Aeroplan will still have a Canadian airline partner when Air Canada’s participation in the program ends in 2020. Toronto-based Porter Air will convert its VIPorter loyalty program into the Aeroplan scheme at that time. Ongoing conversations with the oneworld alliance could further extend the loyalty program’s reach as its Star Alliance link disappears.
American, JAL bring CES 2019 closer to Tokyo with non-stop flights
Adding extra flights to the schedule for the annual CES show in Las Vegas is a relatively common move. Demand is high and travelers are willing to pay higher than average prices to be at the massive technology conference so the airlines tend to enjoy nice profits on those flights. American Airlines and JAL are the latest to make a play for that traffic.
Anyway Travel Passes open up cheaper holidays from England on Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss
Looking to get far away from England this winter but don’t want to break the bank on flights? Lufthansa Group airlines Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss launched their Anyway Travel Pass promotion this week, offering a discounted means to a guaranteed flight on your desired date of travel, so long as you don’t care too much about the departure time or which of the three carriers you’re flying on. The deal applies for departures from London-Heathrow (LHR), Birmingham (BHX) and Manchester (MAN) with 14 destinations available starting at £139 each way including all taxes.
Inmarsat starts generating GX airtime revenue, seeks greater agility for growth
Inmarsat reported its first half financial results this morning in London with one surprising bit of data: The GX commercial aviation service finally started generating airtime revenue is Q2 '18, more than a year after entering service on some commercial aircraft.
[PR] New Global Head of Marketing and Product Management for Panasonic Avionics
Panasonic Avionics has a new marketing boss with a strong background in cloud services and AI systems. It will be interesting to follow the company’s shift in focus as the leadership team continues its rebuild after the bribery scandal, especially as IFE/C or airline-related experience appears an optional qualification.
The first Hi Fly A380 lease customer is not who we expected
Reports out of Denmark this afternoon have a special addition to the Hi Fly A380 wet lease charter schedule. The first flight will operate on Wednesday for an unlikely customer. Thomas Cook Scandinavia reportedly chartered the aircraft for a one-off service from Copenhagen to Larnaca, Cyprus.
Connectivity milestones aplenty
Just how many aircraft carry inflight connectivity hardware? And which kit?? A pair of announcements this week gives greater insight into which kit is where and how the market is shifting, rapidly in some cases. Not that installation number 1000 matters more than number 999, of course. Yet somehow it does. Just a little.
UON gets real, adds coverage with Eutelsat
The UON inflight connectivity service from Saudi Arabia’s Taqnia Space will offer service from Europe to Asia thanks to a new deal with Eutelsat to add Ku-band capacity. The deal brings Ku-band widebeam coverage spanning Europe, the Middle East and South Asia plus an additional HTS transponder with coverage flexibility. The company is scaling up strong, but will it be enough to succeed in a crowded market?
Too many award seats? Alaska Airlines says whoopsie!
Does a merger integration still count as wildly successful if it hurts revenues to the tune of 1.5% for 9ish months? Alaska Airlines’ PSS integration came off incredibly smoothly on the operations side, but the carrier missed on the loyalty side. And lots of frequent flyers got a ton of award seats as a result.
Carry-on bags are back: American Airlines Basic Economy gets a little less basic
Informed passengers truly can affect the airline industry. Today’s example comes at American Airlines, where carry-on bags will soon be included in the carrier’s Basic Economy fares, owing to a better educated consumer and websites that help them suss out the difference.








