Brussels Airlines of the Lufthansa Group is on the upswing halfway thru 2023. Although the airline did not enter the black after earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), Brussels Airlines voiced confidence about the future with an 87% improvement in returns quarter to quarter. For Brussels Airlines’ CFO Nina Oewerdieck, “The results of our first semester of 2023 are completely in line with our expectations. In 2022, we communicated historically high third trimester results. This year, I am proud to see that we already delivered a record in the second quarter. This inspires us great confidence to reach solid black results for the entire year of 2023.” Indeed, the great confidence could be well placed. First, the first half of 2023 versus 2022 in euros has E705m versus E452m total in revenue. Additionally, there was E261m or 54% growth in total operating income to E744m versus 2022. Additionally, the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) has gone from -E89m to -E13m – almost in the black. Story has more.<br/>
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EgyptAir announces that it has connected Cairo with Delhi. Cairo-Delhi route will be served by operating 4 weekly flights with state of art A320neo – airline’s newly acquired aircraft that offers 2 Cabin service with 16 seats in Business Class and 126 seats in Economy Class. MS973 will depart Cairo on Fridays & Sundays at 11:40 (Cairo time) and arrive in Delhi at 20:45 (Delhi time); MS975 will depart from Cairo on Thursdays and Saturdays at 23:50 (Cairo time) and arrive in Delhi at 08:55 the next day (Delhi time). “India indeed is an important Nation & Market for us. We are delighted to start flights from Cairo to Delhi – the second Gateway apart from the existing operations to Mumbai. This will not only offer a new alternative for consumers for travel but further strengthen relations between Egypt & India and stimulate tourism, travel, and business between the two countries”, says Capt. Mohamed Moussa – Chairman & CEO Cairo-Delhi route will be served by A320neo aircraft. EgyptAir’s eight A320neos hold an average age of just 1.8 years The carrier holds six Boeing 787-9 in its extensive widebody fleet and is expecting two more Dreamliners in next couple of years. Along with reducing fuel usage by approximately 20% over previous generations, EgyptAir present fleet brings down the emissions by 60%. The opening of new routes and expansion of EgyptAir’s network is in line with the directives of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to link the Arab Republic of Egypt with various countries of the world through Hub Cairo. EgyptAir has recently added Dhaka in Bangladesh, New Jersey in North America and Manchester in England to its network to serve new customers of the company around the world.<br/>
Ethiopian Airlines says it has suspended flights from Addis Ababa International to Gondar and Lalibela, two towns in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region, where armed clashes are increasing again between federal forces and the Fano militia, the news agencies Agence France-Presse, Belga, and Reuters reported. Representatives of the carrier said on August 3 that rotations to Lalibela were interrupted two days previously. According to sources in the region, fighters from the nationalist Amhara Fano militia had seized the airport of the tourist town famous for its rock-cut churches classified as World Heritage by Unesco. Clashes also reportedly continue on the outskirts of Gondar. Demeke Mekonnen, Ethiopia’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, warned of “worrying security problems” in Amhara, and embassies in the country recommended to their nationals not to go there. On August 3, the government of the Amhara region appealed to the federal authorities to “take appropriate measures” following several days of skirmishes. Fano fighters backed the Ethiopian military during the two-year civil war in the neighbouring Tigray region that ended last November, but recently relations have soured over a military operation to push the militia out of certain areas. Addis Ababa said in April that it wanted to dismantle all “special forces” - the paramilitary units that many of the country’s regional states have created over the last 15 years. Amhara nationalists assume this means it wants to weaken their region.<br/>
More Singapore Airlines (SIA) flights will be added for key destinations from end-March to October next year to support strong demand - a move that will see flight frequencies to some cities reach or exceed pre-pandemic levels. Such destinations include Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Melbourne and Seattle, SIA said in a news release on Monday. SIA will also deploy larger aircraft to increase capacity for some destinations. From Mar 31, 2024, flights operating to and from Cairns in Australia will be on the 303-seater A350-900 medium-haul aircraft, instead of the current Boeing 737-8 narrowbody, which has 154 seats. This is the first time in more than 20 years that a widebody aircraft is being deployed on this route, SIA said. The service will operate four times a week, instead of the current five. SIA will also restore the use of its flagship Airbus A380 on the Frankfurt route, replacing the smaller A350-900 long-haul aircraft that currently operates the daily service. “This marks the return of SIA’s Airbus A380 to continental Europe,” it said. A fifth daily service between Singapore and Hong Kong will start from Oct 29, 2023, with a sixth to be added from Aug 1 next year, bringing frequencies back to pre-pandemic levels. The Singapore-Dubai route is among those that will see more flights than before the pandemic, with services set to increase from the current seven-times weekly to 11-times weekly from Mar 31, 2024. The route between Singapore and Tokyo-Haneda will see four daily services by Sep 1, 2024, while Singapore-Da Nang will go up from four times a week to a daily service from Jul 1, 2024. Services between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur will be ramped up to 66 times a week from the current 47 for the period between Mar 31, 2024 and Oct 26, 2024. Flights to cities such as Melbourne and Darwin in Australia, Shanghai and Beijing in China, Copenhagen in Denmark, and Seattle and Houston in the United States will return to pre-COVID frequencies.<br/>