Industry News

Emirates says that its Skywards loyalty program now attracts, on average, 220,000 new members every month and that last week the total Skywards membership crossed the 20 million mark.

The Cabin was first Cathay Pacific lounge to offer the modern, sleek look we have come to expect when we walk through the doors on one of the airline's renovated spaces but, a little over seven years after it first opened, the lounge is set to close at the end of April this year. In its place comes "The Deck" and we finally have our first look at what the latest Cathay Pacific lounge will offer.

Delta, Sprint, Airbus, Airtel and OneWeb have formed the "Seamless Air Alliance" which will look to allow member mobile/cell operators to extend the services they offer into aircraft cabins.

Senator lounges are the lounges that sit one tier below Lufthansa Group's exclusive First Class lounges and the newest Senator lounge has just opened its doors in Vienna revealing a new design.

United Airlines has announced the first routes on which we'll see the airline try out its new Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft and, with the announcement, the airline's PR team couldn't resist adding in a small bit of nonsense in the hope that no one will them out on it.

Qantas is expected to open its new international lounge at Perth Terminal 3 on 24 March just in time for the start of the new non-stop Perth - London route which will be operated by the airline's Dreamliners. While the plans for the lounge look very nice indeed it looks as if there will be a lot of disappointed Qantas flyers come opening day.

The UK's aviation watchdog/regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has announced that it is looking into the seating policies adopted by a number of airlines following complaints from the public that they have been unfairly separated from their traveling companions.

Those of you who remember life before the internet, cell phones, overpaid sports stars and mind-numbing reality TV (and the "stars" that go with it) may remember the Crocodile Dundee movies of the 1980's (I'm ignoring the disastrous attempt at a re-boot in 2001). Well, Crocodile Dundee is back....or at least his son is.

Lufthansa has announced that it has opened its new lounge at Milan Malpensa airport and, from the information provided by the airline, it looks as if flyers will have a nice new place to relax or get some work done before a flight.

Air France has announced the reopening of its Business Class lounge in Hall "L" in Terminal 2 of Paris Charles De Gaulle airport. The lounge has been completely redesigned and is considerably larger than the facility it has replaced.

If you ask US road warriors to list out the things that annoy them the most when they fly most of them will put unruly fake support animals down somewhere on their list.  Because the Air Carriers Access Act requires airlines to provide in-cabin travel for for service and support animals without charge, the number of animals seen onboard domestic flights had ballooned out of proportion and a lot of us suspect that a large percentage of these animals are neither genuine service animals or genuine support animals.

American Express has announced that it plans to open a new Centurion Lounge at New York JFK's Terminal 4 in "early 2019". According to Amex the lounge will have "spectacular airfield views and exceptional amenities" and will be the largest Centurion Lounge in the network.

The UK government has confirmed that it will be increasing its Air Passenger Duty (APD) rates on long-haul premium cabin fares in April 2018 and again in April 2019. APD on all short-haul fares will remain frozen (as previously announced) as will APD on long-haul Economy Class fares from 2019.

One of the new features built in to the new iOS update (iOS 11) is an enhancement to the Apple Maps app which allows users to search for an airport, zoom in on the map and see inside the airport's terminals. I'm more of a Google Maps person than an Apple Maps person so I didn't notice this feature when it formed part of a beta release earlier this year (for San Jose and Philadelphia airports only). Now Apple has added a few more airports

I love the option of checking in in downtown Hong Kong because the lines are often non-existant and, if you have baggage to check-in, it means you don't have to schlep it all the way to the airport on the train - you check in at the station and the next time you see your bags is at your destination. It's great. Sadly, however, travelers heading to the US will no longer be allowed to use this option with immediate effect.

The American Express Centurion lounge portfolio continues to grow and now not just in the US. The new Centurion lounge in Hong Kong opened its doors today making it the first Centurion lounge outside of North America.

The transport regulator in London (Transport For London) has said that it will nor be renewing the private hire operator license issued to Uber London Limited. The current license expires on 30 September 2017 and Uber had 21 days to appeal the decision during which time it can continue to operate.

SkyTeam has provided the first pictures of its soon to be opened lounge at Beijing International airport and, based on these together with the details supplied, it looks like flyers are going to have a very nice lounge option available to them in the next few weeks.

If there is one thing that I like most about Qantas it's that it can do airport lounges very well when it puts it's mind to it. The First Class lounge in Sydney is fantastic, the Qantas First Class lounge at LAX is my favorite lounge in the US and I can't wait for the new Qantas lounge to open at London Heathrow Terminal 3 next year. All this is why I was particularly interested to see what Qantas would be offering at its new Brisbane International Lounge which opened its doors yesterday.

I'm an unabashed fan of Qatar Airways and that's primarily because the airline offers some truly fantastic Business Class deals from various cities in Europe to any number of cities in Asia. Unsurprisingly all of Qatar Airways flights route through their home base in Doha so, although this can take a little longer than a direct flight, it also offers an opportunity to visit Qatar.

You have to feel a little sorry for United and American Airlines (ok you don't really). United and American have been playing catch-up to Delta for years and things looked like they were starting to go their way. American Airlines finally has some excellent Business Class cabins on its long haul aircraft (the 777-300ER currently has the best Business Class seat across the Atlantic and the 787 seats aren't too far behind) and United must have been looking forward to a long period where it clawed back some of the customers it haemorrhaged to Delta with its own impressive-looking Polaris Business Class that is coming in December.

Back in February the United States signed a historic agreement with Cuba to finally re-establish a true scheduled air services between the two countries. Although charter flights between the US And Cuba have existed for years the last scheduled flights between the US and Cuba took place over half a century ago. Since the agreement with Cuba was announced, a number of U.S. airlines have been submitted applications to the Department of Transportation (DOT) for authority to operate routes between the U.S. and Cuba but, because of restrictions within in the agreement, not all the airlines can get what they ask for.

It's been a long time coming and faced a number of long delays but the Etihad First Class Lounge & Spa Abu Dhabi is finally open as of today. Without having visited the lounge in person (clearly!) I'm not in much of a position to comment on what the Etihad First Class lounge in Abu Dhabi is like so, what follows is all the information and pictures Etihad has supplied so far.

Cathay Pacific has been refurbishing a number of its lounges over the past year and yesterday it offered up a preview of its Pier Business Class lounge at Hong Kong airport to a select group of guests (clearly my invitation was lost in the mail!).

GoGo is the domestic WiFi provider of choice for a good number of US Airlines including Delta, United, and American Airlines amongst others. The plans that are offered vary from a 1-hour pass at $5 all the way up to a recurring monthly plan for $50 for a specific airline or $60 for use on all GoGo equipped airlines. All GoGo's plans are for full internet access and allow the user to surf the web, check emails, send messages and do pretty much anything other than stream to your device.

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