Lufthansa resumed flying to Cairo Sunday following a 1-day suspension due to safety concerns. Meanwhile, British Airways continued with its 7-day suspension of flights to Cairo, and general Younes Elmasry, Egypt's minister of civil aviation, said he's frustrated that the airline suspended flights without consulting Egyptian authorities. Elmasry met Sunday with Geoffrey Adams, British ambassador to Egypt, and both said they would work together to resolve the situation as soon as possible. Adams apologised for not informing Egyptian authorities before British Airways announced it was suspending flights to and from Egypt for a week. The US warned citizens Friday about traveling to Egypt, saying terrorist groups including ISIS committed multiple deadly attacks. British authorities also warned against traveling to parts of Egypt. <br/>
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EgyptAir is preparing to offer additional capacity on the route from Cairo to London, following the temporary suspension of British Airways services. The Egyptian ministry of civil aviation says it has "increased" the seat capacity of EgyptAir flights on the London Heathrow sector in response. British Airways is halting flights to Cairo for a week owing to security concerns, although it has not specified their nature. EgyptAir says that "additional flights" have been assigned to accommodate passengers affected by cancellations from other airlines. Extra services will be provided through deployment of a Boeing 787 on the Heathrow route, says the civil aviation ministry. Lufthansa had reportedly intended to suspend Cairo flights as well, but appears to have backtracked on the decision. <br/>
Austrian Airlines is set to renew its narrowbody fleet by replacing 18 Bombardier Dash 8 Q400s with 10 Airbus A320s. As a first step, Austrian plans to take 66 A320s beginning in August through next year. The first 4 A320s, leased from Aviation Capital Group, will begin joining the fleet from August through October and will launch operations in December. These aircraft were previously operated by Avianca Brasil. Two further A320s, leased from CDB Aviation Lease Finance, will be delivered in 2020. These aircraft were formerly operated by Juneyao Airlines. No other information was given on the other 4 planned A320 acquisitions. The airline has been impacted by increasing LCC competition at its Vienna hub in the aftermath of the Airberlin bankruptcy. <br/>
In the wake of its proposed privatisation, the Indian govt has asked Air India to put a freeze on large-scale promotion and appointments. New flights are to be started only when it is extremely necessary and after due diligence from commercial aspect. "The direction came almost a week back. It says that due to impending privatisation, no major initiatives have to be taken up. There will be freeze on appointments and promotions," an official source said. The directive was issued by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management or DIPAM. After failing to find a bidder in its previous term, the Modi 2.0 govt is working on war-footing to sell Air India to a private player. It has already reconstituted the group of ministers to decide the course of privatisation. <br/>
EVA Air will start flying to Italy’s Milan Malpensa Feb 18, 2020, making it the first European destination that the airline has added in 20 years, after Amsterdam, London-Heathrow, Paris and Vienna. The 4X-weekly flight from Taipei Taoyuan airport will use a 316-seat Boeing 777-300ER. Under a bilateral agreement between Italy and Taiwan, 2 airlines from each country are allowed to fly 7X-weekly flights between Taiwan, Milan and Rome. “We expect many travellers on the route to fly point-to-point between Taipei and Milan, but we also anticipate significant volumes of passengers and cargo transfer traffic on EVA Air’s network of 31 points in Asia, 18 in China and Brisbane in Australia,” Milan airport operator SEA Group VP Andrea Tucci said. <br/>