dalaman Airport to Birmingham Airport, resulting in an emergency landing at Atatürk International Airport. Passenger reports included a smoking engine and broken down oxygen masks.

On 20 August 2011, an Onur Air pilot forgot to contact Munich Air Traffic Control and caused the quick reaction air defence of both Germany and Austria to send four Eurofighter Typhoons to intercept the company's A321.