We still have glitter in our hair from Mardi Gras, but let us distract you from that with this fabulous airline wrap.

Emirates Celebrates 10 years of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature

Spotlighting the importance of literature and the power of reading as key to connecting with and understanding the world around us, Emirates is celebrating its 10th year of supporting the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. The airline has been a key to the growth of the festival, which has become a mainstay on the Dubai cultural calendar.

The festival started in 2009 with 65 authors coming from 21 countries. Emirates was an airline that connected Dubai to 99 destinations with 127 aircraft in 2009. Since then, Emirates has carried over 1,000 authors to the festival from over 65 countries, enabling the festival to showcase inspiring line-ups of talks, workshops and performances featuring some of the best authors, thinkers and writers from all corners of the globe. Today, the airline serves 159 destinations in 85 countries and territories on nearly 270 aircraft.

This year, the airline will engage visitors to the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature with innovative on-ground experiences. Emirates’ on-ground activations will run from 2-3 March and 9-10 March at the InterContinental Hotel Festival City.

Qatar Airways to Unveil New Stand Concept on Opening Day of ITB

Berlin 2018 Guests are invited to experience new features of the award-winning airline’s unique, ultra-modern new stand concept 27 February 2018 Melbourne- Qatar Airways, the national airline of the State of Qatar, will ceremoniously unveil its redesigned exhibition stand on 7 March, the first day of ITB Berlin 2018, the world’s largest travel and tourism trade show.

The unveiling will be followed by a press conference at 12:00 pm, which is set to further detail the award-winning airline’s plans for the year ahead. Visitors to the airline’s stand will be excited by the innovative technology that Qatar Airways has employed to its redesigned exhibition stand, where they can interact with the airline’s advanced products and experience Qatar Airways’ renowned five-star Qatari hospitality.

The airline’s revolutionary Business Class seat, Qsuite, which was launched at 2017 ITB Berlin, will again be on display at Qatar Airways’ booth. Guests and visitors to ITB Berlin will be invited to familiarise themselves with the exciting “First in Business” patented product, which allows multiple configurations for passengers to tailor their in-flight experience to their specific needs.

Qantas welcomes home its newest Dreamliner with indigenous livery Alice Springs

Qantas’ newest Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which features a unique Indigenous livery, touched down in Alice Springs today.

The livery showcases the artwork of the late Northern Territory artist and senior Anmatyerre woman, Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Based on her 1991 painting, Yam Dreaming, the design depicts the culturally significant yam plant, an important symbol in Emily’s Dreaming stories and a staple food source in her home region of Utopia, 230km north-east of Alice Springs.

Adapted by leading Indigenous owned design studio Balarinji, this special livery took a team of 60 people more than 10 days to complete.

The aircraft touched down in Alice Springs shortly after dawn following a 13,000km journey from Boeing’s Seattle facility and was warmly received by members of Emily’s family, who were joined by government officials and local community members.

Travelport partners with ACI Worldwide to launch intelligent payment fraud controls for airline industry

Travelport, the leading Travel Commerce Platform, today announced it has partnered with ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading provider of electronic banking and payment solutions, to deliver an intelligent fraud control and settlement solution for its airline customers called Travelport Authorize Plus.

The airline industry is a target for cyber criminals globally. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the industry incurs losses of $1 billion[i] per year from fraudsters using stolen, compromised or fake credit card details to buy airline tickets. With the travel industry suffering from high levels of fraud, the impact on the bottom line can be severe.

Travelport Authorize Plus enhances Travelport’s existing Card Payment Gateway by integrating with ACI’s award-winning ReD Shield platform. Part of the UP Payments Risk Management solution, ReD Shield delivers real-time, cloud-based multi-tiered fraud prevention for eCommerce merchants of the UP Payments Risk Management solution. Through the integration, Travelport can provide its airline customers with the ability to seamlessly track ticketing purchase processes right through to the completion of a journey. Additional features include the dynamic fraud screening of card payments used to purchase air tickets via Travelport-connected agents, the ability to flag and prevent ticket issuance, and detailed online management reports of all transactions and status.

