Jetstar says it will be flying non-stop between Australia and China under a new charter arrangement before the end of the year, as it positions itself to take a bigger slice of the booming Chinese market. The airline flies out of 7 Chinese airports to other destinations in Asia but has no flights to Australia. That will change with plans for a new charter service bringing Chinese tourists to Australia on package tours within the next 6 months. "We fly 35 services a week into China through the combination of our airlines and we have a comprehensive plan for the future that sees that continue to grow," Jetstar CE Jayne Hrdlicka said Thursday. "The primary airports in China into the primary destinations throughout the region are very well covered," she said. <br/>
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Iranian domestic carrier Zagros Airlines has signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus for the purchase of 28 aircraft at the Paris Air Show, Airbus said Thursday. The airline intends to buy 20 A320neos and 8 A330-800neos, an acquisition valued at US$4.2b at list prices. “[Zagros has] been a loyal operator of the A320 family,” Zagros Airlines CE Seyed Abdolreza Mousavi said. “This represents a practical step for Zagros Airlines’ fleet renewal as well as expanding our operations both domestically and internationally.” Zagros operates a fleet of 11 Airbus A320 family aircraft, in addition to 9 DC-9s. “[These aircraft] will allow Zagros to modernise and expand its fleet with minimum change benefiting from our fleet commonality,” Airbus COO and Commercial Aircraft president Fabrice Brégier said. <br/>
Iran Airtour Airlines has signed a memorandum of understanding to purchase 45 Airbus A320neo family aircraft, Airbus said Thursday. Variant specifics for the aircraft were not detailed in the announcement; at minimum, the planned acquisition is valued at approximately US$4.5b. If cleared, this will be Iran Airtour’s first order with Airbus. Airbus said the MOU is contingent upon all necessary approvals, including those from the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Iran Airtour presently operates a fleet of 2 Boeing 737-300s a 737-500 and 6 DC-9s. Airbus said the airline will benefit from the new aircraft to modernise its fleet and expand its operations to domestic and international markets. “The A320neo family…will contribute to our growth and expansion strategy,” Iran Airtour Airlines chairman Majid Shekari said. <br/>
A court has told El Al that it can no longer ask women passengers to switch seats if ultra-Orthodox Jewish men object to sitting next to them, an Israeli advocacy group said Thursday. A case for damages from the carrier was brought by 83-year-old Renee Rabinowitz, who was asked by a flight attendant, after boarding a flight from Newark to Tel Aviv in 2015, if she would agree to move. The airline has said it tries to accommodate ultra-Orthodox men, who cite religious beliefs in seeking to avoid close proximity to women other than their wives, but never pressures female passengers to accede to a seat swap request. Rabinowitz did agree to move to another seat but later sued El Al, arguing she had felt "deep humiliation", the Israel Religious Center, which represented her, said. <br/>
Wizz Air has opened a new base at Luton airport, its first in western Europe, part of plans to expand its capacity. Luton was the destination for Wizz Air's first ever flight in 2004, and the airline said that the base would help to serve its routes from the airport more effectively. It will allow the airline to keep aircraft at Luton overnight and will create 36 jobs. Owain Jones, COO at Wizz Air, said: "We've got 13% growth (in traffic) here this year, and having the aircraft based here, having the local crew, it will enable us to keep that strong growth going." Wizz Air already flies about a third of the flights from Luton, and some months it has more flights from the airport than rival EasyJet, which is headquartered there. CE Jozsef Varadi has said the new base reflected the size of the Luton operation, where it served 5m passengers last year. <br/>
Closer linkages are in prospect between Emirates Airline and flydubai. “There’s no competition between us, but I think we’ve just done our own thing and I’ve thought it could have been done better if it was a little more coordinated,” Emirates president Tim Clark said Wednesday. “It makes a lot more sense to work together. Flydubai has moved from its original low-cost model. It now has lounges and lie-flat beds in business class; they’ve moved more towards a full-service model. Because they’ve moved closer to us, it becomes far easier to move high-yielding passengers across, certainly between premium classes.” The two carriers’ route maps are complementary, with Emirates’ fleet of Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A380s focusing on long-haul sectors while flydubai has a dense network within the Gulf and just beyond. <br/>
AirAsia has signed an agreement to order 14 more Airbus A320ceos, Airbus said Thursday. The contract, subject to approval by AirAsia’s board, is valued at approximately US$1.4b at list prices. “Demand is very strong in AirAsia’s traditional countries, but now we have Indonesia, Philippines and India doing extremely well … [it] has led us to expand our fleet, and Airbus has been a great partner in finding us slots,” AirAsia Group CE Tony Fernandes said. “We still need to find more aircraft to expand our regional reach and are actively sourcing from the leasing market. The competitive environment is at its best, coupled with a stable oil price.” In April, AirAsia ordered 3 A320ceos, adding to an order book that also includes 296 A320neos and 100 A321neos. <br/>