United Airlines partnered with Virgin Australia to connect U.S. travellers to the world’s largest celebration of Pride in Sydney with a special flight staffed entirely by members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community. On 22 February 2023, the festivities started from San Francisco International Airport with a celebration at the gate, giveaways and activities on-board the flight, ending with a welcome party once they arrived in Sydney. While Virgin Australia has offered special domestic flights in Australia for Pride since 2021, this is the first time United is joining this effort. Lori Augustine, Vice President of Operations for United in San Francisco, said: “At United, we recognise, embrace and celebrate the differences that make our customers and employees unique. We’re committed to creating an inclusive work environment while supporting the diverse communities we serve. Our Pride Flight is yet another example of how at United, good leads the way.”<br/>
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Egyptair has welcomed its first Airbus A321neo to the fleet, delivered by aircraft lessor, Aercap. Operated as MS3211, the flight departed Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport on February 27 at 12:05, touching down at its new home in Egypt, Cairo International Airport, at 17:09. This is the first delivery of the type for the Egyptian airline, in which it has seven of the aircraft on order. This delivery marks Egyptair as the first operator in Africa with the aircraft type, with a layout of 16 business class seats and 166 in economy. The airline aims to utilize its new aircraft on routes across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.The flight from Germany to Egypt was operated with a combination of 34% sustainable aviation fuel to encourage decarbonization in aviation. <br/>
South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has long-term plans to reintroduce A350 operations to resume most long-haul routes it was flying before the Covid-19 pandemic, says interim chief commercial officer, Tebogo Tsimane. To start with, the state-owned airline plans to use its leased A330-300s to launch two long-haul routes – to Sao Paulo Guarulhos (Brazil) and Perth International (Australia) - by the end of the current financial year ending March 31, 2023, he said on a recent Travel News Weekly webcast. A second phase will see the national carrier resume flights to Frankfurt International (Germany), London Heathrow (UK), Washington Dulles and New York JFK (USA) with A350s. It is also looking at routes in the pipeline before it entered bankruptcy in December 2019 and stopped all commercial flights in 2020, including another gateway to Australia – probably Melbourne Tullamarine – but "this would take a while," he said. SAA previously operated four A350-900s between October 2019 and August 2020, including former Air Mauritius aircraft and two ex-Hainan Airlines aircraft leased from Avolon, the ch-aviation fleets history module shows. "The routes that we've picked for this year are the routes that will be easier and quicker for us to start. They do not require the type of investment that will take us long," he explained. Apart from restarting long-haul operations, the state-owned carrier also plans to add schedules to more coastal destinations, including between Cape Town and Durban, Johannesburg and George, and Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth, Tsimane disclosed.<br/>
Air India expects to induct six Airbus SE A350 jetliners starting from the end of this year following the carrier’s giant aircraft purchase that was the biggest in the history of civil aviation. “We’ve committed to a historic order of aircraft that will start entering from the end of this year through to the end of the decade, to both transform the fleet and power significant network and capacity expansion,” Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said during an online media event Monday. The experience of flying Air India will be revitalized once the refurbished widebody aircraft start joining the fleet around July 2024, Wilson said. The airline has kicked off a $400m upgrading process that involves replacing all seats and in-flight entertainment systems with the latest generation products. The engineering and regulatory work for the refurbishment is ongoing and the production of new seats will follow, he said. There will also be significant customization in the design of the aircraft getting delivered to the carrier from 2026, making them a “truly Air India product,” he said. As part of the transformation, planning for Air India’s merger with Vistara, a joint venture between Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Tata, is “well underway” Wilson said, allowing the two carriers to integrate seamlessly as soon as they get the necessary regulatory clearances. The merger will result in a single full-service airline called Air India, he said. The full-service carrier won’t be named after Vistara because despite its success in the Indian market, Air India is a much more recognized name globally and has a longer history, he said. The full-service airline will however adopt many “practices and systems” of Vistara because Vistata is a younger, private airline. Air India will eventually have one full-service airline and a low-cost carrier, he added. For its fresh look, Air India has appointed FutureBrand in London and some other external agencies, Wilson said. The carrier is assessing how it can retain its famous Maharajah mascot, which is beloved in India but not particularly well known overseas, to appeal to the broader market, he said.<br/>