As Saudi Arabia opened its airspace for the first time to a commercial flight to Israel, El Al will take its own fight for access to Saudi airspace to the Supreme Court in Israel, officials said Friday. The historic Air India flight Thursday ended a 70-year flyover ban for jetliners en route to or from Israel, in what many have taken to be a sign of thawing ties between Israel and Saudi. Granting an Israeli airline access to its air space would, however, mark a dramatic diplomatic shift. Saudi Arabia does not recognise Israel and El Al must take a more circuitous path to avoid Saudi Arabia, which can add hours to flight times. El Al has asked IATA to help it access Saudi airspace. It has also accused its own govt, which approved Air India's new route, of putting it at a disadvantage. <br/>
unaligned
Laudamotion will provide up to 8 crewed aircraft to Eurowings until the end of May, Niki Lauda's repurchased and rebranded carrier said Friday. Lufthansa had planned to grow Eurowings by buying failed Air Berlin's Niki unit itself but scrapped the purchase after the EC indicated it would veto the deal. Lauda, who also secured a cooperation deal with Thomas Cook's Condor, is still under time pressure to fill his planes for the summer, so he is keen to benefit from Lufthansa's sales and marketing channels. Eurowings, on the other hand, can put Laudamotion's capacity to good use. The basic agreement between Lauda and Lufthansa covers a little more than 2 months, not the whole summer season that runs to October. "Laudamotion and Eurowings will evaluate a possible cooperation beyond that date in the coming weeks," Laudamotion said. <br/>
Tony Fernandes, the co-founder of AirAsia, is seeking to transform the airline into an asset-light, digitally focused firm after the US$1b sale of its leasing business, in an effort to foster sustainable growth. AirAsia, which pioneered budget air travel in Asia along the lines of Ryanair in Europe, is now building a sprawling empire that includes a payments company, logistics firm, food and beverages brands and a loyalty programme. Leveraging the profusion of customer data from its 65m-plus passengers, the focal point of the strategy is a digital push that exceeds in scale that of regional budget airlines. AirAsia will also be going head-to-head against flag carriers such as SIA which is ramping up investments in digital technology. The goal is to offset the volatile earnings from the cyclical airline business. <br/>
Fastjet and LAM have signed a wide-ranging MOU to explore long-term commercial cooperation. The MOU, which is thought to be the first of its kind in Africa, was signed at LAM’s HQ in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo and aims to significantly enhance commercial aviation in the country. The document covers codeshare and interline agreements between the two carriers, as well as optimised network synergies. Cooperation on other areas such as commercial systems, cargo, engineering and maintenance is also planned. “The areas of cooperation will not only further strengthen Mozambique’s flag carrier as a regional air services provider but contribute significantly to initiatives that promote tourism, economic development and trade,” LAM CE Antonio Pinto said. <br/>