http://www.albawaba.com/

Etihad Airways increases Abu Dhabi – Cairo flights to four-a-day

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, today

announced an increase in capacity between Abu Dhabi and Cairo with

the introduction of a fourth daily scheduled flight, effective 27 March

2016.

The route has grown to become one of the most popular in Etihad

Airways’ network, building on strong commercial ties between the

capital cities of the UAE and Egypt. With a large Egyptian population

in the UAE, more flights provide greater options for expatriates

travelling back home for work or holiday.

Etihad Airways’ services are conveniently timed to offer enhanced

travel options for business and leisure travellers between the UAE and

Egypt with greater choice of flights across the day. Additionally,

passengers travelling between Egypt and the GCC, South and North

East Asia, and India will benefit from increased and better connecting

options over the airline’s Abu Dhabi hub. To India, Etihad Airways and

its strategic equity partner Jet Airways offer more than 250 weekly

flights across 15 destinations.

Over two million guests have flown on the Cairo route since its launch

in 2004, becoming a key market among the 116 global destinations

served by Etihad Airways.

Kevin Knight, Etihad Airways’ Chief Strategy and Planning Officer,

said: ―Etihad Airways is focused on offering guests more choice. The

introduction of a fourth daily flight to Cairo demonstrates our

commitment to a market that has shown strong growth in passenger

and freight traffic since the route was launched almost 12 years ago.

―Attracting both commercial and leisure business, the additional flights

linking Cairo and Abu Dhabi with connections beyond will help cater

for the growing demand on one of our most popular North African and

global routes.‖

Birdwatch News ArchiveThe world celebrates its wetlands

Tomorrow is the annual World Wetlands Day, which marks the date of the adoption of the Ramsar Convention

on Wetlands by encouraging people to get outdoors and enjoy their nearest watery habitat.

The Convention on Wetlands was instituted on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of

the Caspian Sea. Each year since 1997, the Ramsar Secretariat has provided materials to help raise public

awareness about the importance and value of wetlands.

Events will take place on every continent except Antarctica, including photo contests, guided walks and

presentations including at least 380 in Britain and Ireland, and many hundred more aroun the world. You can

.World Wetlands Day websitefind out what's going on near you to help you join in the event by visiting the

The Convention on Wetlands is popularly abbreviated as the Ramsar Convention and is an international treaty

to conserve the world's most important wetlands and manage them sustainably. It recognises the economic and

.their ecological necessitycultural importance of these prolific habitats, as well as

With its corporate sponsors, the day is dedicated to supporting this sustainability by drawing the public's

attention the plight of wetlands and the humans and wildlife which depend on them. Several businesses

dependent on a free-flowing supply of water also fun the habitats' maintenance, flying environmental field

workers, scientists and educators across the global Ramsar network to further knowledge, skills and

understanding of major environmental issues and initiatives, and to help conserve some of these unique

habitats.

Star Alliance has partnered with UNESCO-Man and the Biosphere, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and

Wetlands youth IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and have sponsored the prize for the

, a chance to win a free flight to a famous wetland.photo contest

Livelihoods from fishing, rice farming, travel, tourism, and water provision all depend on wetlands, and they

host a huge variety of life, protect our coastlines, provide natural sponges against river flooding and store

carbon dioxide to regulate climate change. Unfortunately, they are often viewed as wasteland and more than 64

per cent of our wetlands have disappeared since 1900. Enabling people to make a decent living and at the

same time ensuring that wetlands can still provide their essential benefits do not have to be conflicting goals,

says the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.

You can help spread awareness about the importance of wetlands by joining in a World Wetlands Day 2016

World on Twitter and see more at theWetlandsForOurFuture#WorldWetlandsDay#hashtagsevent. Use the

.Wetlands Day website

http://www.anna.aero/

Air China becomes fourth carrier to serve Ibaraki

Air China on 30 January began twice-weekly

flights (Saturdays and Sundays)

between Hangzhou(HGH) and Ibaraki (IBR) in

Japan. The 1,968-kilometre route will be flown

by the Star Alliance carrier’s A319s. No other

carrier serves this route. Ibaraki Airport, located

less than 100 kilometres from Tokyo, is

currently served by local carrier Skymark

Airlines, as well as Spring Airlines and China

Southern Airlines. Air China thus becomes the

airport’s fourth carrier, with a fifth, V Air, set to

arrive in mid-March.

