If you hadn’t noticed, airline wraps are our favourite part of Tuesdays. Well, that and the fact that there are only four more days until the weekend.

Singapore Airlines launches world’s longest flight

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has launched the world’s longest commercial flight, between Singapore and New York. The first new non-stop flight between Singapore and New York departed Changi International Airport on 11 October 2018 at 2337hrs (SIN time) and arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport a day later, at 0529hrs (US Eastern time). The flight duration was 17 hours 52 minutes.

Operated by the all-new Airbus A350-900ULR (Ultra Long Range), the route will initially be served thrice-weekly, departing Singapore on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Daily operations will commence from 18 October after an additional A350-900ULR aircraft enters service.

To commemorate the inaugural flight, customers departing from Singapore were treated to an evening of performances and an assortment of food and beverages at a special boarding gate event. Customers also received an exclusive goodie bag containing a commemorative certificate and a pair of SIA-branded Bodum glasses.

Customers on the world’s longest flight were treated with a comfortable and relaxing travelling experience with special Wellness Cuisines curated by chefs and nutritionists from Canyon Ranch, a leader in healthy living and wellness, in addition to SIA’s own meal selections and creations by its International Culinary Panel of chefs.

AirAsia launches #ToIDWithLove relief fund for Indonesia

AirAsia today launched a relief fund to provide support for Palu, which was struck by an earthquake and tsunami on 28 September 2018. The #ToIDWithLove fund will be collecting donations from now until 31 October 2018. All donations will be channelled to Yayasan Arkom Indonesia to help rebuild homes and improve disaster resilience in affected areas.

Australians who wish to donate may do so online via AirAsia Foundation, the airline’s philanthropic arm at, airasiafoundation.com/relieffund. AirAsia will also carry out phased onboard cash collections, beginning with AirAsia Malaysia (carried code AK), AirAsia Indonesia (QZ), AirAsia X Malaysia (D7) and AirAsia X Indonesia (XT) flights from now until the end of the month, with more AirAsia Group airlines to follow.

AirAsia will match the total public collection, which will be announced in January 2019.

Hawaiian Airlines continues support for Wyndham Destinations Corporate Surf Challenge in 2018

The annual Wyndham Destinations Corporate Surf Challenge charity event was again staged at Duranbah Beach, Tweed Heads, on Friday, 12 October 2108.
And once again Hawaiian Airlines was proud to sponsor the event, giving away two return flights to Hawaii to one lucky participant.

Each year corporate teams are boosted by big-name surfer ‘ring-ins’ including seven times world female surfing champion, Layne Beachley.

Hawaiian Airlines’ team this year include Flight Centre’s General Manager Marketing – Premium Retail Brands, Darren Wright; Surfing Australia’s Communications Manager, Blainey Woodham; surfer, Bryce Watson; Surfing Australia’s Weet-Bix SurfGroms Manager, Courtney Bell; and Geoff Booth.

Registrations for the full-day event commenced at 7.00am at Duranbah Beach, culminating in the final at 3.10pm and presentations at 4.10pm. Auction and raffle prizes included flights for two to Hawaii with Hawaiian Airlines, a seven-night international holiday, a New Year’s Eve Getaway package, products from Shark Shield Technology, Veuve Clicquot and Moet & Chandon.

Travelport wins tender for sole distribution supplier to Air India award of contract follows extensive bidding process

Travelport, the leading travel commerce platform, announced today that it had won a competitive tender process undertaken by Air India for the sole provision of distribution of its domestic flight content in the airline’s home market.

The contract awarded to Travelport came after a comprehensive bidding process. It will begin to come into effect from November 2018 and be fully implemented by the end of 2019. The agreement confirms Air India’s continued deployment of Travelport Rich Content and Branding, now used by over 270 airlines. This displays airlines’ graphical content, their fares families and a full range of ancillary products. It means that Travelport will provide the same content as Air India’s own direct-selling channels.

Air India is the country’s flag air carrier with a leading position in international and domestic operations. Along with Air India Express, it has a 43 per cent share of the international traffic to and from India among Indian carriers and a 17 per cent share, including global airlines, as of Q3 CY17. It is a member of the Star Alliance and is a pioneer of India’s civil aviation sector, being the first scheduled airline in India, enjoying a rich heritage of over 85 years.

Travelport has seen a rapid expansion in India in recent years following the acquisition of the business from the largest online travel agencies such as MakeMyTrip, Ibibo, Yatra, EaseMyTrip and ClearTrip as well as working with the major corporate travel agencies and new entrants to the travel sector such as PayTM. In addition to industry-leading airline content, Travelport has also expanded its footprint and capabilities with leading hotel groups and aggregators in India such as Oberoi, Taj, Treebo and Trident.

Fiji Airways to introduce cashless transactions at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane Airports

Fiji Airways, Fiji’s National Airline, has announced it will introduce cashless transactions at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide Airports following a successful pilot period in Wellington and Christchurch Airports earlier this year.

Starting from Monday 15th October 2018, the airline will only accept cash-free transactions for airport desk operations including new ticket purchases, Business Class upgrades, lounge access, Extra Leg Room seats, Up Front seats, and baggage fees.

Major international credit and debit cards or Australian EFTPOS cards will be accepted for any payments. Fiji Airways flies twice daily from Sydney, daily from Melbourne and Brisbane, and twice a week from Adelaide, plus once a week from Sydney to Suva direct. In addition, it’s an easy, convenient one-stop flight onwards to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Honolulu.

Air New Zealand to lift plastic waste reduction to more than 24 million items per year

Air New Zealand will substitute a further 14 single-use plastic products from its supply chain over the next 12 months – lifting plastic waste reduction to more than 24 million items per year.

Today at its Sustainability Breakfast in Wellington the airline committed to replacing five single-use plastic products across domestic services, including water cups, café cups and lids, Koru Hour cheese plates and lids, as well as nine types of plastic bags network-wide, with lower impact alternatives over the next 12 months.

Already this year the airline has removed single-use plastic straws, stir sticks, eye mask wrappers and plastic toothbrushes from lounges and on board aircraft. Over a 12 month period, this will see the airline reduce its plastic footprint by 260,000 plastic toothbrushes, 3,000 straws, 7.1 million stirrers and 260,000 eye mask wrappers.

These changes are part of a wider programme aimed at reducing the airline’s use of plastic, supported by the Ministry for the Environment, which has assisted the airline in identifying lower impact alternatives and aligning its end-of-life solutions to New Zealand’s existing facilities, recycling and composting capabilities.

AirAsia collaborates with Google Cloud to become a travel technology company

AirAsia is working with Google Cloud to integrate machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML/AI) into every aspect of its business and culture as part of its transformation into a travel technology company.

AirAsia will work with Google Cloud to solve high-impact business challenges, including:

• Drive better demand forecasting and more targeted marketing
• Improve customer experience and loyalty by providing a more personalised experience for its customers
• Maximise operational efficiency and reduce risk through predictive maintenance, real-time weather forecasting and crew optimisation

AirAsia’s technical team will work with Google Cloud engineers allowing the airline’s technical teams to solve specific business scenarios while gaining a solid foundation in AI with Google Cloud’s state-of-the-art TensorFlow and Cloud Machine Learning Engine. AirAsia will be able to enrol its technical teams in the same programme Google Cloud uses to train its engineers, allowing the airline to build on its own internal machine learning expertise.