Aviation

  Washington / AFP Amazon said it completed its first delivery by drone, in what the global online giant hopes will become a trend in automated shipments by air. The delivery to a customer near Cambridge, England, was announced in a tweet by Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos. “First-ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books. 13 min ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Out-of-favour corporate jet ownership is fuelling growing demand for flights offered by business aircraft operator VistaJet, the founder and chairman of the Malta-based firm said. “The purchase of a business jet is not necessarily seen favourably by the boards or by the shareholders,” Thomas Flohr said during a visit to Dubai recently. However, executives still want ...

  Bloomberg American Airlines Group Inc. was ordered to pay $1.6 million in penalties and fines to settle charges it trapped passengers on 27 flights that were delayed for more than three hours on the ground. The penalties equal the previous record for violations of tarmac-delay regulations that Southwest Airlines Co. paid after reaching an agreement with the Department of ...

  Bloomberg SAS AB plans to cut 1,000 administrative jobs and double its cost-savings target as the Nordic airline prepares for rising fuel prices and intensifying competition that’s lowering fares and hampering earnings growth. Profit in the fiscal first quarter, which started Nov 1, will decline from a year earlier following “more demanding” trading conditions in the autumn autumn, Stockholm-based ...

  Bloomberg JetBlue Airways Corp. plans to reduce annual costs by as much as $300 million by 2020 after efforts to boost revenue over the past two years have done better than the company expected. The largest share of savings — as much as $125 million — will come in aircraft maintenance operations, with additional cost reductions being generated by ...

  BEIRUT / Reuters European planemaker Airbus and Iran Air will finalise a deal to buy aircraft in two weeks, the head of Iran’s flag carrier said, adding Airbus has agreed to provide financing for 17 planes. Uncertainty over financing of the deal and political opposition in the United States against Iran have slowed down Tehran’s efforts to import aircraft ...

  RIYADH / Emirates Business flynas, the Saudi National Air Carrier, has broken a new record in the number of passengers travelling on the low cost Saudi carrier by approximately, 550,000, in November of this year, 2016, with an increase of 67% in the number of passengers in comparison to November of 2015. This record number of passengers is the ...

  Sydney / AFP Qantas plans to operate non-stop flights from Perth to London, the world’s first regular passenger service linking Australia directly to Europe in a move hailed by tourism groups. The airline will use a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner for the 17-hour journey, some 70 years after it first began flying to London on its “Kangaroo Route” which originally ...

  Bloomberg JetSmarter, which operates an Uber-like network that connects travelers to empty seats on chartered planes, raised $105 million in its latest funding round, indicating that the startup has managed to make the concept work where others have failed. The company, which currently offers about 50 routes between more than 30 cities around the world, plans to use the ...

  Bloomberg Qatar Airways said it’s seeking to renegotiate a $7.8 billion order for Airbus Group SE narrow-body jets and could switch to bigger planes powered by alternative engines as part of a revised agreement. The Gulf carrier wants to keep the deal for 80 A320neos after refusing to take the first four aircraft because of glitches with their Pratt ...