Brown1950

Etihad going 2 x daily as from 1st August - both A330x200

As from 1st June Qatar will go 2x daily. Qatar Airways (QR042) Dep : 10:00 - Manchester (MAN) Arr : 19:00 - Doha (DOH) Equipment : Airbus Industrie A330-200 Qatar Airways (QR046) Dep : 14:55 - Manchester (MAN) Arr : 23:55 - Doha (DOH) Equipment : Airbus Industrie A330-200 Lets hope with the increased capacity already announced by EY - the rumour of a 3rd daily Emirates flight (A380 ?) and this announcement from QR - prices might become more competitive.

dates would help and layover times in Abu Dhabi

Talking of sub - £500 tickets from Manchester try this :- Depart – Wed 1 Jun 2011 This flight leaves on Wednesday and arrives on Thursday. Etihad Airways Flights EY0016 Departs: 09:25 Manchester (MAN) Arrives: 19:40 Abu Dhabi Intl (AUH) Coach | Boeing 777-300ER () | 7h 15m Stopover in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (AUH) for 2h 00m Etihad Airways Flights EY0402 Departs: 21:40 Abu Dhabi Intl (AUH) Arrives: 07:05 Bangkok (BKK) Coach | Boeing 777-300ER () | 6h 25m Return – Sun 19 Jun 2011 This flight leaves on Sunday and arrives on Monday. Etihad Airways Flights EY0401 Departs: 20:35 Bangkok (BKK) Arrives: 00:05 Abu Dhabi Intl (AUH) Coach | Boeing 777-300ER () | 6h 30m Stopover in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (AUH) for 2h 30m Etihad Airways Flights EY0015 Departs: 02:35 Abu Dhabi Intl (AUH) Arrives: 07:30 Manchester (MAN) Coach | Boeing 777-300ER () | 7h 55m Price £499.00 incl taxes with Netflights.com

Some sub £500 flights will still be available in 2011 especially with the expected 3rd daily Emirates morning flight.

Commencing 1/8/11 Etihad will intoduce 5 x weekly A346 morning flights. EY15/16 In 0615 / Out 0925 EY21/22 - A330-200 in 1415 / Out 2105 (revert back to 77W on 31/10)

UPDATE - China Airlines should announce soon 4 x weekly service to Taipei from March 2011 operating A340-300. Awaiting EVA AIR announcement.

EK + 12% AY + 42% QR+ 2% For 2011 expect the middle east carriers to increase capacity (ie) EK - a third daily flight departing around 0900am -A330-200 AY - extra daily flight-A330-200 QR - to introduce daily B777-300ER

Strong rumour doing the rounds at Manchester Airport is EVA Air are looking at starting services from Manchester commencing April 2011. Also China Airlines are looking at Manchester for next year.

QR - 15891 up 11% EY - 19380 up 41% EK - 50526 up 5% Passenger numbers compared to July 2009.

Strike is off ! Unite and BAA have agreed a new pay deal.

Confirm Emirates A380 will indeed start from Manchester Airport on 1st September. A380 Airbridge at the Airport due to be completed next week.

Joint venture between Thai Airways(51%) and Tiger Airways (49%) will be called Thai Tiger. Based in Bangkok will operate within 5 hour flying radius from BKK. New venture to commence around April 11.

Understand an annoucement will be made tomorrow regarding a new LCC in Thailand. Thai Airways and Tiger Airways would appear to be involved. Where would this leave Nok Air (part owned by Thai) ?

Refers to flights EK 017/018

Rumour doing the rounds at Manchester Airport is the introduction of Emirates A380 planned for 1st Sept will be delayed by 7 days. Will keep you posted.

Latest rumour doing the rounds at Manchester Airport - Jet Airways are looking at commencing operations early 2011.

Can well understand Emirates introducing the A380 into Manchester when March passenger figures show total passengers were 51,152pax (ie) average 412 per flight. Looks like third daily flight will start early 2011.

To be confirmed by Airbus :- A380 arrive Manchester 1135 on 13th August ex Toulouse Departs for Hamburg at 1335 - 13th August Looks like A380 test prior to Emirates flights in September.

Indeed you are correct however Thai i understand are trying to take over an Air India order of 3 x 777300ER from Boeing. As is usual with Air India (Government) this can take time. If Thai can get an agreement with Air India i would expect one of the daily LHR-BKK flights to change as from October this year.

Now that Thai are leasing 6 x 777-300ER from Jet Airways /Air India the first route to change from 747 is Paris (1.7.10) so would expect LHR also to change to 777-300ER soon.

A380 which will operate on flights EK17 /EK18 arriving Manchester 1145 Depart Manchester 1330 2 or 3 class A380 - to be confirmed.

Rumour also Emirates 3 x daily from Manchester :- A330 depart 0900 A380 depart 1410 B777-300 depart 2100

Emirates have confirmed today A380 will start services ex Manchester on 1st September

Just thought you might be interested in the following article from FlightGobal :- Oman Air has become the first airline in the world to offer passengers both in-flight mobile and Internet, after switching on Airbus/SITA joint venture OnAir's connectivity solutions on an Airbus A330-300. Passengers aboard Oman Air's Muscat-London Heathrow service can use their mobile phones at all times other than during take-off and landing. Onboard communications are charged by the home mobile service provider at international roaming rates, says the airline. Logging onto Oman Air's in-flight Internet service, meanwhile, is akin to using a public Wi-fi hotspot, says Oman Air. The passenger price plan for Internet access on laptops "is expected to be $29.95 for 26MB per flight. Additional usage would be at $0.006 per KB". "For webmail (body copy only) the rate would be $9.95 per flight and $0.006 for attachments. For webchat, the rate would be $4.95 for unlimited use, per flight," adds the carrier. In launching in-flight mobile connectivity and Internet service on an A330-300, Oman Air has also become the first commercial widebody operator to enter service with Airbus' ALNA v2 platform over Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband (SBB) aeronautical service, which can support data rates of up to 432 kbps per channel. SBB does not support broadband Internet. ALNA, which stands for Airline Network Architecture, serves as Airbus' platform for both airborne mobile telephone and Internet services. It is designed on an open architecture that also allows for future integration with other connectivity systems such as Ku-band or terrestrial air-to-ground systems. All future Oman A330s will be delivered with connectivity.