When it comes to airline industry news there are plenty of articles and comments on manufacturers (mostly Airbus and Boeing) and the big airlines. Beyond that things get a bit more patchy when it comes to coverage. At the blog of Lund University School of Aviation we do cover big news but we also like different perspectives and diverse news (such as the opposite last week about food waste or this one about zombies airlines). Today the focus is on airline news that is not so big, but for different reasons still quite interesting.
First out is the news that the Vietnamese low-cost Bamboo Airways recently operated its first direct flight to the US (link to article below). In a time where many of the long-haul low-cost airlines that was started in the recent decade has disappeared or suffered badly, this is actually quite sensational. Especially as the national carrier Vietnam Airlines was expected to be first with this, but will now have to play catch-up, even after two decades of preparation (as per their own statement). It remains to be seen how the competition between the national carrier and its younger low-cost rival will play out, but that there even is competition is interesting enough to make it into this news compilation.
Next up is the national airline of Bahrain, Gulf Air, which recently announced flights to Tel Aviv in Israel (link to article below). Flights between Gulf countries and Israel had already been started in recent years, following the Abraham accord and normalisation of relations between countries in the region. Still, given the unexpected and historical change this represents more announcements of flights is still a piece of news worthy of attention.
The last piece of these not so big but interesting news is about Fly Okavango. This is a new luxury airline that aims to connect Europe and the US to the Okavango delta in Botswana. The same area is called “the jewel of the Kalahari” and is known for its unique wildlife. The plan is to operate a Boeing B767 in what s seems to be a business class only setting of 96 flatbed seats. Targeting passengers with more money than time the aim is to start with two routes, one from Munich and one from Palm Beach, Florida. To make more interesting, the plan going forward seems to be to increase the number of routes when am advertised Airbus A340 doubles the fleet next year.
That is it for this post. If our readers have any tips on news they would like to see covered or maybe even write about on this blog – just let us know in the comments or by sending an email to nicklas.dahlstrom@tfhs.lu.se. The different and diverse your suggestions are, the more likely that we will write about them.
Link to articles:
Bamboo Airways launches ‘historic’ direct Vietnam -US flight
Bahrain’s Gulf Air launches direct flights with Israel’s Tel Aviv on September 30
Thanks Nicklas, fun and interesting.
I wondered about what airport Fly Okavango is to use, but found that Maun airport does have a runway of 3700 m! So, although it is mostly a ‘Cessna airport’ it seems to be reday for a B767 and an A340.