EGYPTAIR News 13 June

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American Airlines and Qatar Airways Are Offering Flight Deals For a Limited Time to India, Qatar, Jordan, the Maldives, and Tanzania

Booking the trip of a lifetime just got more affordable, thanks to the strategic alliance between American Airlines and Qatar Airways.

To celebrate the partnership anniversary between the two airlines, American and Qatar —the leading carrier in the Middle East—are offering discounted flights out of New York City for a limited time, when booking before June 20, 2023. Travelers can score flights for as low as $945 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Qatar's headquarters in Doha, as well as international destinations such as Tanzania, the Maldives, Jordan, or India.

Discounted flights are good for travel booked between July 01, 2023 and March 31, 2024, excluding a blackout period from Dec. 01, 2023 through Jan. 31, 2024. All fares are roundtrip, per person, and include all applicable taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges.

Qatar Airways and American Airlines recently expanded their strategic alliance to offer customers more options and a seamless travel experience. The two airlines now provide access from North America to 36 countries spanning across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caucuses.

"Our global partnerships expand upon American’s comprehensive network, providing access to numerous destinations for our customers who are ready to travel around the world," American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said in a statement last year. "We’re excited to deepen our strategic alliance with Qatar Airways alongside the launch of our new service between New York and Doha, giving American’s customers more choices and convenient access to the Middle East and beyond."

Turkish Airlines Plans To Begin Detroit Flights This November

Turkish Airlines will begin flying to Detroit from its base in Istanbul Airport with three weekly flights expected to start on November 15th and four from December. It disclosed plans for the route in November 2021. When writing this article on June 11th, no further details are known, but that will change soon.

Turkish Airlines to Detroit

Long anticipated, Detroit seems an obvious choice for Turkish Airlines. Yes, it is not a Star Alliance hub, but the metro population has a significant Levant population, which Royal Jordanian has served for many years. Turkish is well-placed geographically to capitalize on this traffic, including passengers from Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel, the most important markets.

It will also target the broader Middle East, with Iraq especially critical: it is the secondlargest immigrant group in Detroit's metro area. Other vital targets include the Balkans, notably Albania, with Turkish offering minimal backtracking and high frequencies. Then there is North Africa, with Egypt key.

In South Asia, Bangladesh will be important: Detroit has one of the highest Bangladeshi-US populations. Obviously, India is the largest country market of all relevant nations Turkish could target. However, given Turkish's minimal India network (it only serves Delhi and Mumbai with its own metal, with partner IndiGo serving them too) it won't be too reliant on it.

It is worth looking at Detroit's most popular point-to-point markets by passenger traffic (excluding Western Europe, the Far East, etc.), whether Turkish serves them or not. They are as follows, based on pre-pandemic 2019 numbers.

Beirut: 40,000 roundtrip passengers

Mumbai: 24,000

Amman: 23,000

Tel Aviv: 22,000

Delhi: 20,000

Bengaluru: 17,000 (unserved by TK's own metal)

Chennai: 16,000 (unserved by TK's own metal)

Hyderabad: 15,000 (unserved by TK's own metal)

Tirana: 14,000

Cairo: 12,000

Dubai: 12,000

Airlines Have A Problem That's Not Going Away Anytime Soon

The industry is dealing with the rising cost of labor and fuel, and its also struggling to hire and train a new generation of pilots, to replace the workers who opted for early retirement during the pandemic. Thanks to unresloved-pandemic induced mental stress, disruptive behavior is much more common on airlines, and many executives still fear that a recession may be on the way, or at least a lessening of the sky highdemand airlines have been experiencing since 2021.

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But the biggest problem that airlines currently face is the unavoidable truth that it’s hard to operate an airline if you don’t have enough planes. And at the moment, it seems like no one has enough planes.

At the recent IATA (International Air Transport Association) Annual General Meeting in Istanbul, executives warned that the ongoing delivery delays for aircraft and aircraft parts from Boeing (BA) - Get Free Report and Airbus (EADSF) do not seem to be letting up any time soon.

"Suppliers have been far too slow in dealing with supply chain blockages that are both raising costs and limiting our ability to deploy aircraft," IATA director general Willie Walsh said during his state of the industry address. "Airlines are beyond frustrated. A solution must be found."

The IATA projected airlines will collectively make a profit for the first time this year since the pandemic, a projected $9.8 billion. Part of this is that due to a lack of airplanes and high demand, ticket prices are rising. But in the long term, a lack of supply impedes airlines’ ability to grow and expand in the coming years, and the lack of available replacement parts means that airlines are much more vulnerable to delays. In addition to the supply chain issues that have become common post-pandemic, a big reason that Boeing and Airbus are having trouble delivering enough planes to airlines such as Delta (DAL) - Get Free Report and United is that the ongoing invasion of Ukraine is making it difficult to acquire titanium, a key component of plane manufacturing from Russia, owing to sanctions and boycotts. As a result, Airbus is targeting 720 deliveries this year; it delivered 863 in 2019. In the first quarter of this year, Airbus delivered just 127 planes, and Boeing delivered 124 aircraft. United has said it expects the 56 narrowbodies that were supposed to arrive this year to instead arrive next year, and for the 40 single-aisle deliveries scheduled for 2024 to instead arrive in 2025.

British Airways plans winter Ljubljana flights

British Airways has requested slots at London’s Heathrow Airport to operate flights to Ljubljana during the 2023/24 winter season. So far, the flag carrier has maintained only seasonal summer operations to the Slovenian capital since it launched services to the city in 2019. Based on the slot request, British Airways plans to add 25.344 seats between the two cities during the winter, which begins on October 29 and runs until March 30, 2024. However, it should be noted that British Airways can still change its decision, which is not final. Tickets are yet to be put on sale on the route for the winter. Existing services are scheduled to run until October 25. Prior to the pandemic, London was one of Ljubljana’s busiest routes, served by several airlines to several of the city’s airports. However, during the first quarter of 2023, passenger numbers on flights to the UK’s capital were down 54.7% compared to the pre-pandemic 2019.

11-Year-Old Girl Dies on Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to New York

An 11-year-old girl traveling on a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to New York tragically passed away on Sunday, NBC reports. During the flight, the girl suddenly fell ill and lost consciousness, prompting the crew to make an emergency landing in Budapest. Despite efforts from a doctor onboard the flight and first responders in Budapest, the girl's life could not be saved. In a statement provided to NBC, the airline said, "Our cabin crew made an announcement over the PA system for any onboard doctors, while the flight's captain promptly diverted to Budapest."

The identity of the child remains undisclosed. After a delay of over four hours at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport, the flight continued to New York’s John F Kennedy Airport. The child’s family disembarked in Budapest following unsuccessful resuscitation attempts.

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