Latest seat capacity data compiled by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation shows an interesting fact – Sri Lanka is Asia Pacific’s fastest growing aviation market.

The island nation, rich of cultural and bio-diversity variety, has recorded a staggering growth in tourist arrivals ever since the war against the world’s second fiercest terrorist group ended with victory, in 2009. For the month of April, 2011 alone, tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have grown by 66.7%.

As per the data compiled by Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Sri Lanka has achieved a 25.9% growth in airline seat capacity for May 2011, versus May 2010. ( Sri Lanka had a total of 78,992 weekly airline seats offered in May 2011. ) This makes Sri Lanka the fastest growing aviation market in Asia Pacific and puts it ahead the growth rates of Asian heavyweights Hong Kong ( 13.5% ),  India ( 18.4%), Indonesia ( 15.9%), Malaysia (12.6%) and Singapore (13.5%).

For your interest on this fast growing, unique, aviation market – Airline Industry Review has now compiled a special section on Sri Lanka. This includes latest news, fleet info and airport info. And it is free! So have a look at it right away!

While Sri Lanka is at present ranked 15 in the aforementioned report, it will not be hard for Sri Lanka to come to a much higher position if developments such as opening up the international market for local private carriers and marketing the country’s attractions better, are taken place.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Excuse us from our main broadcast  for a bit..
We’re into some blogging news now. WordPress, the world’s most popular blogging platform today launched Jetpack for its self-hosted version. Jetpack is a plugin that adds most of WordPress.com’s custom functionality to self-hosted WordPress blogs. Features include WordPress.com Stats, the Twitter widget, Gravatar hovercards, Sharedaddy and a range of great new features that were previously exclusive to WordPress.com users. Your favourite airline news hub is already powered by Jetpack. So, if you have a self-hosted WordPress blog and been drooling over the WordPress.com features, go grab the plugin now – it is free. More about it on Jetpack.me and Matt’s blog post.

.. Ok, now back to our main broadcast.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Asiana Airlines of South Korea has placed orders for six Airbus A380-800s.
The airline will be taking delivery of the aircraft from 2014 onwards, with the intention of placing them on routes to Europe and the US. Deliveries are expected to continue till 2017.
The deal is valued at $1.78b.
Asiana has been considering the A380 since 2006 and becomes the 18th customer for the type. Its local rival Korean Air is already an A380 customer, with the first A380 for them to enter into service in May.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Happy new year everyone !

Pakistan International Airlines is to resume Colombo service eff 19FEB.

The schedule is as follows

PK874 KHI 1530 – 1930 CMB 246 310
PK875 CMB 2045 – 2340 KHI 246 310

Note: As of 3 Feb, the schedule has been revised as follows

PK874 KHI O800-1200 CMB 3 310

PK875 CMB 1320 – 1615 3 310

Day 2 and 6 remain same.

Competition comes from SriLankan Airlines, who operates four weekly ( five eff 27 Mar ) A320 flights.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Just like AIR guessed on Twitter, Boeing finally resumed Boeing 787 flight testing on Thursday ( 23rd ) ending a six week long hiatus following the onboard electricals bay fire on ZA002 on 9 Nov.
Boeing has installed an interim version of updated power distribution system software, with which the FAA seems to have been satisfied.
The resumption flight, operated by ZA004, had went well and just landed at Seattle as this post goes into publishing.

Photos of the flight

Photos by Liz Matzelle

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker has Gulf News that the carrier will be offering an IPO in 2012.
The airline is currently wholly state owned. The CEO further states that he has always said QR will launch an IPO once the airline had three consecutively profitable years, and claims that the airline is indeed profitable.
QR does not publicly disclose its financial data, unlike its larger rival Emirates

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Amelia Earhart, probably the greatest female aviator ever, went missing on 2 July 1937, on her way to Howland Island ( southwest of Honolulu ) in an attempt to complete a round the world flight.

Having departed from Lae, New Guinea on the same day on her Electra, the last known transmission from her was at 8.43a.m when she broadcast “We are on the line 157 337.
We will repeat this message.
We will repeat this on 6210
kilocycles. Wait.”. Despite undertaking the most costly search mission in US history up to that time, no physical evidence of Earhart, her partner Fred Noonan or the Electra was found. She was finally declared dead in 1939.
Now, a group of investigators from International Group for Historic
Aircraft Recovery claim to have found, what could perhaps be bone fragments from Amelia Earhart.

The AP report follows

NORMAN, Okla. – The three bone fragments turned up on a
deserted South Pacific island
that lay along the course
Amelia Earhart was following
when she vanished. Nearby
were several tantalizing artifacts: some old makeup,
some glass bottles and shells
that had been cut open. Now scientists at the
University of Oklahoma hope
to extract DNA from the tiny
bone chips in tests that could
prove Earhart died as a
castaway after failing in her 1937 quest to become the first
woman to fly around the
world. “There’s no guarantee,” said
Ric Gillespie, director of the
International Group for Historic
Aircraft Recovery, a group of
aviation enthusiasts in
Delaware that found the pieces of bone this year while
on an expedition to
Nikumaroro Island, about
1,800 miles south of Hawaii. “You only have to say you
have a bone that may be
human and may be linked to
Earhart and people get excited.
But it is true that, if they can
get DNA, and if they can match it to Amelia Earhart’s DNA,
that’s pretty good.” It could be months before
scientists know for sure — and it could turn out the bones are
from a turtle. The fragments
were found near a hollowed-
out turtle shell that might have
been used to collect rain
water, but there were no other turtle parts nearby. Earhart’s disappearance on July
2, 1937, remains one of the
20th century’s most enduring
mysteries. Did she run out of
fuel and crash at sea? Did her
Lockheed Electra develop engine trouble? Did she spot
the island from the sky and
attempt to land on a nearby
reef?

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

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Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Now that’s a first for an airline. A number of media reports that sprung today have been confirmed by KLM.
The Dutch airline is planning to offer space flights by 2014 as part of Space Experience Curaçao.
The Space Experience project website states that

Space Experience Curaçao (SXC) envisions realizing a Commercial Space Line and Space Port on Curaçao International Airport. SXC will serve both the commercial needs of everyone who wants to travel into space, as well as the needs for scientific research and space training. Bringing small satellites into orbit in a flexible way will follow soon while in the somewhat longer term very fast orbital travel to distant parts of our world is within reach.

( Yes, that is a real KLM B. 747 )
The airline plans to offer these flights to customers based on their Blue Miles. But it is not clear how many, if any, miles will you earn as part of the space flight..

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Air Arabia from 16DEC launches flights to Kuala Lumpur, its first destination in South East Asia and its longest flight to date.
Flights operate via Kathmandu with full fifth freedom rights.

Schedule
G9 533 SHJ 1610 – 2145 KTM 2225 – 0510+1 KUL Daily A320
G9 534 KUL 0550 – 0815 KTM 0855 – 1150 SHJ Daily A320

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review