But low-cost rival Ryanair served a warning on Tuesday that Europe's

legacy carriers will be unable to reap the full benefit of that windfall.

Fuel is one of the biggest expenses for airlines -- accounting for 40

percent of Ryanair's costs -- so the benefits of cheaper fuel are real, as

long as they can be retained.

Airlines hedge the bulk of their fuel costs and European carriers are

forced to purchase fuel in costly dollars, limiting some of their

gains. Lufthansa and Air France have hedged a smaller proportion of

their fuel costs than Ryanair, meaning they stand to benefit more from the

falling cost of jet fuel.

After a year marred by terrorist attacks and employee

strikes, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa might have expected

that falling jet fuel prices would mean a better 2016.

Fuel Costs Tank

The price of jet fuel has fallen almost 40 percent in the past year

But unlike the U.S.'s oligopolistic industry, Europe's

airline market remains fragmented. So Lufthansa and

Air-France should be worried by Ryanair CEO Michael

O'Leary's prediction on Monday that air fares could fall

this year as airlines pass on some of their fuel savings

to customers.

Ryanair CFO Neil Sorahan noted that because

Ryanair's cost base is much lower than rivals, the

company is better placed to win a price war, should one

materialize.

Lagging Profitability

Europe's airline industry is far less lucrative than that of the U.S.

With Ryanair and low-cost rivals all adding lots of new capacity, that

seems a distinct possibility. Ryanair forecast fares would decline 6

percent in the fourth quarter (in part due to the falling pound).

Lufthansa's also aware of the risk. It expects earnings growth in

2016 but told investors this month that yields, a measure of average

ticket prices, would keep falling.

Ryanair's unit costs excluding fuel are expected to drop 2 percent

this fiscal year, even though the airline has been expanding into

more costly primary airports, as opposed to those miles away from

the passenger's final destination.

Ryanair expects passenger numbers to jump 26 percent in its fiscal

fourth quarter from the year-earlier period and reach 106 million for

the year ending in March, slightly more than previous guidance of

105 million.

With Ryanair expanding fast in its German home market, Lufthansa

is trying to respond with a lost-cost service of its own: Eurowings.

But the need to cut costs doesn't seem to have sunk in with

workers, who went on strike repeatedly last year.

Air France was forced to scale back plans to expand its Transavia

low-cost arm in 2014 and in October employees ripped the shirts off

the backs of management over proposed job cuts, suggesting they

aren't entirely convinced of the need for change either.

Ryanair's projection that its passenger numbers will increase by

more than two-thirds by 2024 haven't gone unnoticed by investors,

however.

Taking Off

Ryanair shares have outperformed other European legacy carriers

The stock trades at more than 15 times estimated

earnings for the fiscal year ending in March, three

times Lufthansa's valuation. With some 350 Boeing

737s on order, Ryanair's premium could prove rich if

the industry enters another cyclical downturn.

Iata noted in December that historically the airline

industry profitability cycle lasts between eight and

nine years from trough to trough. Ominously, the low

point of the last cycle occurred in 2009.

Ryanair's balance sheet offers some protection. The

company had 350 million euros ($381 million) of net

cash at the end of December, and felt confident

enough to announce an 800 million-euro share

buyback on Monday.

Contrast that with Lufthansa, which scrapped its

dividend last February and which had 9.2 billion euros

in net debt and pension liabilities at the end of

September.

If the airline industry again encounters turbulence,

Ryanair looks better-positioned to ride it out.

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Lufthansa Shakes Up Management After Split Into Two Airline Arms

Deutsche Lufthansa AG has shaken up its management as part of

a push to save 500 million euros ($543 million) by consolidating

operations under two airline divisions.

