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Virgin Australia Resumes Service Between Hobart and Perth

Virgin Australia continues to expand its domestic network in time for summer, with the airline today kicking off its services between Hobart and Perth. 

Flights between the two cities will operate three times per week, allowing for up to 4,200 passengers to travel each month. 

The news follows last week’s commencement of services between Hobart and Adelaide which is now operating four times per week and allowing up to 5,600 additional passengers to fly each month. 

Virgin Australia experienced a 90 per cent increase in Tasmanian bookings compared to the previous week after the announcement of new services to the Apple Isle and the Tasmanian Government’s release of a recovery roadmap.

Since September Virgin Australia has added 12 additional domestic routes to its network and is scheduled to resume flights to Fiji in December, followed by Bali and New Zealand from early next year.

Re-introduced services

ROUTE FREQUENCYSEATS PER MONTHCOMMENCEMENT DATE
Hobart – Perth / Perth – Hobart (Seasonal service only)3 services per week(Monday, Friday, Sunday) 4,20029 October 2021 

New services 

ROUTE FREQUENCYSEATS PER MONTHCOMMENCEMENT DATE
Hobart – Adelaide / Adelaide – Hobart4 services per week(Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) 5,60020 October 2021 

Lufthansa Finally Re-opens First Class Lounge at Frankfurt Airport

Starting on 1 June, Lufthansa will be welcoming guests to the First Class Lounge again

Further lounges to open gradually over the next few weeks

As summer approaches, the desire to travel continues to grow: Declining infection rates and the easing of travel restrictions are making more people want to fly again. In response to the rising booking figures, Lufthansa is using this as an opportunity to reopen the Lufthansa First Class Lounge in Terminal 1 of Frankfurt Airport starting on 1 June.

Relaxing while waiting for departure

The lounge offers an exclusive and comfortable place to relax, while travelers are waiting for their departure. The range of products offered in the lounges have been adjusted to meet current regulations. At present, food and beverage consumption is only permitted outside of the lounge. A take-away offer is available in the First Class Lounge, with a good selection of food and beverages. The popular “á la carte” service will also be resumed as soon as official regulations allow us to do so.

First Class guests can now also enjoy the usual personal service. The First Class Lounge is open daily from 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Lufthansa lounges open their doors to guests

Lufthansa guests can already access some of the lounges in Germany as well as abroad, such as New York. In the upcoming weeks, additional Lufthansa lounges will gradually be re-opening for customers. Soon, the First Class Terminal and the associated limousine service will also be made available again. A variety of measures, such as maintaining distance and wearing a mouth and nose covering, ensure that the lounge stay meets high safety and hygiene standards.

For more information on lounges and on-site conditions, visit https://www.lufthansa.com/de/en/lounges

Boeing Delivers Trio of 777 Freighters to Qatar Airways Cargo

Qatar Airways Cargo took delivery of three Boeing [NYSE:BA] 777 Freighters as the airline continues to build its cargo division with the world’s largest and most capable twin-engine freighter. The milestone also marks the 200th 777 Freighter to be delivered.

The triple delivery comes as air freight is playing a pivotal role amid the COVID-19 pandemic – including transporting newly approved vaccines – and is projected to increase more than 4% over the next two decades.

With the arrival of the trio of 777 Freighters, Qatar Airways Cargo now operates 24 of this airplane model along with two 747-8 Freighters. As one of the leading air cargo carriers in the world, Qatar’s dedicated freighter fleet serves more than 60 freighter destinations worldwide via its world-class Doha hub and also delivers freight on the belly-hold deck of passenger aircraft to an extensive network.

“With the arrival of these new freighters, we are injecting more capacity in the market which is very much required during the pandemic. The added capacity will also enable us to support the logistics around the COVID-19 vaccination, which is projected to be one of the greatest logistical challenges for the industry,” said Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker. “With our investments in innovation and fleet, we are able to fulfill our customers’ logistical requirements and facilitate the continuity of global trade.”

The 777 Freighter can fly 4,970 nautical miles (9,200 kms) and carry a payload of 224,900 pounds (102,010 kg). The airplane’s long range translates into significant savings for operators like Qatar Airways Cargo as fewer stops reduce landing fees, congestion, cargo handling costs and delivery times.