Real Madrid players find new teammates on board the Emirates A380

Emirates unveiled a video today featuring popular players from Real Madrid on board the iconic Emirates A380. The video includes Sergio Ramos, Gareth Bale, Marcelo, Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos, and Casemiro and shows the players discovering unlikely talent at 40,000ft.

The video begins with the players enjoying their A380 flight and the Emirates Cabin Crew looking after
them on board; Ramos preparing himself in the First Class Shower Spa, Marcelo feeling emotional while watching a film on Emirates’ world-renowned ice entertainment system, Kroos enjoying the comforts of the Business Class cabins and Bale and Ramos having a drink in the newly revamped OnBoard Lounge.

The players soon start to notice that the Emirates Cabin Crew are multi-skilled, as they show off their
football footwork all while maintaining excellent service on board. Fast-forward to game day, and you’ll see some new players have joined the Real Madrid team in the locker rooms, leaving Benzema
astounded.

LATAM to showcase films nominated for the 2018 Oscars

In the coming months, LATAM Airlines will showcase as part of its in-flight entertainment the nine films nominated for ‘Best Film’ in the 90th edition of the Academy Awards, which takes place on March 4 in Los Angeles, United States.

Over the coming months, LATAM passengers will be able to enjoy the nine films that have been nominated for ‘Best Film’ at the 2018 Oscars as part of its in-flight entertainment on international flights. In addition, a selection of the nominated films will be available via the LATAM Entertainment app.

The Oscar-nominated films will be available on all LATAM long-haul aircraft with seat-back entertainment (Boeing 787, 767, 777 and Airbus A350), both in the Economy and Premium Business cabins.

‘The Shape of Water’, ‘Dunkirk’, ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ and ‘The Greatest Showman’ will also be available via the LATAM Entertainment app, which can be downloaded at no cost onto mobile phones, tablets or computers and enables users to enjoy a wide range of content using their personal devices on domestic and regional flights in Latin America.

Arrive Early at The Deck: Cathay Pacific’s new lounge experience at Hong Kong International Airport opens 22 March

Cathay Pacific today unveiled The Deck, the airline’s newest lounge at Hong Kong International Airport, giving customers another great reason to arrive early, relax and pamper themselves before their flight.

Located close to gate 16 in Terminal 1 and designed in the signature style of Cathay Pacific’s award-winning lounges in Hong Kong and across its network, The Deck, which opens its doors to passengers on 22 March, emulates a “contemporary living room” environment of understated luxury, helping customers to feel at ease and providing a sense of well-being.

At 823 square metres, The Deck has seating for 180 passengers and is fitted with designer furniture and lighting carefully selected for practicality, comfort and privacy, while the use of natural materials, plenty of greenery and artworks by local artists add to the lounge’s welcoming atmosphere.

The lounge is further equipped with a relaxation room zone featuring bespoke Solo chairs, as well as eight shower suites, washroom facilities and a range of comfortable seating throughout.

Emirates unveils more spacious Business Class seats on its Boeing 777 aircraft

Emirates has unveiled a brand new Business Class cabin and configuration on its Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, with new wider seats laid out in a 2-2-2 configuration for the first time. The airline has invested over US$150 million to refurbish the 10 existing 777-200LR aircraft in its fleet.

The newly refurbished Emirates 777-200LR aircraft is set in a two-class configuration which offers 38 Business Class seats and 264 seats in Economy Class. While the Business Class seats are in the same design and shape of Emirates’ latest lie-flat seats, they are now two inches wider for a more comfortable journey. The seats retain the champagne coloured finish and diamond stitch pattern on the full leather cover, and the ergonomically designed headrest revealed on Emirates’ newest Boeing 777 in November.

