Full content deals

Amadeus, a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry, and British Airways have announced a three-year extension of their content agreement taking it up to 2013.

The renewed agreement guarantees full-content access to Amadeus users worldwide, ensuring travel agents have access to the same range of fares through Amadeus as they would through the airline’s website.   

Amadeus has also signed a full-content agreement Lufthansa German Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines valid until the end of 2014.

Emirates expands Jakarta service

Emirates Airline will advance its existing operation to Jakarta with the introduction of a double-daily service, effective March 1.

Presently, Emirates operates 11 flights a week to the Indonesian capital city.

The three additional flights will be operated on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, using the Boeing 777 family of technologically-advanced aircraft in two-class configurations. The expansion will introduce more than 2,600 seats per week.

Etihad increases Beirut service

Etihad Airways has increased its Abu Dhabi to Beirut service from double-daily to 18 flights per week.

The service was originally launched in November 2003 proving extremely popular with travellers, providing high volumes of traffic into Abu Dhabi as well as transit traffic to many Asian destinations. The additional four flights per week will offer passengers increased connections to some of Etihad’s key destinations, including the airline’s newest route, Colombo, four times per week.

Dammam flights doubled

In response to the growing demand for its services to Dammam, Air Arabia has launched an additional seven flights per week to the bustling Saudi city.

Air Arabia previously operated roundtrip flights seven times a week between King Fahad International Airport in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia from its hub in Sharjah, as well as flying to Riyadh, Jeddah and Medina.

Since mid-January a double-daily service has been in operation.

Travelport extends agreement

Travelport, one of the world’s leading global distribution system providers, and Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, have announced details of a new global full content agreement that will give all Galileo and Worldspan-connected travel agents worldwide access to the airline’s full range of published fares and inventory.

A380 on Jeddah route

Marking the first commercial use of the A380 into Saudi Arabia, Emirates began serving Jeddah four times weekly with the super-jumbo from February 1.

Jeddah will be the eighth destination to be added to the growing list of gateways served by the A380 which include Sydney, Auckland, Heathrow, Bangkok, Toronto, Seoul and Paris.

The A380 operates on Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday.

Routes comes to Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) has announced the success of its bid to bring ‘Routes – The World Route Development Forum’ to the UAE capital in 2012.

The event is an annual forum for the air service development industry, which brings together airlines, airports and tourism authorities and provides opportunities to highlight route opportunities for airlines and host airports as well as identifying areas for ongoing business development, for the sector.

Supporting partners including Etihad Airways, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.