SIA, SilkAir and India’s Vistara announced an expansion of its codeshare agreement Aug. 5, a day before Vistara begins its first international flight from New Delhi to Singapore Aug. 6. SIA already has codeshare seats on Vistara’s domestic routes; the new agreement will see SIA’s designator on Vistara’s international new flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Singapore. The new international flights will use leased Boeing 737-800s that were previously operated by India’s Jet Airways before it ceased operations. In addition, SIA and SilkAir will add new codeshare destinations in Vistara’s domestic network, that include Chandigarh, Dibrugarh, Jammu, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Siliguri and Srinagar. The Indian carrier will also add eight codeshare destinations flown by SIA and SilkAir, to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi. In all, Vistara will codeshare to 44 SIA destinations across 10 countries, such as Australia, Japan and the US. Vistara chief strategy officer Vinod Kannan said deepening the strategic partnership means “more seamless flying experience for travellers from India to destinations across Asia, Oceania and the United States.”<br/>
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Central and Eastern European Wizz Air will begin operations at Edinburgh Airport in December, offering flights to four European destinations from the Scottish capital. The fast-expanding airline plans to serve Warsaw and Gdansk (Poland), Budapest (Hungary) and Bucharest (Romania). According to an Edinburgh Airport statement, Warsaw flights (4X-weekly) will begin Dec. 18, Budapest and Gdansk (3X-weekly) Dec. 19; and Bucharest (2X-weekly) Dec. 21. The new services—which will be served with Airbus A320/321 aircraft—will result in an extra 250,000 seats on Wizz Air’s Scottish routes in 2020. The carrier already serves Gdansk from Aberdeen, and operates from Glasgow to Budapest and Katowice. <br/>
The next time your airplane seat mate clips their nails or snores loudly, you can at least be grateful for one thing -- they're human.<br/>Passengers on a recent Spirit Airlines flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Newark, New Jersey, did not have the same luxury. Several passengers filmed cell phone videos of a mysterious animal -- which they initially thought might be a bird, but ended up being a bat -- flapping around the cabin. Passengers and flight attendants alike were clearly unnerved by the incident. According to one traveller, Peter Scattini, the bat did not make an appearance until about 30 minutes into the flight, which is about halfway through the total flying time. No one was sure how the stowaway made it on board. Scattini adds that eventually someone was able to trap the bat "between a book and a cup." The bat was held in a bathroom so that the flight could finish uneventfully. According to a rep from Spirit, animal control came on board to take the bat after the plane landed safely and customers were able to deplane. "The aircraft was disinfected and searched as a precaution," the Spirit Airlines representative said. "No one was hurt in this incident, including the bat."<br/>