El Al Israel Airlines took delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on Wednesday in a $1.25b investment aimed at renewing its long-range fleet, halting a drop in its market share and winning back business customers. In all, Israel's flag carrier will receive 16 787-8 and 787-9 planes -- both bought and leased -- by 2020. It expects one more 787 by year-end, a total of seven by the end of 2018 and 14 by the end of 2019. They will initially fly from Tel Aviv to Newark starting on Oct. 17 and then Hong Kong, London and New York's JFK airport. At a ceremony on the tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport following the airplane's flight from Seattle, CEO David Maimon said the fleet renewal was new era for El Al, helping it better compete in a fiercely competitive market. El Al was once the go-to airline for most Israelis thanks to the kind of stringent security that equips planes with missile defense systems. But it has frustrated customers -- particularly business travelers -- over the past decade with an ageing fleet that compares poorly with competitors offering newer jets fitted with the latest in hi-tech entertainment and comfort. "I am sure (because of) this aircraft, most of our passengers will be back, especially the business segment," Maimon said Wednesday.<br/>
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Three people are recovering from injuries after strong turbulence forced a regional airline plane to divert to St Louis. Officials with SkyWest Airlines say Flight 3167, operating under American Eagle, was traveling from Atlanta to Chicago on Tuesday evening when it hit severe turbulence, forcing a landing at Lambert Airport. SkyWest said that a flight attendant and two passengers were taken to a hospital for evaluation. It wasn't clear if they were admitted to the hospital. <br/>
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) says a fan blade failure was involved in a 25 June incident involving an AirAsia X Airbus A330-300 aircraft. In an update to its investigation, the ATSB says that as 9M-XXE (MSN 1075) climbed to 40,000ft (flight level 400) from 38,000ft, "a fan blade on the number 1 engine failed resulting in engine damage and significant airframe vibration". The aircraft was operating the Perth-Kuala Lumpur route when the incident occurred, reportedly carrying 359 passengers. "The shutdown continued to rotate in the airflow, resulting in ongoing airframe vibration. The aircraft returned to Perth and landed safely." Rolls Royce's subsequent inspection of the Trent 772B-60EP engine discovered that a fan blade separated roughly one quarter of the length from its base. "The blade section and associated engine debris were retained within the engine cowls," says ATSB. "Examination of the retained fan blade section identified that the separation was likely due to metal fatigue that originated within the blade’s internal structure. Investigation and analysis of the failure mode are on-going."<br/>
Berlin-based Germania is expanding its flight schedule for 2018 in an effort to fill a void in the German air travel market following the announcement of airberlin’s insolvency. “As a result of the current [airberlin] situation, we have decided to expand our flight program for those travelers and tour operators that are looking for comfort and planning security,” CEO Karsten Balke said. Because of increased demand from tour operators, the carrier said that beginning in 2018 it will operate from both Berlin airports—Tegel and Schoenefeld—to European holiday destinations. The carrier also plans to increase its presence at Dusseldorf, a strong market and main airberlin hub, and add more flights to several European holiday destinations. At Nurnberg, capacity to Palma de Mallorca will be doubled. New flights from Zurich (Switzerland) include routes to Ibiza (Spain), Samos (Greece) and to the Canary Islands (Spain). For summer 2018, Germania will operate from nine German airports to Palma de Mallorca (Spain). In addition to the high season, its recently opened base at Palma will remain open for the lower demand months of March and November.<br/>
Fiji Airways has signed an agreement with Viking Air to acquire three DHC-6 Series 400 Twin Otters for its Fiji Link subsidiary, with an option to acquire a fourth aircraft. The new aircraft will replace two of the three older Bombardier DHC-6 Series 300s, thus raising the DHC-6's overall fleet size to four aircraft. Deliveries of the aircraft will take place between October and early 2018, says Fiji Airways. "Our team is also considering converting one of our current Twin Otter aircraft into a multi-use vehicle to cater not only for additional scheduled flying, but to provide opportunities for new charter business, medical evacuation services and carriage of freight," says the airline's CE Andre Viljoen. Fiji Airways adds a decision to acquire the fourth model will be made in 2018. Flight Fleets Analyzer indicates that besides the three DHC-6 Series 300s, Fiji Link also operates an ATR 42-600 and two ATR 72-600s.<br/>
Rising fuel expenses, combined with the cost of operating new international routes, were behind Thailand LCC Nok Air’s THB749m ($22m) net loss for the 2017 Q2, narrowed from a THB864m net loss in Q2 2016. Nok Air’s total revenue increased 14.1% year-over-year to THB3.4b. Passenger revenue rose 7% as the airline increased its air fares, even as system traffic declined 2% during the quarter. Overall expenses were up 9% to THB4b, driven by a 39% increase in jet fuel expenses and a 6.4% rise in ground handling costs. The airline added two international charter routes (between Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport [DMK] and Yichang, China; and DMK-Baotou, China) during the quarter, totaling four new weekly round-trips. Additional costs associated with the airline’s acquisition of a new Boeing 737-800 in June contributed to the YOY rise. Thailand’s tourism industry is on the upswing, the company indicated, as the number of foreign tourists into Thailand increased 4.4% YOY during the first half of 2017 to 17.3m people. <br/>
Hundreds of UAE passengers bound for the Philippines have had their plans disrupted after their flight was cancelled due to an unspecified technical issue. Cebu Pacific Air confirmed that the Dubai-Manila flight 5J015, which was scheduled to leave at 11.10pm on Tuesday, August 22, was unable to fly “due to a technical issue” that was detected prior to departure. The airline has apologised, and assured that affected passengers were provided with necessities. The airline also assured that affected passengers will be accommodated on the next available flight, and are scheduled to fly at 11.10pm tonight.<br/>