In partnership with the United States Tennis Association (USTA), Emirates has announced a global, integrated sponsorship of the US Open and US Open Series. As part of the agreement, Emirates becomes the 'Official Airline of the US Open'  and the title sponsor of the 'Emirates Airline US Open Series,' whose 10 events combine to form the summer hard court professional tennis season and lead into the US Open.  It is hoped that the seven-year partnership will enable the airline to strengthen its connection with US consumers through a long-term investment in US sport. The sponsorship rights include integrated consumer experiential elements and substantial digital media assets and opportunities.

Qantas New Zealand’s regional general manager Rohan Garnett says the withdrawal of the airline from the Auckland-LA route was part of a broader strategy to restructure the company’s international operations. 'Unfortunately the Auckland-LA route, which primarily serves leisure passengers, is not profitable and the difficult decision has been made to cease operations. We remain 100% committed to the trans-Tasman market and will continue to operate around 30 flights a day between New Zealand and Australia,'  Garnett says.
Qantas continues to offer several flights each day to the United States from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with the Sydney-Auckland portion of the LA service remaining and being served by a Boeing 737-800 aircraft. 'Our Australia-United States service offers passengers a wider choice of flights and aircraft, including the new A380 and first class service,' he says. The Auckland-LA service is one of a number of under performing routes that Qantas has withdrawn from in a difficult operating environment.  At this stage there is no impact on jobs in New Zealand, Garnett says.

New Zealanders will be able to travel all the way from Auckland through to the Netherlands by A380 superjumbo following Emirates’ announcement that it will upgrade its Amsterdam service to an A380 from August 1. Since launching passenger flights to the Amsterdam in May 2010, the route has been operated with a combination of Boeing 777-300ER and Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, arranged in a three-class configuration. Following 18 months of strong demand, the Boeings will be replaced with the airline’s flagship Airbus A380. The change will mean A380 service will then be available all the way from Auckland to six Europe gateways - London, Manchester, Paris, Rome, Munich and Amsterdam among 31 Europe destinations on the Emirates network. Emirates is the only airline operating the A380 to and from New Zealand (via Sydney) and from October this year two out of the airline’s four daily services from New Zealand will be A380 flights (the second via Melbourne).

Cathay Pacific Airways has released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for January 2012 that show growth in passenger numbers compared to the same month last year due to the Chinese New Year effect, while cargo and mail tonnage showed another significant year-on-year decline.
Cathay Pacific and Dragonair carried a total of 2,511,043 passengers in January – a year-on-year rise of 11.9% – while the passenger load factor rose by 0.6 percentage points to 81.9%. Capacity for the month, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), was up by 8.7%.

Emirates is further extending its European reach, starting a daily service from Dubai to Lisbon in the south west corner of Europe just six days after launching flights to Barcelona in neighbouring Spain. The new route will mean New Zealanders will have the choice of three destinations on the Iberian peninsula – Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon – with direct connections at Dubai, among 31 destinations on Emirates’ network in Europe. Emirates will serve Lisbon with a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft from July 9.

Etihad Airways will launch new flights to Lagos, the airline’s first destination in West Africa, from July 1, subject to regulatory approvals.

The direct flights will link Abu Dhabi and Lagos six times a week and will be operated by a two class A330-200 aircraft with 22 Pearl Business class and 240 Coral Economy seats.

Aircraft configuration: A330-200; 22 Pearl Business Class & 240 Coral Economy Class.

Proposed flight schedule:

Emirates has announced a third daily flight from Dubai to Milan from June 1, taking to 49 the number of weekly flights offered to Italy. The new service will be operated by a 237-seat Airbus A330-200 in a three-class configuration.

Emirates will offer an alternative gateway into Spain when it launches services to Barcelona from July 3, 2012. The new service will leave Dubai daily at 6.55am and arrive in Barcelona at 12 noon. Tim Clark, president of Emirates, says the airline will also be doubling frequencies to Madrid from July 1. ‘Madrid has been a strong performer and the demand is there for a second frequency.’