A commercial airliner flying to Tel Aviv crossed through the skies of Saudi Arabia for the first time Thursday, ending an era when a direct route was impossible because of Middle East tensions. Air India flight 139 took off from New Delhi and passed over Oman before traversing the border into Saudi airspace. It landed in Tel Aviv shortly after 10 pm, a 7-hour flight. Israel Transport minister Israel Katz declared it a breakthrough. The flight is the “first civilian connection with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states,” he said. Flying between New Delhi and Tel Aviv ordinarily takes 9 hours because planes are routed over the Arabian Sea, flying west over the Horn of Africa to avoid Saudi Arabia and north across the Red Sea to reach Israel. The Jewish state and the Saudi kingdom do not have diplomatic relations. <br/>
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A passenger who was bumped off a full flight has scored the maximum prize — a US$10,000 travel voucher. In a series of tweets, Allison Preiss of Washington, DC, described how she was rewarded after being asked to give up her seat on a Thursday flight. Agents announced in the gate area that the flight was oversold, and they offered $800 vouchers, then raised it to $1,000 in travel credit, Preiss said. "Since nobody volunteered, they then announced that the lowest-fare passenger would be pulled out of the boarding line," Preiss said. The agents raised the offer for volunteers one more time, to a $2,000 voucher, but when no one responded, Preiss was stopped from boarding the plane. a United employee offered her $2,000 in travel credit but she wanted cash. Then an agent offered a $10,000 voucher. <br/>
Boeing delivered its first 787-10 Dreamliner to SIA Sunday, rounding out a family of lightweight jets on which the planemaker is betting its future. SIA, which expanded its order for 787-10s to 49 jets last year, plans to introduce the jet on services to Osaka, Japan, starting in May. The aircraft, which sells for US$326m at list prices, completes a line-up of 3 models starting with the 787-8 which debuted in 2011. All boast carbon-composite fabrication materials, fuel efficiency and new state-of-the-air filtration systems with higher levels of humidity in the air for long-distance flight. The 787-10's range is 11,910 kilometres. At 223 feet long, the aircraft is 18 feet longer than the 787-9 and seats around 330 passengers, 40 more than the 787-9 and 88 more than the 787-8. <br/>
ANA and Alitalia have agreed to a commercial partnership, which will see them codeshare on each other’s flights from Oct 28. ANA will place its code on Alitalia’s services from Tokyo Narita to Milan and Rome, as well as on its domestic services to 6 Italian points (Turin, Milan, Florence, Bologna, Venice and Naples). Alitalia will meanwhile place its code on ANA’s services to five Japanese points (Sapporo, Sendai, Osaka, Fukuoka and Okinawa). The duo will also co-operate on frequent flyer programmes, including reciprocal mileage accrual on codeshare routes and redemptions. “The cooperation among ANA and Alitalia will expand the network between Japan and Italy, which will benefit customers by providing them with greater choice and flexibility,” say the airlines. <br/>
TAP Air Portugal has apologised for keeping more than 100 passengers stranded at Stuttgart airport in southwestern Germany after one of its flights was canceled last-minute because of a drunken co-pilot. Shortly before the TAP flight was to take-off to Lisbon Friday night, an airport employee noticed the co-pilot walking unsteadily and smelling of alcohol. He notified airport authorities, which decided to keep the plane on the ground. It wasn't immediately clear if the 40-year-old co-pilot was detained. The German news agency dpa reported Saturday that all 106 passengers were put up at hotels overnight. TAP tweeted Saturday that the passengers would only be able to fly to Lisbon Monday, "which is, at the moment, the first day with seats available." <br/>