“During these challenging times, Qatar Airways Cargo has been transporting humanitarian relief and medical goods to those in need, and we are proud that their growing fleet of 777 Freighters is supporting such a commendable effort,” said Ihssane Mounir, senior vice president, Commercial Sales and Marketing, The Boeing Company. “We deeply appreciate our long-standing partnership with Qatar Airways and their confidence in the 777 Freighters as the backbone of their expansive global air cargo operations.”

The 777 Freighter is now Boeing’s top selling freighter. Customers from around the world have ordered 242 777 Freighters since the program began in 2005, including a record 45 units in 2018. Boeing, the market leader in air cargo aircraft, provides more than 90% of the dedicated freighter capacity around the world, including new production and converted freighters.

Ford Announces Goal to Donate 100 Million Masks

– New Documentary Celebrates Workforce Response to Covid-19

https://youtu.be/lYHgV2u1T2Y

DEARBORN, Michigan, Sept. 4, 2020 – Following completion of its 50,000th ventilator to help clinicians treat COVID-19 patients, Ford is pivoting to target production of 100 million masks through 2021 for communities across the U.S. with limited access to personal protective equipment. The company, currently manufacturing 2.5 million medical-grade masks a week for its employees and at-risk communities, is growing the number of mask-making machines by mid- to late-October to increase production and deliver on its goal.

Ford is working with Ford Motor Company Fund, the company’s philanthropic arm, to identify donation recipients across the U.S. through a network of nonprofit and state and local partners. The company is focusing on military veterans, schools, food banks and African American communities, among others.

This announcement comes ahead of a new short documentary by award-winning director Peter Berg (“Friday Night Lights,” “Patriots Day,” “Lone Survivor”) titled “On the Line.” Premiering on YouTube at 2 p.m. EDT today, the documentary focuses on Ford’s Project Apollo, the internal codename for the company’s all-out effort to design and manufacture personal protective equipment, including powered air-purifying respirators, face shields, medical gowns for healthcare workers and first responders, plus ventilators for COVID-19 patients.

Berg’s deep dive into the story features members of Ford’s Project Apollo team – from the engineers who led the project to the UAW team members who volunteered to work at the height of the pandemic.

Last week, Ford Motor Company Fund shipped 10 million face masks to the National Urban League, American Red Cross, Disabled American Veterans and other local organizations to protect against COVID-19.

Ford, in partnership with the UAW, has produced more than 72 million pieces of personal protective equipment to meet the enormous demand. Altogether, this amounts to:

– More than 45 million face masks and 20 million face shields

– 50,000 patient ventilators

– More than 32,000 powered air-purifying respirators in collaboration with 3M

– 1.4 million washable isolation gown

Where Delta is flying in June

Delta’s summer schedule continues to be shaped by customer demand, CDC guidelines and government travel regulations. While the June schedule is significantly reduced in comparison to last year, customers will see the return of several major routes, both U.S. domestic and international, which were previously suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Customers traveling with Delta can feel confident in a safe flying experience. In addition to requiring customers and employees to wear face coverings throughout the travel journey, Delta has implemented policies like capping seating between 50 and 60 percent to ensure customer spacing on all aircraft, elevated its cleaning measures to deliver a new standard of clean, and streamlined its in-flight services to decrease touch points on board. Customers also have added flexibility if they need to change their plans.

Here’s a snapshot of where Delta is planning to fly in June. This schedule, including routes and frequency, remains subject to change due to the evolving nature of COVID-19. This page may be updated.

U.S. DOMESTIC

Ensuring connectivity for customers with critical travel needs, Delta continues to provide flights to all U.S. hubs and top markets, though frequency is significantly reduced. While Delta has temporarily consolidated operations in some markets served by multiple airports, the airline is adding more flights to its June schedule in comparison to May, primarily in Atlanta, New York and between hubs.

CANADA​

  • Detroit to Montreal (daily)
  • Detroit to Ottawa (daily)
  • Detroit to Toronto (daily)
  • Minneapolis to Calgary (daily)
  • Minneapolis to Edmonton (daily)
  • Minneapolis to Winnipeg (daily)
  • New York-JFK to Toronto (daily)
  • Seattle to Vancouver (daily)

LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN

Caribbean

  • Atlanta to Aruba (less than daily service restarts in second half of June)
  • Atlanta to Bermuda (less than daily)
  • Atlanta to Bonaire (Saturday only service restarts in second half of June)
  • Atlanta to Kingston, Jamaica (less than daily)
  • Atlanta to Montego Bay, Jamaica (daily)
  • Atlanta to Nassau, Bahamas (daily)
  • Atlanta to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands (less than daily)
  • Atlanta to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (less than daily)
  • Atlanta to San Juan, Puerto Rico (less than daily)
  • Atlanta to St. Croix (Saturday only)
  • Atlanta to St. Lucia (less than daily)
  • Atlanta to St. Maarten (less than daily)
  • Atlanta to St. Thomas (less than daily)
  • New York-JFK to Santiago, Dominican Republic (less than daily)
  • New York-JFK to San Juan, Puerto Rico (less than daily)
  • New York-JFK to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (less than daily)​

Central America

  • Atlanta to Liberia, Costa Rica (less than daily service restarts in second half of June)
  • Atlanta to Panama City, Panama (less than daily)
  • Atlanta to San José, Costa Rica (less than daily service restarts in second half of June)
  • Atlanta to San Pedro Sula, Honduras (less than daily)
  • Atlanta to San Salvador, El Salvador (less than daily)​

Mexico

  • Atlanta to Cancun (daily)
  • Atlanta to Mexico City (daily)
  • Detroit to Mexico City (less than daily)
  • Los Angeles to Los Cabos (less than daily)
  • Los Angeles to Puerto Vallarta (less than daily)
  • Salt Lake City to Mexico City (daily)​

South America​

  • Atlanta to Bogotá, Colombia (less than daily)
  • Atlanta to São Paulo, Brazil (less than daily)

TRANS-ATLANTIC

  • Atlanta to Amsterdam (daily)
  • Atlanta to Frankfurt (less than daily)
  • Atlanta to Lagos (less than daily*)
  • Atlanta to Paris-Charles De Gaulle (less than daily)
  • Detroit to Amsterdam (daily)
  • Detroit to London-Heathrow (less than daily)
  • New York-JFK to Amsterdam (less than daily)
  • New York-JFK to Paris-Charles De Gaulle (less than daily)
  • New York-JFK to Tel Aviv (less than daily)​

*Delta’s restart of service to Nigeria is subject to foreign government approval.

Delta’s Frankfurt and London flights also double as scheduled cargo service.

TRANS-PACIFIC

  • Detroit to Seoul-Incheon (daily)
  • Detroit to Shanghai (daily*)
  • Seattle to Seoul-Incheon (less than daily)
  • Seattle to Shanghai (daily*)
  • ​Seattle to Tokyo-Haneda (less than daily)

*Delta’s restart of passenger flights to China is subject to government approval. We will also operate cargo-only scheduled service from Shanghai to Atlanta and Los Angeles. Read more on our cargo flights to Asia.

Delta’s second quarter schedule is 85 percent smaller than last year, with reductions of 80 percent in U.S. domestic capacity and 90 percent internationally.

Airbus A350-1000 Deployed in Fight Against COVID-19

Airbus continues to purchase and supply millions of face masks from China, the large majority of which will be donated to governments of the Airbus home countries, namely France, Germany, Spain and the UK.

An Airbus flight test crew has just completed its latest mission with an A350-1000 test aircraft. This is the third of such missions between Europe and China. The aircraft returned to France with a cargo of 4 million face masks on Sunday 5 April.

The A350-1000 left Toulouse, France, on Friday 3 April, reaching the Airbus site in Tianjin, China on 4 April and returning to Hamburg the same day.

Since mid-March, the previous two missions were performed by an A330-800 and an A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT). Airbus also deployed an A400M and its Beluga fleet to transport shipments of masks between its European sites, in France, Germany, the UK and Spain.

Airbus will continue to support the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic wherever possible.

“I would like to pay tribute to all the Airbus teams, globally, supporting the fight against COVID-19. They’re living our values in assisting those who are saving lives every day”, said Guillaume Faury, Airbus CEO. “

Airbus is focused on the health and safety of its employees and supporting its customers and the industry eco-system with business continuity. At the same time Airbus is contributing to many vital public and private services and working with partners who rely on aircraft, helicopters, space and security solutions to carry out life-saving missions in support of the global pandemic. 

Airbus is deploying its employees, their expertise and know-how and leveraging technology in this fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, for example in designing and manufacturing ventilators and 3D printed visors which are critical resources for hospitals.

The Company is partnering with other organisations in unprecedented ways to achieve this goal as fast as possible.

