Let’s try and steer this blog back onto some sort of publishing schedule, as it is Saturday evening and might have a canned Gin and Tonic in hand as I edit this.
It’s time for Last Week at Economy Class and Beyond.
Violet Skies- Corporation Street, Birmingham.
Passenger Experience
- Cathay Pacific reopens “The Deck” at Hong Kong, with further lounge plans – More room to lounge across the Cathay Pacific network
- Star Alliance to add paid access option for its Amsterdam lounge – The sound you heard is a duck diving off a diving board into a pool of money.
- Qatar Airways reopens its Paris Charles de Gaulle Premium Lounge – A premium lounge reopens for premium passengers. As always, check the access rules.
Airplane News
- Solaseed Air go Pokemon – All the Exeggutor aboard! – Because Pikachu jets are *so* yesterday.
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries formally ends the SpaceJet Programme – And that ends that competitor.
- Norwegian Air Shuttle to lease six Boeing 737-8 aircraft – I wonder where they got six Boeing 737-8 aircraft so fast…
Routes and Networks
- SWISS plans its Shanghai return – With a rather cautious plan
- KLM plans service increase to Greater China Area – And is being rather aggressive with their rollout plan.
- British Airways and Airlink South Africa sign a codeshare agreement – British Airways finds a new partner after the collapse of Comair.
- LATAM to add Orlando to Bogotá – It’s amazing what a Joint Business Venture can achieve
- Ryanair adds routes for five of its UK Bases – Here comes the routes for the Summer
Sustainability in the air
- ATR and Pratt & Whitney Canada combine efforts to achieve 100% SAF readiness – One SAF step at a time.
Trains
- Avanti West Coast starts testing of their new Class 805 trains – More IET Trains on the UK Rail network.
Pretty Pictures
Next Week
We’re entering the first of the half-term holiday weeks in the United Kingdom. As such, there’s either going to be a tsunami of updates, or it’s going to be quieter than usual on the front.
We’ll have your usual mix of news, views and people moaning “why is x country not accepting my passport” as we go through the week.
Until then, Happy Landings!
Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond. Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, in-depth coverage, unique research, as well as the humour and madness I only know how to deliver.
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