Today’s wrap is brought to you by a number of Google searches, urgent press releases, and some bitter morning coffee from across the road.

Qantas’ Melbourne-San Francisco flights open for business

Qantas has announced the start date of 1 September 2018 for its new Melbourne to San Francisco service with fares available for sale from today.

With an evening departure from Melbourne and an overnight flight on the return, Qantas’ schedule means customers can arrive in each city ready to make the most of their stay.

The flights are expected to be popular with tourists and also corporate travellers looking to do business with San Francisco’s world-leading technology companies.

Etihad Airways records successful year for flight operation punctuality at hub and across network

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, has posted its best operational on-time performance (OTP) results since 2009.

OTP is calculated on actual flight arrival and departure times within 15 minutes of the published schedule and takes into consideration a variety of external factors including weather disruption and airspace congestion.

Get the ultimate “upgrade” tip from Emirates

Emirates, the Best Airline in the World and Best Economy Class according to the 2017 TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards, released its latest marketing campaign to promote travel on its award-winning Economy class.

Emirates’ latest ads feature a series of characters who try to wrangle a seat upgrade at an unnamed airline’s check-in counter. Each spot ends with the ultimate tip for travellers: “Don’t upgrade your seat, upgrade your airline. Fly Emirates.”

Emirates resumes service to Sabiha Gokcen Airport; offering Australians flights to two destinations in Istanbul

Emirates has announced the resumption of flights between Dubai and Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport, starting 8th June 2018. The resumption of services on the route will give Australian customers more choice when travelling Emirates to Istanbul.

The flight will be operated five times a week by an Emirates Boeing 777-300ER in a three class cabin configuration, with eight private suites in First Class, 42 lie-flat seats in Business Class and 310 spacious seats in Economy Class.

Together with Emirates’ other service to Istanbul, the airline will offer 16 flights and over 6,500 seats per week, catering to both tourism and business traffic.

The aircraft allows for an increase in cargo capacity to Istanbul, with a weekly total of 100 tonnes and makes Emirates the only airline operating a scheduled service with a wide-body aircraft at Sabiha Gokcen Airport.

Qatar Airways continues Asia expansion with additional frequency to Bangkok

Qatar Airways is continuing its expansion in Asia by adding an additional flight to Bangkok, providing its passengers even more flexibility in visiting the Thai capital.

The new service to Bangkok, which commences on 25 March, is part of the award-winning airline’s continued expansion in Southeast Asia, following its launch of direct service to Thailand’s Chiang Mai late last year.

The airline is also preparing to launch direct service to the Thai city of Pattaya later this month, as well as service to Penang, Malaysia in February.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “We are delighted to announce this additional service to Bangkok, one of Southeast Asia’s most popular destinations. With our recent inauguration of direct service to Chiang Mai, and our upcoming launch of direct flights to Pattaya later this month, we are pleased to now make it easier than ever for our passengers to visit the Land of Smiles.”

Emirates SkyCargo offers enhanced protection for pharmaceutical cargo with launch of pharma corridors

Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, has stepped up its commitment to securely transport temperature sensitive pharmaceutical shipments with the introduction of pharma corridors offering additional protection across selected stations in its network for pharmaceutical cargo.

Emirates SkyCargo is working with ground handling partners and other stakeholders at multiple cities across its global network in order to ensure that handling operations for pharmaceuticals at these stations are uniform and comply with Emirates SkyCargo’s stringent norms for pharma transport as well as with either EU Good Distribution Practices (GDP) or IATA Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) pharma guidelines.

Emirates SkyCargo will therefore be able to provide a supplementary protection of product integrity during transport of temperature sensitive pharmaceutical cargo through these cities.

Cathay Pacific Group releases combined traffic figures for December 2017

Cathay Pacific Group today released combined Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon traffic figures for December 2017 that show an increase in both the number of passengers carried and cargo and mail uplifted compared to the same month in 2016.

Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon carried a total of 3,051,564 passengers last month – an increase of 3.1% compared to December 2016.

The passenger load factor dropped 0.4 percentage points to 84.6%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 4.1%. For 2017 as a whole, the number of passenger carried increased by 1.4% while capacity rose by 2.8%.

The two airlines carried 192,190 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 10.2% compared to the same month last year. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 2.4 percentage points to 71.9%. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometres, was up by 5.7% while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs) increased by 9.2%. For 2017 as a whole, the tonnage rose by 10.9% against a 3.6% increase in capacity and a 9.0% increase in RTKs.

Qatar Airways brings Airbus A350 to Greece for the first time

Qatar Airways is delighted to announce that it is the first airline to ever fly the state-of-the-art Airbus A350 to Greece.

The airline temporarily upgraded its current triple-daily service to Athens to an ultra-modern A350 on Monday, with the arrival of the flight greeted by a water canon salute at Athens International Airport.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “We are extremely proud to be the first airline to fly the Airbus A350 to Greece.

“Athens is a key destination on our European network, and we are delighted to be able to provide our passengers travelling to Greece today with the ultimate comfort and services on board one of the most technologically advanced aircraft in the sky.

“We will have more good news for the Greek market later this year with the upcoming launch of direct services to Thessaloniki, offering our passengers even more opportunity to explore this majestic country.”

Qatar Airways to display award-winning Qsuite and A350-900 at Kuwait Aviation Show 2018

Qatar Airways is pleased to announce its participation in the inaugural Kuwait Aviation Show 2018, where it will display the Boeing 777 fitted with its award-winning, revolutionary new Business Class seat, Qsuite.

The show, which will take place from 17-20 January 2018 at Kuwait International Airport, will also showcase Qatar Airways’ extra-wide body Airbus A350-900.

The event, the first of its kind to be held in Kuwait, is set to draw thousands of industry representatives and international media.

Qatar Airways’ participation kicks off 2018 with a bang, after capping a success-filled year of 11 new route launches and more than 50 award wins, as well as host of exciting new destinations planned for the upcoming year, including Pattaya, Thailand; Penang, Malaysia and Canberra, Australia, to name just a few.