Human beings weren’t designed to fly through the sky at 40,000 feet in a pressurized metal tube – with our aching limbs, burbling gastric systems and willful propensity to annoy other airborne human beings. If, however, we absolutely must, the way to make that experience the best it can possibly be is to fly with Qatar Airways. At least that’s the verdict from this year’s Skytrax Awards, which were announced Monday. For the eighth time in the 25-year history of the prestigious awards – known as the Oscars of commercial aviation – Qatar was named the World’s Best Airline, in recognition of the quality of service it offers passengers on its modern fleet. “This is a remarkable achievement for Qatar Airways to win this World’s Best Airline title for 2024, the eighth time they have triumphed,” Skytrax CEO Edward Plaisted said in a statement to mark the award ceremony, which gathered airline execs and cabin crew in a manor house near London’s Heathrow Airport. “We congratulate Qatar Airways on this success which should be a source of great pride and satisfaction for the airline management and staff.” The Middle Eastern carrier has built a strong reputation over the past decade, helping Qatar’s award-winning Hamad International Airport establish itself as a global aviation hub to challenge regional rivals Dubai and Abu Dhabi.<br/>
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Royal Air Maroc is reinforcing its capacity for the summer season with plans to charter seven aircraft from international operators. The Oneworld member carrier says it will offer around 5% more seats, across a network of over 90 destinations, compared with last year. CE Abdelhamid Addou says the airline is taking steps to “guarantee better operational efficiency and broader coverage”. Royal Air Maroc will base the chartered aircraft at Tangier, Nador and Oujda, plus four – including a long-haul model – at Casablanca. “The aircraft chartered…are latest-generation and are selected according to safety and comfort criteria,” the carrier states. It has not identified the types or sources. Royal Air Maroc will place about half the seat capacity on European routes to 37 destinations from 11 Moroccan airports. Another 20% will be allocated to African routes, serving 28 cities, while 8% and 4% will respectively be deployed to North America and the Middle East. The carrier says this “consolidates” Casablanca’s position as a regional hub connecting Europe and Africa.<br/>
Malaysia Airlines said one of its flight en route to Bangkok had to make a U-turn back to Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Monday after experiencing a “pressurization issue.” It said the pilots initiated an emergency descent although cabin altitude was not exceeded and passenger oxygen masks were not deployed. The aircraft remained stable and landed safely at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, just over two hours after it departed, the airline said in a statement. A Malaysia Airline spokesperson said flight MH780 was carrying 164 passengers and 12 crew members. The spokesperson said an investigation was ongoing.<br/>
Qantas will acquire 14 more de Havilland Dash 8-400 turboprops as part of fleet renewal efforts that will see its older Q200 and Q300 aircraft retired. The first of the 14 aircraft will enter regional unit QantasLink’s fleet by the end of the year, and will add to its current fleet of 31 Dash 8-400s. In total, 19 older Q200s and Q300s, all of which are more than 20 years old, will exit the fleet. Qantas says the consolidation of its regional fleet into a single variant provides “further scale benefits and efficiencies for QantasLink, including lower maintenance and operating costs”. “At the completion of the fleet changes, there will be no material change to QantasLink’s overall turboprop capacity,” it adds. The 14 new Dash 8s will have a higher seat count than QantasLink’s existing -400s, at 78 seats compared to 74 currently. The turboprop acquisition forms the final part of the Qantas Group’s fleet renewal plans: it is taking delivery of Airbus A220s which mainly replace its older Boeing 717s, and has A321neos, A350s and 787s on order. Qantas group chief Vanessa Hudson says: “QantasLink turboprops carry more than 3.5m customers to more than 50 destinations around regional Australia every year, and these next-generation aircraft allow us to improve the travel experience with a faster and more comfortable experience.” <br/>