American Airlines is adding flights from Florida to Venezuela at the end of the year, an addition that contrasts with moves made by several international airlines that have halted or reduced service due to economic and political turmoil in the country. The airline will offer thrice-weekly service starting Dec 19 from Miami to Caracas. The airline already has 2 daily departures from Miami to Caracas. The airline added the flights because the Miami-Caracas route "has continued to perform well," a spokeswoman said, adding that the new flights will bring American's weekly service from Miami to Caracas to 17 flights. The airline also has a daily flight from Miami to Maracaibo, Venezuela, but its service to the country is still far less than the nearly 50 flights a week it used to operate. <br/>
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British Airways said it will retain its in-house call centres in Newcastle and Manchester, dashing Capita's hopes of winning contracts to run the operations. BA said Wednesday that the 2 centres, which employ 1,100 people, would receive millions of pounds in extra investment, a decision that won praise from Britain's biggest trade union. BA has been trying to cut costs in recent years, and Capita had been in a period of "exclusive engagement" with the airline to support BA's global customer contact operations, which it said handles around 9.5m calls a year. BA began talks with Capita in June last year and the talks became public just days after a massive IT outage grounded flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports over a public holiday weekend, which drew public scrutiny onto BA's cost-cutting. <br/>
United Airlines has made no secret of its disdain for Qatar Airways. United has long maintained the carrier benefits from massive govt subsidies. Now Qatar is giving United another reason to feel the anger. Qatar will April 1 introduce its cutting-edge business class product called QSuite on the airline’s daily flight between Doha and Chicago O’Hare International. Qatar’s new business class — which gives United’s year-old Polaris international business class product something to aim for — has as its most distinctive feature customisable private cabins that can be configured with adjustable panels and movable TV monitors. Chicago will be only the third Qatar gateway market in US to get the QSuite, which is already available on flights from New York City and Washington, D.C. <br/>
Finnair is speeding up the arrival of its remaining Airbus A350s to support its continued growth push toward Asia. Finnair CE Pekka Vauramo said the airline’s Asian strategy—which has been accelerated over recent years—“has been the right choice.” Finnair already has 11 A350s in service, plus another 8 on order. “We have now made decisions to receive 2 A350s ahead of the original delivery schedule,” Vauramo said .The airline will now take 1 of its A350s—originally scheduled for delivery in 2023—in 2019. Finnair has also brought forward another delivery, planned for 2022, to 2020. “The schedule for the remaining 8 A350 deliveries is now the following: One in the last quarter of 2018, 2 in 2019, 2 in 2020, 2 in 2021 and 1 in 2022,” Finnair said. <br/>