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Etihad Airways gears up for A350-1000 debut
26.05.2021 – 09:22 UTC
In a sign the carrier may be planning to at last deploy the type into commercial service, Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi Int’l) last week ferried to Abu Dhabi Int’l one of its five A350-1000s that were built before the COVID-19 pandemic but mothballed without ever operating a single revenue flight.
F-WXAA (msn 290), which will become A6-XWB on the Emirati register, was ferried from Bordeaux to the UAE on May 22, 2021, and will reportedly be followed by at least one more aircraft. Etihad took four A350-1000s between June and September 2019 and the fifth one in May 2020. However, as it was undergoing restructuring even before the pandemic, it saw no need to induct these aircraft into service and placed them into storage in France instead.
During the recent World Aviation Festival, Chief Executive Tony Douglas confirmed the A350 would feature in the carrier’s future plans.
“The statement we’ve made clear is that the backbone of our fleet, for the medium term, is the B787… We do have A350-1000s in…
Tel Aviv Ben Gurion, Israel reopens after rocket fire
12.05.2021 – 20:50 UTC
Israel’s Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport has re-opened to traffic with a number of flights taking off on Wednesday morning.
The airport was temporarily closed on the evening of March 11, 2021, due to rocket attacks from Gaza on Tel Aviv, which saw flights cancelled, delayed or diverted to Larnaca and Cairo Int’l.
By Wednesday, at least 40 people were reported killed in the region in the worst outbreak of violence since 2014 between Israel and Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that controls Gaza, following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and hundreds of rockets fired on Israel overnight. Videos posted on social media on Tuesday night showed the Ben Gurion airport terminal being evacuated and rockets flying near the airport being intercepted by the Israeli “Iron Dome” defense system.
According to FlightRadar24 and live information from the airport flight board, amongst the airlines which cancelled their return flights to Tel Aviv on Tuesday included flydubai (FZ1549 and FZ1947 from Dubai Int’l), Turkish Airlines Flight TK810 from Istanbul New, and Wizz Air…
Air Seychelles draws $20mn line in sand for Etihad
10.05.2021 – 05:01 UTC
Air Seychelles (HM, Mahé) can pay no more than USD20 million of the USD71.5 million it still owes to Etihad Aviation Group bondholders, Patrick Payet, Seychelles’ secretary of state for finance, has reiterated in an interview with Reuters, even though creditors have threatened to wind up the now fully state-owned airline if the debt is not paid in full.
A committee of creditors at EA Partners, a special purpose vehicle that is part of the Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi Int’l) parent company, told the Seychellois carrier last month to repay its debt, warning in a regulatory filing: “Should Air Seychelles not comply, […] the creditor will apply to the Supreme Court of Seychelles for an order that Air Seychelles be wound up.”
The committee has since confirmed to the news agency it has rejected the USD20 million offer, although it will first give the archipelago nation’s government a “grace period” to finalise a separate settlement with Etihad Airways before filing a winding-up petition. As previously reported, Seychelles reached a deal with…
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