JFK Millennium Partners has announced Air Canada and Norse Atlantic Airways as the latest carriers which will operate from the airport’s new Terminal 6 from next year. The terminal is currently under construction, with the first six of ten gates set to come into operation in 2026, and works expected to be completed by 2028. Air Canada will join fellow Star Alliance partners Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and ANA which have already been confirmed as future operators at Terminal 6, alongside carriers including JetBlue and Cathay Pacific. Air Canada Express currently operates two daily flights from Toronto and one daily service from Montreal to JFK’s Terminal 7 using Embraer E175 aircraft. Meanwhile low-cost long-haul carrier Norse Atlantic Airways will also move its JFK operations to Terminal 6 next year. The airline currently serves JFK’s Terminal 7 from Athens, Berlin, Gatwick, Oslo, Paris and Rome, and is the 15th largest carrier at the airport.<br/>
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Lufthansa expects its planned stake in Italy's ITA Airways to increase the German flagship carrier's profits by hundreds of millions of euros in the coming years, CE Carsten Spohr told the FAZ newspaper in an interview published on Monday. The German airline is set to acquire 41% of ITA, the successor airline to bankrupt Alitalia, for E325m on Jan. 13, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters last week, bringing to a close years of talks. "Without the prospect of a contribution to earnings in the three-digit million range, we would not have taken this step," Spohr said about Lufthansa's acquisition. The European Commission approved in November a package of competition remedies securing more routes for the German flag carrier's peers, paving the way for the deal to go through. Spohr reiterated that a 100% takeover is the "clear goal" but increasing its stake is not currently planned for 2025. "It is in our interest to keep the Italian government on board in the coming months," he said, adding that the companies will need about 18 months to completely integrate their systems.<br/>
Star Alliance founder members Lufthansa and THAI Airways International increased connectivity in January 2025 by launching three new codeshare routes. These flights from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (BKK) to Hanoi (HAN), Ho Chi Minh (SGN), and Manila (MNL) are operated by TG and marketed by LH under their codeshare network. Lufthansa and TG’s codeshare is particularly important to Manila because it boosts European connectivity. Air France (AF) is the only direct flight operator from Europe to the capital of the Philippines. This move is expected to improve tourism and business ties. It is also essential for LH, as the Philippines and Vietnam are rapidly growing tourism hubs. The new routes come six months after the US Department of Transportation (DOT) allowed LH to add TG flight code to its flights from/to the US.<br/>
A baby gorilla rescued from the cargo hold of a Turkish Airlines plane is recovering at an Istanbul zoo and may be returned to his natural habitat, officials have said. The five-month old gorilla, named Zeytin, or Olive, after a public competition, was discovered in a box at Istanbul Airport during a customs check while he was being flown illegally from Nigeria to Thailand. He was subsequently taken to Polonezkoy Zoo, just outside the city, to recover from the traumatic journey. "Of course, what we want and desire is for the baby gorilla... to continue its life in its homeland," Fahrettin Ulu, regional director of Istanbul Nature Conservation and National Parks, said on Sunday. Istanbul has become a major air hub between continents at a time when customs officials are regularly intercepting illegally traded animals.<br/>
The CE of Air India has acclaimed the carrier’s progress in an ambitious turnaround under its Tata Group owner, while acknowledging the challenge of restoring the reputation of the former state-owned national carrier that Indians love to complain about. Campbell Wilson, the Singapore Airlines veteran hired after Tata bought Air India in a $2.4bn deal in 2022, is taking steps to transform the airline’s offering and expand and modernise its fleet as it looks to win back some of the customers who deserted it for Gulf or other foreign airlines. “There’s a blessing and a curse to being the national carrier,” the New Zealander told the Financial Times in an interview at Air India’s headquarters outside Delhi. “There is a lot of love and a lot of expectation, and there is a lot of commentary — for better or worse.” In India, he said, “it’s just a little more heightened because of the profile of India’s decline and the hopes and dreams of India’s rise”. Under the airline’s five-year transformation plan dubbed Vihaan (Sanskrit for “dawn of a new era”), Wilson has steered Air India through the “taxi” and “take-off” steps of the turnaround. By its own account it is now in the final, “climb” phase, merging its sprawling operations, driving profitability and enhancing customer value, and taking Indian aviation to the global stage.<br/>
Singapore Airlines is set to join Star Alliance partners Air Canada, Air New Zealand and United Airlines in helping passengers find lost or misplaced bags with the help of Apple AirTags. The keychain-sized AirTags have become a must-have accessory for many travellers since their debut in 2021 – and an upgraded AirTag 2 is tipped to launch in the middle of this year. A spokesperson for Singapore Airlines tells Executive Traveller the new tech would allow “customers with an Apple AirTag or Find My app-compatible device in their checked baggage to securely share the location of the tag or device.” “This could potentially assist in locating and returning the checked baggage to our customers more efficiently.” However, the airline declined to share a timeline for the rollout, saying only that it “plans to offer this option to customers in due course.”<br/>
For the second year in a row, Air New Zealand has been rated the safest airline in the world, beating out transtasman rivals, Qantas, for the top spot in 2025. The two airlines have gone toe-to-toe in the prestigious Airlineratings.com rankings, with just 1.50 points the difference between the two travel juggernauts. The Kiwi carrier also won the award in 2022, making it three top spots in the past four years after Qantas fended them off to win in 2023. In this year’s rankings, Cathay Pacific, Emirates and Qatar Airways came third equal while Virgin Australia pipped Etihad Airways (fifth) for fourth spot. Airlineratings.com CEO Sharon Petersen explained why Air New Zealand were able to beat out Qantas by the barest of margins. “It was extremely close again between Air New Zealand and Qantas for first place with only 1.50 points separating the two airlines,” she said. “While both airlines uphold the highest safety standards and pilot training, Air New Zealand continue to have a younger fleet than Qantas, which separates the two.”<br/>