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EgyptAir announced that it would operate daily direct flights between Cairo and the Libyan city of Benghazi starting on 18 April this year, after an 11-year suspension due to the deteriorating security situation following the "revolution" that ousted the late President Muammar Gaddafi. The Libyan authorities allowed the resumption of flights to Libya from Cairo International Airport after flights were limited to Burj al-Arab Airport in Alexandria. The decision coincided with the visit of the Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of National Unity Abdelhamid Dbeibeh to Cairo, during which several agreements. EgyptAir said that the flight to Benghazi is part of its keenness to boost its presence in Africa and in line with the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation's vision to bolster its presence in Africa. A daily fight will be operated between Cairo and Benghazi via modern Boeing 737-800 aircraft.<br/>

Ethiopian Airlines is beefing up its schedule to the US with additional flights to Washington Dulles, an addition that comes even as its traffic recovery proceeds slower than it expected. The Star Alliance carrier will begin thrice-weekly flights between Dulles and Lomé, Togo, that continue on to its Addis Ababa base in June, Ethiopian US Regional Director Samson Arega said. The flights will complement Ethiopian’s existing daily service to Addis Ababa from Washington. Ethiopian also flies between Chicago O’Hare, Newark, and New York JFK and Addis Ababa. The New York-area routes operate with a stop in Lomé. Lomé is the main base for Ethiopian’s affiliate carrier, Asky Airlines. Ethiopian’s Houston flights, which were suspended after just five months in May 2020, have yet to resume. Arega said the airline plans to return to the Texas city but has no timeline yet. The additional Washington flights come as Ethiopian’s passengers continue to return slowly. Arega said that 70-75% of pre-pandemic passenger traffic has returned, and the airline expects that number to rise as it moves into the peak summer travel season. It forecasts recovering 80-85% of 2019 numbers next year.<br/>

Air India has confirmed that Alliance Air is no longer a subsidiary of the airline. The announcement comes after Tata Sons formally took over Air India last year. Alliance Air operates regional flights to smaller towns and cities in India with a fleet of 18 ATR 72-600 aircraft. In a Twitter post, Air India said that passengers who have tickets of Air India with a 4-digit flight number starting with ‘9’ or a 3-digit flight number starting with ‘9I’, must note that these bookings actually belong to Alliance Air, which is no longer a subsidiary of the carrier. “Booking/queries related to Alliance Air will not be handled by Air India from April 15,” Air India said in the advisory. Tata Sons, India’s oldest and largest conglomerate, took over the debt-laden national carrier in October 2021. Its winning bid of Rs180b ($2.4b) beat that of India’s SpiceJet chief Ajay Singh, who offered Rs151b (Dh7.38b) in his private capacity to acquire the airline. With the acquisition of Air India and Air India Express, Tata owns four carriers. The other two are Vistara, a joint venture with Singapore Airlines, and AirAsia India. Some media reports suggest that Tata may consider merging all or some of the airlines to bolster its presence in certain markets and optimize its routes. Tata Sons are expected to announce a new CEO after Turkish aviation veteran Ilker Ayci resigned before taking charge. Ayci’s appointment revealed that Tata may be looking for a CEO who has had experience taking an airline to international markets. Ayci, who quit due to the controversies surrounding his appointment, had bureaucratic ties and had dealt with labour unions in the past at Turkish Airlines.<br/>

Air New Zealand says it is bringing eleven near-full flights into Aotearoa from Australia on Wednesday as the quarantine-free trans-Tasman travel bubble reopens. It's the first time since July 2021 that people can travel between the two nations without having to self-isolate on arrival due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although vaccination, declaration and pre-testing requirements remain in place. There is pent up demand for travel due to the last several months of restrictions, so Air NZ along with Qantas and Jetstar are scaling up their trans-Tasman schedules. "Last week we added an extra 96 trans-Tasman flights for April through to June, an increase of approximately 20,000 seats," says Air NZ Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty. "We've also been ramping up capacity for the winter period so Aussies can enjoy our fantastic ski slopes here in New Zealand." Qantas will fly daily from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney to Auckland and Sydney to Christchurch while Jetstar will operate three weekly flights from the Gold Coast to Auckland. Story reports Air NZ's trans-Tasman schedule.<br/>

Air New Zealand wide-body cabin crew are striking for better pay and “decent jobs” on behalf of colleagues who are earning minimum wage, a union says. In an email to union members, E tū said 44 cabin crew leaders in Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787 and 777 teams were striking for better conditions for crew that had returned to work after a period of redundancy during the pandemic. “The 44 are not striking for themselves. They are striking for the sake of their fellow crew,” the email said. “Times have been tough for all of us at the airline and still too many of us are on minimum wage and below the living wage.” The minimum wage has just increased to $21.20 an hour and the living wage is $22.75 an hour. The strike comes at a crucial time for Air New Zealand, which is entering a busy Easter holiday period that coincides with New Zealand’s border opening to Australians this week, and travellers from visa-waiver countries from May 1. E tū said in response to the strike, Air New Zealand had been “selectively targeting” the 44 striking workers and suspending them from duties. The union said this was an attempt to disrupt the strike “and punish E tū members for taking collective action”. Some striking crew had been suspended for six days and were not being paid for these days, the union said. Air NZ chief people officer Nikki Dines said since receiving initial notice of strike action from E tū on March 7 on behalf of a group of 44 cabin crew, there had been rolling strike action over 37 days. "The nature of the strike action is a ban on training other employees and on recording results and signing off the training of other employees," Dines said.<br/>