Airbus Built BepiColombo Will Make Earth Fly-by on April 10th

The Airbus built BepiColombo mission will make a fly-by past Earth on 10th April 2020 as it continues on its epic journey to Mercury.

The joint European Space Agency and Japanese Space Agency spacecraft will swing past Earth at about 13,000 km away, closer than navigation satellites (GPS, Galileo). It will be BepiColombo’s final glimpse of Earth before it continues on its seven year, 8.5 billion kilometre journey to the Solar System’s innermost, smallest and least explored planet, Mercury. The last time the spacecraft saw Earth was 18 months ago in October 2018, when it was launched on an Ariane 5.

BepiColombo is not due to arrive at Mercury until 05th December 2025, but to get there safely and at the right speed to be captured by Mercury’s gravity, it must do nine flybys of the inner planets, one past Earth, two at Venus and six flybys at Mercury. After arrival, the spacecraft will capture data for a year with the possibility of extending the mission.

BepiColombo will collect measurements to study the composition, geophysics, atmosphere, magnetosphere and history of Mercury as well as testing Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The 16 scientific instruments will also provide insights into the characteristics of Mercury’s magnetic field and how it interacts with the solar wind.

Philippe Pham, Head of Earth Observation, Navigation and Science said: “This flyby marks a great achievement and major milestone for Airbus. Teams across five countries worked together to successfully develop and launch the spacecraft on a complex mission to Mercury.”

The journey will total some 8.5 billion km, completing 18 orbits around the Sun before entering the spacecraft’s operational orbit and beginning scientific exploration of the planet Mercury.

British Airways Suspending Flights from London Gatwick

LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) – British Airways said it is temporarily suspending flights from Gatwick Airport in southern England, Britain’s second busiest airport, due to the coronavirus.

BA’s boss warned earlier in March that the airline was in a battle for survival and would have to cut jobs and park planes.

“Due to the considerable restrictions and challenging market environment, like many other airlines, we will temporarily suspend our flying schedule at Gatwick,” a BA spokesman said.

BA said it will contact affected customers. The airline continues to operate some flights from its main hub at Heathrow.

Parent company IAG said flying capacity would be down 75% in April and May.

Rival airline easyJet said on Monday that it had grounded its entire fleet.

Gatwick Airport said last week it would shut one of its two terminals on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Sarah Young)

Airbus Sees Airlines Seeking to Defer or Cancel Orders

PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus <EADSY> said in a stock market filing on Monday that customers could seek to cancel or postpone delivery of airliners and helicopters as the coronavirus crisis continues to escalate.

It issued the warning in an annual reference document ahead of its upcoming Amsterdam shareholder meeting, for which it urged participants to vote by proxy rather than attend in person due to widespread measures to slow the spread of the disease.

Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said earlier that several airlines had asked to defer deliveries, but that most were continuing to pay their deposits.

“Weaker market and economic conditions in China and their knock-on effects in other markets could result in requests by customers to postpone delivery or cancel existing orders for aircraft (including helicopters),” the filing said, though Faury said earlier there were some signs of recovery in China.

Airbus also detailed steps to improve compliance practices after paying a 3.6-billion-euro fine last month to settle a four-year multinational bribery probe.

But it warned that possible further investigations in other jurisdictions could trigger claims against it by shareholders, impact its ability to raise finance or limit its eligibility for public contracts, as well as harm future commercial sales.

Malaysian authorities last week cleared AirAsia Group <5099.KL> after Britain’s Serious Fraud Office faulted a sponsorship deal between former Airbus parent EADS and a motor racing team owned by the airline’s co-founders.

But the SFO probe, supported by Airbus’s own lawyers, caused a severe rift between AirAsia and its sole supplier, adding to doubts over whether long-haul unit AirAsiaX will take delivery of A330neo jets on order, three people close to the matter said.

AirAsia officials could not be reached for comment. Airbus declined comment.

Loss-making AirAsiaX has said only that it wants to defer delivery of A330neo jets due to the coronavirus crisis.

Deliveries of the wide-body aircraft have also been hit by the impact of U.S. tariffs on Airbus aircraft under a long-running trade dispute, as well as concerns about overcapacity.

Airbus trimmed A330 output in January from about four a month in 2019, Reuters reported earlier this month.

In Monday’s filing, Airbus said it would maintain production of the A330neo at 3.5 aircraft a month.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Mark Potter, William Maclean)

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