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airBaltic celebrates seven years of Airbus A220-300 operations

December 2023 is a very special month for airBaltic as it marks a seven year anniversary of Airbus A220-300 operations. Back on December 14, 2016 the first A220-300 commercial flight departed from Riga to Amsterdam. Thus far, airBaltic has carri...

Riyadh Air partners with CAE for pilot training

CAE and Riyadh Air agreed on purchase of two state-of-the-art Boeing 787 CAE7000XR full-flight simulators and a Boeing 787 flight training device to support the new airline as it continues its journey to take off in 2025. CAE and Riyadh Air will work in partnership with Prince Su...


Silk Way West Airlines expands fleet and cargo capacity

Silk Way West Airlines announced the expansion of its fleet with the addition of two Boeing 777 freighters. This investment comes in response to the increasing demand for air cargo services, and underscores the airline’s commitment to providing efficient and reliable transportation solutions around the world. These twin-engine aircraft feature the latest innovations in technol...

Total Component Support for Air Serbia

Air Serbia, the national airline of the Republic of Serbia, and Lufthansa Technik have signed a minimum five-year contract to provide Total Component Support for their current and future Airbus A320ceo family fleet. The contract includes comprehensive Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul services as well as spare parts pooling and homebase services for the required components in Belgrade,...

PLAY - 75% load factor, 42% increase in passenger numbers and demand picking up

PLAY airlines carried 107,236 passengers in November, which is a 42% increase from November 2022 when PLAY carried 75,396 passengers. The load factor in November 2023 was 74.5%, down from 79% last year. This decline in load factor is a direct result of the seismic activity in the Reykjanes Peninsula and resulting global news coverage of a possible volcanic eruption that could disrupt aviation. Thi...

Europe’ largest aviation training and recruitment event, Pilot Expo 2024, interview with Ingmars Kibermanis

Today 50skyshades has the pleasure to welcome the guilty one who once created Pilot Expo – Ingmars Kibermanis.  We have a lot of questions, just because for us it will be first time visiting this show next February.  T.O. We have to be prepared, can you tell us – how you got the idea? Because you're the guilty one who actually came up, then got a team. And now the...

Lufthansa Group and Lilium to explore strategic partnership on eVTOL aircraft

Lufthansa Group & Lilium signed a MoU to explore strategic partnership on eVTOL aircraft operation in Europe. Companies want to explore innovation opportunities in aviation, discussing areas such as ground and flight operations, future aircraft maintenance, as well as crewing and flight training. In a possible strategic partnership, both companies also want to analyze the opport...

Cathay strengthens Hong Kong as air cargo hub with Airbus A350F freighters order

Cathay Cargo has placed an initial firm order with Airbus for six A350F freighter aircraft and has secured the right to acquire 20 more aircraft, taking another important step towards achieving its vision of becoming the world’ most customer-centric air cargo service brand. This order to be delivered commencing from 2027 will help further strengthen Hong Kong’s stat...

Kuehne+Nagel delivered world’s first transatlantic shipment transported on a 100% SAF powered flight

On November 28, 2023, the world's first 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel transatlantic flight by a commercial airline successfully landed at New York JFK after its departure from London Heathrow. Kuehne+Nagel actively engages in projects that encourage and promote the use of sustainable fuels within the logistics sector. As part of its efforts, Kuehne+Nagel secured the available cargo space on t...

Air New Zealand buys first ALIA all-electric aircraft from Beta Technologies

Air New Zealand announced ALIA as airline's first purchase of a next generation aircraft in Mission Next Gen Aircraft programme. Designed by BETA Technologies, the battery-powered all-electric aircraft is expected to join Air New Zealand' fleet in 2026. Air New Zealand is purchasing the conventional take-off and landing version of the ALIA....

airBaltic launches four new destinations from Tampere

airBaltic  announced the launch of its winter season 2023, introducing four new destinations from Tampere. During this winter schedule season, airBaltic will offer new routes to Tenerife (Spain), Gran Canaria (Spain), Tallinn (Estonia), and, for the first time, a domestic route from Tampere to Kittilä in Finland.  Thomas Ramdahl, Senior Vice President Network Manag...

The EcoPulse aircraft demonstrator makes first hybrid-electric flight

EcoPulse, the hybrid-electric distributed propulsion aircraft demonstrator jointly developed by Daher, Safran and Airbus to support aviation decarbonization roadmap, has successfully performed its first flight test in hybrid-electric mode. The demonstrator flew with its ePropellers activated, powered by a battery and a turbogenerator. EcoPulse took off from Tarbes Airport on Novembe...

easyJet collaborates with Collins Aerospace to enhance operations

Collins Aerospace is working with easyJet to activate GlobalConnectSM connected aircraft services on more than 330 Airbus aircraft in its fleet. easyJet will become the largest A320 operator in the world to deploy GlobalConnect. This new capability enhances safety oversight, pilot training and operational efficiencies. The Collins GlobalConnect solution enables the already-installed Flig...

SITA eWAS helps SWISS avoid turbulence

SITA eWAS is now deployed across all SWISS fleet to enable its pilots to anticipate and avoid adverse weather conditions, like turbulence. SITA eWAS is the only digital weather awareness application on the market today that aggregates multiple weather sources for greater accuracy and reliability in weather forecasts. More and more airlines are opting for electronic weather awareness solu...

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Top of the week

Air Tahiti debuts exclusive all-business class experience with ATR 72-600 HighLine

Air Tahiti has received a new ATR 72-600 equipped with ATR’s HighLine All-Business Class cabin, becoming only the second airline worldwide to introduce this premium configuration on an ATR aircr...

Embraer and LATAM deepen E2 partnership with component pool program agreement for E195-E2 fleet

Embraer and LATAM Airlines Group have signed a Component Pool Program agreement to support the airline's introduction of 24 Embraer E195-E2 aircraft. In addition to the firm order, LATAM retains o...

500,000 fueling transactions. Zero paper. One connected network: aFuel sets new H1 2026 record

Information Design One AG, the Frankfurt-based aviation technology company behind the aFuel platform, has achieved a major operational milestone. During the first half of 2026, aFuel processed 50...

Air France expands its U.S. footprint with new Nashville and San Diego services for summer 2027

Air France has announced the first additions to its Summer 2027 schedule, strengthening its North American network with the launch of new nonstop services to Nashville, Tennessee, and San Diego, Calif...

Keeping Europe’s automotive production lines moving: key airfreight pressure points revealed

When a vehicle assembly line is at risk of running out of critical components, every minute of downtime carries a significant cost. In many cases, an emergency air charter is not the expensive option,...

Emirates SkyCargo fuels South America's export growth through expanded global connectivity

Emirates SkyCargo is deepening its commitment to South America, reinforcing the region's access to global markets through expanded freighter capacity. Since March 2026, the carrier has added seven...