SPAIN:American Travelers Enjoy Free Stopovers In Madrid All On Iberia

Iberia customers in the United States are now able to stopover for free in Madrid while traveling to or from any of the airline’s 108 European, African and Middle Eastern destinations through their hub in the city.

The “Stopover Hola Madrid” program allows American passengers to stay up to six nights in the Spanish capital and can help travelers plan their visit with discounts for hotels, airport transfers, restaurants, museums and other experiences.

Joining the trend of European airlines allowing complimentary stopovers at their hubs including Icelandair, Swiss International Airlines and TAP Air Portugal, Iberia customers can choose to make the stopover either on the outbound portion or return segments of their itineraries.

One major difference from other European airlines, however, is that Iberia’s program is only available for passengers with itineraries from the U.S.

Moreover, Iberia doesn’t just stop with its country’s capital. The airline is also offering 25 percent discounts on domestic Iberia, Iberia Express or Iberia Regional flights to allow travelers to explore more of Spain. Spain’s national carrier, Iberia serves 32 Spanish destinations.

The program, dubbed Madrid a la carte, will also give a free two-day public transport card to those who sign up.

Customers will also be given a special discount to hire a car from Avis and to stay in a hotel ran by the Meliá chain.

Iberia Plus cardholders will also receive more special benefits.

Special discounts will also be given to Hola Madrid customers on select experiences such as to visit top art museums such as the Prado and Reina Sofia, as well as discounts at the museums’ restaurants.

Viator-arranged sightseeing, dining and flamenco tours are also discounted on the program, as well as longer excursions operated by Alsa.

KENYA: Airlines Flocking Mombasa For High Season

Turkish Airlines is expected to resume daily flights between Istanbul and Mombasa from next month.

The airline’s marketing manager Carol Mukinya said the carrier would increase flights from the current five per week to daily programmes.

She attributed the flights increase to the peak season which begins next month, adding that passenger numbers were rising owing to the summer season.

Between May and this month, we have been operating five flights a week due to the low season which is coming to an end on June 30, she said.

Ms Mukinya noted that the Turkish national carrier is expected to operate daily flights from July to March next year when the high season ends.

Through our daily flights from the Istanbul hub in July, we expect to fly more tourists to Mombasa for them to enjoy holiday,she said.

The flight increase would boost tourism and the airline would connect Mombasa with other 300 routes the carrier operates on across the world.

Tourists prefer to come to Mombasa for holiday during summer time due to its alluring beaches and its rich historical culture, she explained.

Turkish Airlines is the only one from Europe operating scheduled flights to Mombasa. Regional airlines such as Ethiopian Airlines and RwandAir also operate scheduled flights to Mombasa.

During the low season, majority of the European chartered airlines stop flying to Mombasa owing to low numbers.

On Sunday Lufthansa announced that it would increase flights between Frankfurt and Nairobi to six per week from June 21.
Lufthansa which is the largest airline in Europe in terms of fleet size, plans to increase operations on the Frankfurt-Nairobi route from five flights a week to six.

On the other hand, Swiss International Airlines is expected to increase flights between Zurich and Nairobi from five per week to six beginning July 6.

Hotels which were shut down for the low season in April at the Coast are expected to re-open to welcome guests by the end of this month and July 15.

Lufthansa Group East Africa regional sales general manager Tobias Ernst said: We are excited to further support tourism in Kenya by providing more capacity for visitors.

The Lufthansa service will be available throughout the week except Mondays using an Airbus A340-300 in a three-class configuration offering customers Business Class, a Premium Economy Cabin and Economy.

Lufthansa says will maintain the late-night departure from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to arrive in Frankfurt early morning.

Kenya has stepped up efforts to return to peak performance of the tourism sector, where signs of growth have started showing with an improved performance in 2016, earning Sh99 billion.

Bombardier Fullfills Target To Deliver Seven CSeries Deliveries In 2016

Bombardier made good on its goal to deliver seven CSeries aircraft in 2016, with the company delivering two aircraft in the last two days of the year, Bombardier confirms.

On 30 December, the company delivered a CS100 to Swiss International Airlines, and the delivery flight of a CS300 to Air Baltic departed Montreal on 31 December, Bombardier says.

