Omra and Hajj back to TB1 BEGINNING last Saturday, all flights carrying Omra passengers on board the national carrier's fleet have been moved to TB1 where pilgrims receive special health services. All flights to Jeddah and Madina will be operated from TB1 till the end of December, the end of Hajj season. BA returns to Sharm El-Sheikh BRITISH AIRWAYS is to launch new thrice-weekly direct services from Gatwick to both Male in the Maldives and Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt from 25 October 2009. This will be the first time British Airways has flown to the Maldives, but will be a return for the airline's trademark flag in the Red Sea resort. Aggressive expansion QATAR AIRWAYS announced a significant increase in the number of flights to key European capital cities as part of its aggressive expansion programme to improve frequencies and offer passengers greater choice. The airline will add three flights on the Doha--Paris route to make it a double daily starting October. Operations to other four European cities will increase by 40 per cent. This includes adding three flights to Madrid on 2 December to make it a daily flight instead of the current four-a-week. In October, the carrier will start increasing frequencies on the Athens route to jump from a daily flight at present to a double daily by March 2010. Effective 25 October, Stockholm will see its first increase, adding one extra weekly service every Thursday, whereas the Paris route will see capacity rise from 11 to 14 flights a week offering passengers the option of a double daily service for the first time. LH expands code shares to Africa LUFTHANSA and Brussels are now offering codeshare flights on selected long-haul routes as part of their agreement to expand their cooperation and open up their networks to each other's passengers. The first jointly operated long-haul services are Brussels Airlines flights from Brussels to Entebbe, Uganda and the new Lufthansa connection from Frankfurt to Libreville, Gabon. Flights on both theses routes can now be booked under the partner's flight number. Orphans onboard A DREAM literally took off when Qatar Airways invited 100 children on a specially organised flight over Qatar. The joint initiative was aimed at bringing fun and joy into the lives of children -- many from the Qatar Orphan Foundation "Dhreima". Welcomed by Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al-Baker, who joined the event, the 45-minute flight took the children, their aides and local media on a journey over the state of Qatar. Most of the children, aged between 5 and 16 years, have never flown before, resulting in an air of excitement and anticipation as the crowds gathered at Doha International Airport for the special Airbus A321 flight. To make the experience true to life, boarding passes were given out by the airport's ground handling staff before the airline's special guests entered the plane, and cabin crew provided superior Five Star service. Special inflight kids meals were served and all children received the airline's Oryx backpacks filled with fun items to keep them entertained during their next flights. New appointments AVIATION Minister Ahmed Shafiq has named a new executive manager to run the minister's technical office and act as an aide. Hisham Zahran is an ex-air force officer with a long experience gained under Shafiq, an ex-Air Force Commander. Zahran retired in 2002 only to join his commander Shafiq who took over the Aviation Ministry in 2002. The newly born LSG Sky Chefs Catering Egypt has got a new management. Engineer Hussein Massoud was elected board chairman for the company which is due to take over catering business at Cairo International Airport. The national carrier also released the list of new managers of its overseas offices. among the most prominent nominations, appear the name of Safwat Musalim who was named as Madrid area manger, Barcelona supervisor and Portugal agent. Salah Mansour was named New York area manager. Hatem Hanfi will manage the Milan office.