Sadiq Gillani, former head of strategy across the group, will move

to the Eurowings discount arm with responsibility for developing its

network and fleet. He’ll be succeeded in his old role by William

Willms, who previously worked in finance at the company’s

maintenance unit.

Wolfgang Kohlhagen, who was in charge of Lufthansa’s Frankfurt-

based cabin crew during their most disruptive strike ever in

November, takes charge of health management, to be replaced

by Kai Duve, the former head of internal audit. Raimund Mueller

becomes chief pilot after previously running Munich flights, with

incumbent Werner Knorr returning to the cockpit.

The changes, revealed Monday by spokesman Andreas Bartels in

response to questions from Bloomberg, are aimed at speeding

decision-making and reducing complexity.

They follow the reorganization of the group into two units: one

formed of Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines and run by Harry

Hohmeister, the other comprising businesses being brought under

the Eurowings brand, led by Karl Ulrich Garnadt. The process will

involve 150 job cuts as the number of management layers is

reduced to three from four.

Nico Buchholz, who managed the groupwide fleet and has joined

Bombardier Inc., won’t be replaced, Bartels said. His duties will

instead be part of the remit of Detlef Kayser, who took over a wider

fleet and strategy role on Jan. 1.

Five foreign authorities inspected security measures at airport: official

Chairman of Cairo International Airport Company Mohamed Saeed Mahrous

said that five authorities affiliated with five western companies have

inspected the airport's security measures.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Mahrous said a committee from the

Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, which visited Egypt earlier, requested

inspecting five checkpoints including passengers traveling or arriving,

luggage, fences and shipping of cargo. The outcome of the inspection will be

announced next week.

Authorities of German, British and Kazakhstani aviation as well as a

Canadian company on behalf of US aviation also inspected the security

measures followed at the airport.

The Civil Aviation Ministry, according to Mahrous, signed an agreement with

a company affiliated to a supreme security authority to secure the airport

fences at the cost of LE28 million during the first phase, which includes

installing 11 cameras. The second phase includes a system to monitor

movement in parking lots at the airport. AVIT, affiliated to the Egyptian

Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation, will carry out the necessary

measures. It is supposed to fix around 140 cameras to cover the parking lots

in four months.

The searches come as many countries halted flights to Egypt following the

crash of a Russian passenger plan in October in Sinai, which was claimed by

ISIS although has been denied by Egyptian authorities until investigations

are completed.

http://atwonline.com/

EASA seeks views on two-people-in-the-cockpit policy

two to assess the effectiveness of maintainingonline surveyhas launched anEASA

Germanwingsin the wake of the recommendedflight, asduringcockpitin thepeople

tragedy.

On March 24, 2015, a Germanwings Airbus A320 was on a scheduled flight from

Barcelona to Düsseldorf when it crashed, killing all 150 people aboard. A preliminary

report revealed that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, alone on the flight deck, switched the

selected altitude from 38,000 ft. to 100 ft.—the minimum value possible on an Airbus

fatal intentionalansetting in motionand increased the speed of the aircraft,—320A

descent into the French Alps.

that two crew recommended, EASA2015, 27Just three days after the crash, on March

members, including at least one qualified pilot, should occupy the cockpit during flight, or

that the operator should implement ―equivalent measures,‖ however this is not a

requirement.

This recommendation was based on the technical investigation performed by France’s

Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA) and was maintained by the July 2015

report.Task ForceGermanwings

EASA is now seeking feedback from ―operators, pilots and cabin crew, authorities and

other interested parties‖ to assess the effectiveness of the two-person-in-the-cockpit

as the 11 and has set March 1 on Feb. online surveyrecommendation. It launched an

closing date for submissions. EASA asks for contact details to be provided, but all

responses will be aggregated and kept confidential.

―By April 2016 the agency [EASA] will publish on the EASA website a summary of the

answers/comments received, following an evaluation of the answers received. The

summary will be followed by an agency proposal on how to implement the

recommendations of the Germanwings taskforce,‖ EASA said.

In the US, there is no explicit rule requiring two crew members to be in the cockpit during

flight; however, this has evolved as an FAA-approved standard operating procedure for

US carriers.

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