The end-of-year deliveries mean Bombardier has met a revised goal to deliver seven of the new-generation aircraft during the year. Those seven aircraft include five CS100s to Swiss and two CS300s to Air Baltic.

Bombardier in September 2016 revised its CSeries delivery goal for the year from 15 to seven, citing production delays suffered by Pratt & Whitney, maker of the CSeries’ PW1500G geared-turbofans.

P&W has attributed its delays to production of the turbofans’ titanium-aluminium fan blades, which have an aluminium body bonded to a titanium leading edge.

Earlier generation P&W engines had hollow-titanium blades, but P&W switched to the lighter titanium-aluminium design because the geared-turbofan’s blades spin at one third the speed of blades on earlier engines.

Bombardier anticipates producing 30 to 35 CSeries in 2017, with production increasing to between 90 and 120 CSeries by 2020, the company said in December.

Passenger Experience With Airline Food

I’ve been tracking my flights since early 2012 and according to Jetlovers I’ve taken 370 flights, flown over 385,000 miles and spent around 40 days in the air. I love flying, but my favorite part is the meal service.

The anticipation of what may be served and how it will look and taste all adds to the inflight passenger experience. As I’ve said numerous times before, airline food is a form of inflight entertainment, whether good or bad. There are some airlines who really know how to do airline meals correctly whilst others who need a lesson or two. Here’s a look at some examples of memorable inflight meals over the years, each with its own reason why.

Norwegian Airlines
Back in 2012, I flew with the airline from New York to Oslo (remember all those issues they had with its Boeing 787s?) the food was bad, really bad. But they redeemed themselves recently, I flew from Oslo to Bangkok only 2 weeks ago with the airline and managed to book a number of meals. My inflight taste test cost me €35.00 and I received a main meal as well a second service breakfast pack. The crew saw me taking lots of photos and ended up giving me an extra hot meal to test out. I immediately noticed a massive improvement in quality and taste. The meals were fresh, served hot and most importantly tasty and yes the chicken was succulent too.

Xiamen Airlines
I wasn’t expecting much from this Chinese airline even though I would be flying business class, but was pleasantly surprised on a flight from Amsterdam to Xiamen on their Boeing 787. It was Christmas Day 2015 and I was served a delicious meal of chicken with roast potatoes, French onion soup and a crisp salad. Not only did the airline hand out dinner candles to all passengers, but the service and inflight product was just fantastic. Sure the lounges weren’t the best in China, but inflight this airline was perfect!

Malaysia Airlines
Well known for its fantastic satay sticks in business class, Malaysia Airlines didn’t disappoint on this flight from Kuala Lumpur to New Delhi. Passengers on Malaysia Airlines gobble up 20,000 satay sticks each day! They are cooked in a special way at around 60 degrees and blast chilled (cooled down very quickly) then kept cool until they are served inflight no later than 12 hours after being cooked. Passengers can choose between lamb or chicken, and have the satay sauce drizzled all over the meat, or on the side. Whilst the the rest of my meal was mediocre on this flight I thoroughly enjoyed those satay sticks!

Swiss International Airlines
SWISS really knows how to consistently serve some of the most amazing looking meals in business class on their European flights. The airline is well known to support local Swiss producers and offer these products to passengers inflight. Back in November 2014 the airline had a pop up restaurant event on flight LX16 from Zurich to New York. Swiss chef Chef Andreas Caminada and his ten-member team took 12 months to plan for the inflight event. Passengers in all cabin classes were served an array of meals that were freshly prepared inflight. Here’s a perfect example of how Swiss even treat economy class passengers to Swiss produce.

Turkish Airlines
Whether you’re in business, premium economy or economy, Turkish Airlines certainly knows how to deliver a fantastic meal no matter what cabin class you travel. Even on short flights within Europe the airline will offer something delicious. Like this inflight snack box on a flight from Athens to Istanbul featuring a typical Turkish breakfast, not bad for a flight of around 1:20!

Singapore Airlines
Probably my most memorable meal was flying SQ in their A380 suites, I pre ordered the Japanese Kyo-Kaiseki dish. My favorite part of the meal was the Nino-Zen, it was the third course in this four course tasting menu. It included:

An amazing suites experience on Singapore Airlines from Hong Kong to Singapore.