Austrian Airlines announced the launch of a year-round flight service to and from Montreal/Vienna beginning April 29th, 2019.
The long-haul flight will be operated by the airline’s Boeing 767 aircraft.
Which 3 Italian cities rank as top unique experiences?
Italy is the homeland of the cities most appreciated by travelers according to reviews of users of an online platform. Coming in among the top 5 are Rome, Florence, and Milan. Amsterdam and Barcelona round out the top 5.
The Italian peninsula thus rose to the podium, winning 3 of the 5 positions in the ranking, according to the research conducted by Musement which analyzed 133 destinations distributed all over the world, based on beautiful landscapes, excellent culinary offers, and outstanding cultural attractions.
Analyzing the results of the research, the growth of interest in the national territory comes at the expense of medium- and long-range destinations emerges among the key factors, with long-haul destinations attracting less interest.
A surprising aspect is that once again Italy and the many experiences that the multiplatform provides users to get closer to the cultural traditions and landscape variety of Italy is emphasized.
Rome continues to be the most popular destination with a typically Mediterranean climate, cultural attractions, and unique tourist beauties such as the Colosseum, the Vatican Museums, and the Sistine Chapel. The city of Milan remains on the fourth step of the podium with international events such as My Photos Fair and the visit to the Cenacle in the rankings.
The second place is also Italian – Florence between the Boboli Gardens, the Uffizi, and gastronomic tours.
Among the top 5 destinations, some European cities also prevail, above all Barcelona, which wins third place with Park Guell and the Barcelona Aquarium.
The fifth position is Dutch. In fact, Amsterdam closes the standings thanks to the Van Gogh Museum, the cruise on the canals, and the Heineken Experience.
Uganda Airlines firms up orders for two Airbus A330neo aircraft
Uganda Airlines, the national carrier of Uganda, has firmed up its order for two A330-800 airliners, the latest version of the most popular A330 widebody airliner.
Fitted with the new Airspace by Airbus cabin, the A330neo will bring a range of benefits to Uganda Airlines and its customers, offering unrivalled efficiencies combined with the most modern cabin.
Uganda Airlines plans to use the A330-800 to build its medium and long-haul network with the aircraft offering cutting-edge technology along with more efficient operations
Launched in July 2014, the A330neo Family is the new generation A330, comprising two versions: the A330-800 and A330-900 sharing 99 percent commonality. It builds on the proven economics, versatility and reliability of the A330 Family while reducing fuel consumption by about 25 percent per seat versus previous generation competitors and increasing range by up to 1,500 nm compared to the majority of A330s in operation. The A330neo is powered by Rolls-Royce’s latest-generation Trent 7000 engines and features a new wing with increased span and new A350 XWB-inspired Sharklets. The cabin provides the comfort of the new Airspace amenities including state-of-the-art passenger inflight entertainment and Wifi connectivity systems, amongst others.
Airbus received 58 orders for jets in March
Airbus received orders for 58 jetliners in March – led by the A350 XWB widebody family in transactions that included a new customer; while delivering 74 aircraft to 40 customers from across its A220, A320, A330, A350 XWB and A380 product lines.
Pacing the month’s new business was Lufthansa Group’s order for 20 additional A350-900s, bringing its total A350 XWB orders to 45. Lufthansa Group is the biggest operator of Airbus aircraft.
Also in March, STARLUX Airlines of Taiwan signed a firm order for 17 A350 XWBs, comprising 12 A350-1000s and five shorter-fuselage A350-900 versions – becoming a new Airbus customer. The airline plans to deploy the aircraft on its premier long-haul services from Taipei to Europe and North America, as well as to selected destinations within the Asia-Pacific region.
Completing the month’s widebody new business was an order for one A350-900 from a private customer.
The single-aisle transaction in March involved 20 A320neo jetliners for an undisclosed customer.
Deliveries in March were composed of 57 A320 Family aircraft (13 in the CEO configuration and 44 NEO versions), eight A350-900s/A350-1000s, five A220s, three A330s (all in the NEO version) and one A380.
Among the month’s notable deliveries was the first A350-900 delivered to Evelop Airlines. With this aircraft – leased from Air Lease Corporation – the Spanish carrier of Barceló Group’s Ávoris travel division becomes the initial holiday/leisure carrier to operate an A350 XWB.
Other milestones in March included the first A380 delivery to Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA), which is the 15th operator of the world’s largest passenger aircraft. Additionally, Airbus delivered the no. 1 A330neo for an African airline, with Air Senegal receiving its first A330-900.
In the VIP sector, Airbus provided the first of three ACJ320neo aircraft for Comlux, which will now begin its cabin outfitting by the Comlux Completion centre in the United States. Comlux is the largest customer for Airbus Corporate Jets’ ACJ320neo Family.
Taking the latest orders and cancellations into account, Airbus’ backlog of jetliners remaining to be delivered as of 31 March stood at 7,357 aircraft.
Reunion Island breaks tourist arrivals record
Despite a difficult end to the year, 2018 was profitable and even historic for Reunion tourism as more than 574,000 outside visitors were welcomed . This is 4.1% more than in fiscal 2017, which had already had an unprecedented inflow of visitors.
In 2018, 35 ships and 39,433 cruise passengers landed on the island, which was satisfactory, although slightly lower as several companies were forced to review their routes in November and December.
Nevertheless, with revenues still increasing and amounting to more than 432 million euros, also a new record for the destination, the tourism sector confirms its preponderant place in the economy of Reunion.
Reunion’s neighbors in the Indian Ocean remain fond of the destination. Arrivals from the Indian Ocean area remains above 60,000 tourists in 2018, after a spectacular increase of 46% recorded in 2017. Within this Indian Ocean zone, Mauritius remains the main source market since it represents more than 30,000 tourists, or 5.8% of total arrivals to Reunion.
The communication and promotion actions carried out on the main European markets, other than France, have also been fruitful, as this visitor source market now accounts for 7.4% of total arrivals, compared to 6% in 2017. In total, 39,664 visitors came from the rest of Europe in 2018 which is 4.2% more than last year!
Unsurprisingly, the leisure clientele represents an overwhelming majority of arriving visitors with 90.8% of the overall volume of arrivals on the island, supplemented by 8.5% of business tourism.
The average length of stay of these foreign tourists is 17 days and remains unchanged compared to 2017, a figure particularly important for a long-haul destination such as Reunion.
