FRANCE: Air France And Qantas Re Establish Codeshare Agreement

Qantas and Air France have renewed its codesharing agreement on May 23, offering further connectivity between Europe and Australia via Asia.

Flights are available to book from June 5 for travel starting July 20, 2018.

Air France will add its flight codes to Qantas Flights between Hong Kong, and Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane as well as between Singapore (SIN) and Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth.

The French carrier’s customers will also be able to access codesharing services from Sydney to five cities across Australia’s domestic network: Canberra, Hobart, Adelaide, Cairns, and Darwin.

In return, Qantas will add its code to flights operated by Air France between Singapore, Hong Kong, and Paris-CDG, as a continuation of connections between Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth.

The new agreement will let the two carriers come together and codeshare onto as many as 200 flights per week.

Air France’s eligible customers can also use the Qantas lounged in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia.

Likewise, Qantas’ eligible customers are now able to use Air France lounges in Paris, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

We are very pleased to be re-establishing a partnership with Qantas, said Patrick Alexandre, EVP Commercial Sales, and Alliances at Air France-KLM.

Thanks to this agreement, the Air France-KLM group will be able to offer one of the best possible travel solutions for its customers from Europe to Australia, he added.

This new cooperation confirms our group’s desire to expand in the Asia-Pacific region, said Alexandre.

Alison Webster, CEO of Qantas, added that “this is great news for our customers who want to travel to Europe via Asia, giving them another option to get to Paris and more opportunities to earn Frequent Flyer Points.”

Despite the fact that Qantas and Air France are members of different alliances, the opportunity to earn miles on these codeshare flights is now possible.

The return of this popular codeshare delivers on our strategy of partnering to provide customers with access to an expanded network and more seamless travel experiences wherever they want to fly, Alison Webster says.

With the carrier recently expanding its presence out of London with direct flights to Perth on its brand-new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, Europe is finally at direct reach for the Australian carrier.

Through this codeshare with Air France, Australian customers will now have a more seamless experience.


Tourism Observer

NEW ZEALAND: Police Storm Malaysia Airlines Flight After Passenger Threatened To Blow Up The Plane

Armed police stormed a Malaysia Airlines flight which was forced to return to Melbourne after a passenger tried to enter the cockpit claiming he had a bomb, officials said Thursday.

Passengers told of fearing for their lives, but Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said a Sri Lankan national, who appeared to have been drunk, was overpowered by the plane's crew and later arrested.

It is not a hijack. One disruptive passenger tried to enter the plane's cockpit,he said.

The passenger claimed to have a bomb. But it was not a bomb but a powerbank, Aziz said.

Everyone on board is safe.He was taken out of the plane handcuffed by Australian security officers."

Kuala Lumpur-bound Flight MH128 left Melbourne at 11:11pm (1311 GMT) on Wednesday but turned back shortly afterwards when a man allegedly threatened those on board, Australian police said.

It is alleged that a man tried to enter the cockpit and threatened the safety of passengers and staff, Victoria state police said in a statement, but added that he did not gain entry to the cockpit and was subdued.

Superintendent Andy Langdon said the suspect appeared to have a history of mental illness.

We do not believe this is terrorist-related at the moment,Langdon said.

Photographs on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website showed black-clad officers armed with rifles on board the plane.

While officials tried to play down the incident, passengers told of some 90 minutes of onboard drama and fear after take-off.

A business class passenger, who identified himself as Andy, said the arrested man had threatened to blow the plane up.

The staff were saying 'Sit back down sir, sit back down sir'. He goes 'No, I'm not going to sit back down, I'm going to blow the plane up', Andy said.

"The staff screamed out 'I need some help, I need some help'. So I jumped up, undid my buckle, and approached him."

Andy said the man ran to the back of the plane, where two other men grabbed and disarmed him of a "giant black thing" and "put hog ties on him".

Superintendent Langdon described the experience for passengers as "very traumatic", adding passengers and crew were "heroic".

Passenger Arif Chaudery said he joined several others to subdue the man.

"Families, kids, they were very scared, and some screaming... so three or four guys, we jumped as quickly as possible," he told Channel Nine.

"We just put him on the floor and finally staff brought the belt, so we handcuffed him and tied his legs and put his face on the floor."

Laura, who asked for her surname to be withheld, told the ABC she feared for her life.

"I thought the plane was going to go down, I thought the bomb was going to go off, I really did think I was going to die," she said.

Malaysia Airlines said the plane's passengers would be put up at hotels and offered another flight.

Melbourne airport said inbound and outbound flights had been affected and advised passengers to check with their airlines.

The incident came just months after Canberra called off the search for missing flight MH370 carrying 239 passengers and crew, after a vast underwater hunt off Australia's west coast failed to find the plane.

MH370 disappeared in March 2014, while another passenger jet, MH17, was shot down in July of the same year while flying over Ukraine in twin tragedies to hit Malaysia's national carrier.

AUSTRALIA: AccorHotels Takes 15 Australian Hotels

AccorHotels has reached a new agreement for the restructuring of its Australian portfolio, which will include the acquisition of 15 ibis hotels in the country.

Under the terms of the deal with a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the European hotel group’s real estate unit, HotelInvest, will acquire 15 ibis and ibis Budget properties comprising almost 1,600 rooms for a total of AU$200 million (US$145m). The agreement includes hotels in Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne, as well as two airport hotels.

In addition, AccorHotels has agreed long-term management agreements for 16 of its Australian hotels. These include ibis, ibis Styles, Mercure, Novotel and Pullman properties with a combined inventory of more than 2,500 rooms. The new contracts will run for 50 years.

“This deal is in line with our stated strategy to optimise cash flow generation, reduce earnings volatility and restructure lease contracts into owned and managed hotels,” said John Ozinga, chief operating officer of HotelInvest. “The acquisition of the economy hotels in key locations is a signal of our continued focus on supporting the Group’s growth strategy by holding a selective portfolio of profitable hotel property assets.”

The agreement involves a portfolio which was purchased by the ADIA subsidiary in 2013.