December airline update

Air France/KLM

As part of its premiumisation strategy, Air France is continuing to roll out its new travel cabins.

New long-haul cabins are offered on Airbus A350-900 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

Available in Business, Premium and Economy, this product represents the airline’s new standard.

On regional flights, the first Embraer 190 equipped with new travel cabins took off this autumn, featuring lighter, more comfortable and connected seats equipped with USB A and C ports for each passenger.

And at the end of the year, Air France will unveil a completely redesigned La Première cabin. Featuring five windows, it is intended to be the longest on the market and will be rolled out on a larger number of aircraft than at present.

During the winter 2024-2025 season, La Première suites will be available on a selection of Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with service to Abidjan, Dubai, Los Angeles, Miami, New York-JFK, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo-Haneda and Washington.

easyJet

The low-cost airline has formed a partnership with US-based start-up JetZero to develop future blended-wing aircraft that is expected to provide up to 50% lower fuel burn and Green House Gases (GHG) emissions versus traditional designs, and which has the potential to be powered by hydrogen.

JetZero’s ultra-efficient blended-wing body jet has already garnered support from the U.S. Air Force, NASA and the FAA, with its first aircraft due to enter service as soon as 2030.

easyJet has opened a brand-new operations Integrated Control Centre (ICC), embedding AI into its day-to-day practices to aid faster and better decision making to help improve the customer experience.

More than 250 specialists work in the 24/7 control centre, managing more than 340 easyJet aircraft flying up to 300,000 customers to 35 countries on more than 1000 routes to 155 airports every day.

Etihad

Etihad has confirmed the restart of the four times a week flight between Abu Dhabi and Nairobi, Kenya, starting on 15 December.

Closer to home, the airline will increase its flights between Manchester and Abu Dhabi to double daily.

Virgin Atlantic

After taking the difficult decision to suspend their London Heathrow to Shanghai operation of 25 years due to increasing costs with the closure of Russian airspace for UK carriers, the airline has announced two brand new routes.

From 20 March next year, the airline is placing its first footprints on Saudi Arabian sand with daily direct flights to Riyadh, the capital and main financial hub of Saudi.

Flying from London Heathrow, this new service will operate seven times per week on their A330neo aircraft. And from 1 May next year, the airline will give us a daily dose of Ghana’s capital Accra with direct flights from London Heathrow on a