Airline news

Airbus is considering making a military version of the Airbus A320neo commercial airliner. The A320M3A (Modular Multi-Mission Aircraft), as it would be designated, would be offered to air forces looking for a multi-mission aircraft for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) roles. The aircraft would be capable being outfitted with modular roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) payloads [read more]

The top 20 family-friendly airlines have been named by the website Play Like Mum after they looked at the facilities for traveling families on the worlds top airlines. The website looked at criteria such as in-flight entertainment for kids, early boarding, free checked luggage and being able to take pushchairs [read more]

The latest British hero to make it onto the tail fin of a Norwegian.com aircraft is Jane Austen. The Pride and Prejudice author now has her image on the tail of a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, G-CKWE, which flies from London Gatwick on long-haul routes. The airline has always honoured iconic [read more]

Thomas Cook Group airline has announced a partnership with Spanish carrier Air Europa which will allow passengers to connect through to Air Europa. Passengers will be able to “interline” via Palma de Mallorca (PMI), Ibiza (IBZ) and Las Palmas (LPA) to destinations including Seville, Salamanca and Santiago de Compostela. Christoph [read more]

Airbus has launched a programme aimed at helping to curb the global pilot shortage by offering training courses for new pilots. The Ab Initio scheme will train pilots from zero hours through to being A320 qualified with an ATPL (Air Transport Pilots Licence) at the Airbus Training Centre in Mexico. The [read more]

Thomas Cook (MT/TCX) is making changes to its US West Coast services from Manchester Airport (MAN/EGCC) for Summer 2019. The airline had previously planned to operate a 3 times-per-week flight to Los Angeles from May 2019 but this has now been reduced to a twice-weekly service from 21st June 2019. [read more]

Airbus has successfully completed the first flight of its latest Out-Sized Transport (OST) aircraft, the Beluga XL. The Aircraft landed at Toulouse at 14:41 hrs local time after successfully completing its first test flight lasting four hours and 11 minutes just south of Airbus headquarters. The test flight was carried out [read more]

Rival airframers Boeing and Airbus have both secured deals on day 1 of the Farnborough International Airshow. For Seattle-based Boeing, day one included an order from Qatar Airways for five Boeing 777 Freighters worth around $1.7bn at list prices. This was backed up with an order for 30 Boeing 737 [read more]