Recent News

Kuwait: 11th August 2021: National Aviation Services (NAS), a prominent airport services provider signed an agreement with global healthcare company, Abbott, to drive the implementation of Covid-19 rapid testing solutions at major airports and trans border lounges across the African continent and the Middle East. This partnership aims to aid the recovery of safe inter-country travel and passenger confidence. Using its global network, local relationships and industry expertise, NAS will work with local authorities to deploy Abbott’s Panbio COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test Device and the ID NOW molecular point-of-care test system. Both these solutions offer quick testing for Covid-19, thus encouraging and facilitating safer cross-border travel. With the global aviation industry working hard to take off following the pandemic, solutions such as these will go a long way in helping fuel economies as more people resume international commerce and travel. NAS has a presence in more than 50 airports, collectively managing over 100 airlines and 50 airport lounges in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Since the beginning of the pandemic, NAS has been driving efforts to implement digital solutions to help restart travel globally – especially collecting and verifying health data and ensuring authenticity of PCR test certificates of travelers. Hassan El-Houry, Group CEO said: “During the pandemic, NAS has continued to partner with local authorities to utilize our airport expertise in passenger handling and technology to develop digital solutions that offer peace of mind for travelers, airline employees, airport authorities and the local government. Our collaboration in purchasing and deploying the Abbott’s Panbio™ COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test Device and the ID NOW molecular point-of-care system at airports across our network is aimed at continuing these efforts and helping restore passenger confidence to aid further recovery of international travel.” Abbott’s Panbio COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test Device is a highly reliable, portable and affordable rapid antigen test, which has received CE Mark and WHO EUL and has been deployed in dozens of countries across the world. It delivers results in as early as 15-20 minutes with no instrumentation, providing a scalable and cost-effective solution for governments and private industry in efforts to restart international commerce. ID NOW COVID-19 assay is performed on the ID NOW Instrument, which is a rapid molecular test that uses isothermal nucleic acid amplification to detect SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in direct nasal, nasopharyngeal or throat swabs. It provides results in 13 minutes or less. The ID NOW Instrument has a small footprint and easy to use graphical user interface for convenience within busy environments. Both solutions can help save passengers and airport authorities or airlines considerable time and effort to get test results prior to departure or on arrival. They will also help curb the transmission of the coronavirus among passengers travelling together or through passengers arriving into the destination country. Passengers can thus travel with more peace of mind when on aircrafts or at crowded airports.

01st August, 2021, Colombo: SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka has commenced direct flights between Sri Lanka and Russia on 1st August 2021.After a break of 6 years, SriLankan airline has resumed flights between Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) and Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport (DME). SriLankan would operate weekly flight to Russia on every Friday using an Airbus A330 configured for 269 economy and 28 business class seats. Flight UL533 will depart Colombo at 22:20 hrs., landing at Moscow Domodedovo Airport at 04:30 hrs., with the return leg UL534 leaving Moscow at 19:15 hrs. the next day and landing back into Colombo at 06:05 hrs. on Sunday.The flight time between the two sectors will be around 08 hours and 25 minutes. SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ashok Pathirage added, “Sri Lanka has a long-standing relationship with Russia which dates back to many centuries, as we have kept an undiminished friendship propagating trade, tourism, culture, and education. SriLankan Airlines resumes flights to Moscow providing a significant air link that opens to the gateway of the South Asian region. We hope that our flights between the two countries builds a window of opportunity for both countries in terms of trade and tourism.” “We are delighted to return to Russia as we add Moscow to our growing route network. Passengers can now transfer or travel to Sri Lanka as restrictions in the country gradually ease for international business and leisure visitors. In time to come we look forward to increasing our cargo and passenger frequencies”, stated SriLankan Airlines CEO VipulaGunatilleka. Head of Worldwide Sales and Distribution, DimuthuTennakoon said, “Recommencing flights between Russia and Sri Lanka is important to us at a time when the global travel industry is seeing a gradual revival, we are extremely confident that these flights will indeed fulfill aspirations of the travelers who want to see the world and would boost travel between both countries.”

Delhi, India, 21 July, 2021 Qatar Airways has been named Airline of the Year 2021 by AirlineRatings. The airline has also clinched the Best Middle East Airline, Best Catering, and the Best Business Class awards. This marks the third year in a row Qatar Airways has achieved the Best Business Class accolade, recognising its patented Qsuite product. The AirlineRatings ‘Airline of the Year’ award acknowledges the best in aviation, with a focus on product innovation, good route network and overall safety. All AirlineRatings awards are given based on strict assessment criteria put together by industry professionals with extensive expertise and experience in the aviation field. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive,Akbar Al Baker,said: “Receiving the 2021 Airline of the Year, Best Middle East Airline, Best Catering and Best Business Class awards by AirlineRatings is particularly special for Qatar Airways. Over the past 16 months, the aviation industry has witnessed some of its darkest days, but Qatar Airways has continued to operate and stand by our passengers despite many other airlines halting operations due the pandemic. Qatar Airways continues to reach new heights and set industry standards that deliver unrivaled passenger experience because it is in our DNA to do everything with excellence. Our commitment is to provide the highest possible level of health and safety standards both on the ground and in the air, with 5-star service at the core of our business.”

Mumbai, July20, 2021: As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) monthly data, Go First registered a high passenger load factor (PLF) at 70.9 per cent in June 2021 further increasing its market share to 8.3 per cent. Go First had the least cancelled flights at 0.1 per cent and minimum passenger complaints at 0.1 per cent with steady 92.2 per cent On-Time Performance (OTP). Kaushik Khona, CEO, Go First, said: “After a couple of extremely tough months for the sector, June brought back much-needed optimism. While the civil aviation industry has been grappling with the pandemic, GO FIRST has continued in its efforts to provide customers’ exemplary service.” Go First, formerly operated as GoAir recently rebranded itself with a new logo to operate as India’s first ultra low cost carrier with all new business model.