The Business Class seat has a pitch of 72 inches and moves into a fully flat sleeping position. It also has
touchscreen controls for the seat and inflight entertainment system, several personal lighting options,
privacy panels between seats, a shoe stowage area, footrest and a personal mini-bar.

Just ahead of its deployment to Fort Lauderdale, the newly refurbished Boeing 777-200LR was visited by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline & Group

Malaysia Airports and OpenText create Digital Transformation Framework at Kuala Lumpur International Airport

OpenText, the global leader in Enterprise Information Management (EIM), has announced that Malaysia Airports will be working with OpenText to develop intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and expanded digital services for passengers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), including its second terminal klia2. This project will be executed in phases, through a big data analytics and digital platform that will contribute to the Total Airport Experience (TAE) strategic pillar outlined in Malaysia Airports’ five-year business plan.

The development of this unified digital platform will enable Malaysia Airports to differentiate engagement with passengers and other customers, drive operational efficiency, enable passenger productivity and experience, and drive new and existing revenue streams. Data fed into the digital platform from various existing systems will be analysed with machine learning and artificial intelligence, providing insights for better decision making to enhance passenger experience as well as business and operational excellence.

As a technology partner, OpenText will deliver digital and analytics capabilities through an integrated software suite, including content and big data management, service quality management, customer experience management and asset management.

Emirates Skywards marks milestone with 20 million members

Emirates Skywards, the award-winning loyalty programme of Emirates airline, has reached 20 million members.

To celebrate this major milestone, Emirates Skywards will be celebrating with its members. Those travelling from Dubai on Emirates flights during the week beginning 4 March 2018 can look forward to little surprises at check-in, on board and in the lounges for some of its longest-standing members.

In an average month, Emirates Skywards welcomes 220,000 new members across the globe. The top five countries with the largest member bases are spread across four continents reflecting Emirates’ six-continent global network. UK has the biggest membership base at 2.6 million, followed by the US with 1.8 million members. Australia has 1.7 million members and India and the UAE, the airline’s home base, follow closely with 1.4 million members each.

Codeshare arrangements with Jetstar Pacific

Qantas (QF) and Vietnam-based Jetstar Pacific (BL) have entered a codeshare arrangement for travel between Vietnam and several destinations in Asia, providing more travel options for customers.

From 1 March 2018, Qantas code has been added to Jetstar Pacific’s services from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok and Singapore, as well as service from Hanoi and Danang to Hong Kong, operated by Jetstar Pacific’s A320 fleet. This provides Qantas customers travelling between Australia and Vietnam a greater choice of transit ports in Asia, including Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong.

Qantas customers travelling on Qantas codeshare service with Jetstar Pacific will now enjoy
the following:

• Earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points and status credits
• A complimentary hot meal including water, tea or coffee
• Access to Qantas International Lounges in Singapore and Hong Kong for eligible
  passengers
• Qantas International baggage allowance (as stated on their ticket)
• Option to stopover in Singapore or Bangkok

Qatar Airways expands its partnership with UnionPay

Qatar Airways is pleased to announce that it is extending its partnership with international bank card network UnionPay to an additional 31 countries and regions, providing a convenient payment option for even more Qatar Airways passengers around the world when booking tickets on the airline’s website.

Customers in countries including Qatar, Kuwait, India, Oman, Switzerland, Canada, Brazil and South Africa, among others, will be able to take advantage of UnionPay’s secure payment option when booking tickets on the airline’s website to more than 150 destinations on Qatar Airways’ extensive global network.

The expansion of the agreement was signed on 28 February 2018 at a special ceremony held at the UnionPay head office in Shanghai, represented by Mr. Marwan Koleilat, Qatar Airways Senior Vice President Asia Pacific; and Mr. Larry Wang, UnionPay International Vice President. Under the expanded agreement, Qatar Airways and UnionPay will embark upon greater collaboration for various sales and marketing initiatives. Both parties will also look at creating a new and exclusive co-branded card that will provide UnionPay customers exclusive benefits on selected products by Qatar Airways.