ETIHAD AIRWAYS INTRODUCES NEW CHANGES TO GROUND AND INFLIGHT SERVICES.

Etihad Airways - the national airline of the United Arab Emirates - is introducing a series of changes designed to offer increased value and flexibility based on customer feedback. 

MOZAMBICAN AIRLINES CLEARED FROM EU's BLACKLIST

The Mozambican air companies has been removed from European Commission’s blacklist of airlines which are not allowed to operate in the airspace of the European Union (EU).

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES TO CELEBRATE THE REOPENING OF ABUJA AIRPORT WITH AIRBUS A350-900.

Africa’s largest airline group, Ethiopian Airlines, proudly announces that it has decided to inaugurate the reopening of the Abuja Airport with its latest technology and the most modern Airplane in the world, the Airbus A350-900. The state of the art airplane will start the scheduled service on the Addis Ababa Abuja route, thereby gracing the reopening of Abuja Airport, to be held on April 18, 2017.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS AWARDED 4-STAR RANKING FOR 15 YEARS IN A ROW

South African Airways (SAA) the leading airline on the African continent, has yet again confirmed its place amongst the top airlines in the world with a 4-Star ranking, in both economy and business class, for the 15th consecutive year.

“SAA is proud to have maintained quality levels on all the services we offer – in our home market, across the African continent and internationally. This has been a particularly difficult year for the industry, but we still maintained a world-class product and service standards to our customers, making this 4-Star Airline ranking well deserved,” says Zuks Ramasia, SAA General Manager Operations.

RENAISSANCE HOTELS OPENS IN LAGOS, NIGERIA.

Renaissance Hotels, the brand known around the world for helping business travellers discover unexpected experiences, has announced the opening of its first hotel in Sub-Saharan Africa — the Renaissance Lagos Ikeja Hotel. Located in Nigeria’s commercial centre and city known for its music, fashion, cuisine, art and nightlife, the Renaissance Lagos Ikeja offers world-class amenities, modern aesthetic, sophisticated service and unique programming that reflect the brand’s signature approach to feed the curiosity, fuel the imagination and excite the senses of its guests.

EMIRATES TO OPEN UP DUBAI LUXURY LOUNGES TO BLUE-TIER FREQUENT FLYERS

Emirates is opening up its lounges at its Dubai hub to lower-tier frequent flyer members in what is the latest move by the world's largest long-haul airline to look for new ways to boost revenues.

Emirates, which reported a 75 percent drop in half-year profit in November, had previously restricted access to these lounges to higher-tier frequent flier members and business or first class travellers.

© REUTERS/Ashraf Mohammad

TOP GHANAIAN DESIGNERS TO KNOW IN 2017

Quiet as it may be kept, the next wave in fashion is coming directly from the Motherland. For centuries Africans have been perfecting craftsmanship, innovative design and duality in textile use. It’s no wonder that within the last ten years Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town and Johannesburg have hosted their own fashion weeks. And while traditional constructs of ankara and wax print have limited the scope by which many view “African fashion”, young talent from all over the globe are actively working to change this.

In Ghana specifically there’s a huge sustainable fashion industry, where brands are opening up small production shops to make their goods — simultaneously paying workers fair wages. The cherry on top is that a lot of these brands are using recyclables to ethically produce their apparel and accessories.

ZIMBABWE, RWANDA AND CANADA FEATURE AMONG CONDE NAST'S RATING

Conde Nast Traveler, an American luxury and lifestyle travel magazine has named Zimbabwe as the best destination for travelers to Africa in 2017. Globally, Zimbabwe ranked 13th and Rwanda 14th.

    Carribea bay - Kariba, Zimbabwe  (webphotos)

HOW TO USE GOOGLE MAPS WITHOUT AN INTERNET CONNECTION

   Webphotos - for illustrative purposes only

Losing your Internet connection while traveling can be frustrating, especially when you’re relying on your phone to tell you where to go. Whether you’re stuck in a subway car underground or have lost your signal while driving in a remote rural area, we’ve all be there at least once.

TOURISM SLOGAN FROM EVERY COUNTRY IN ONE MAP

Tourism is to international relations what two kittens play-fighting is to professional wrestling.

The mechanics are still roughly the same, but one is much more light-hearted.

MALAYSIAN COMEDIAN HARITH, IS WORLD'S FUNNIEST PERSON.

Malaysian comedian Harith Iskander was crowned 2016 Funniest Person in the World at a competition held in Levi, Finland, on Saturday (December10).

He beat four other finalists – Alex Calleja from the Philippines, Katerina Vrana from Greece, Mino van Nassau from India and David Kilimnick from Israel, as reported by malaysian online news site, the star online.

Harith Iskander poses with the Malaysian flag with runner-up Alex Calleja ( 2nd R), third-placed Katerina Vrana (R) and Laugh Factory founder Jamie Masada. (Photo: Harith Iskander)

ZIMBABWE LAUNCHES NEW VICTORIA FALLS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Leading Zimbabwean hospitality group, Africa Albida Tourism, has welcomed the opening of the new $150 million Victoria Falls International Airport.

EMIRATES OFFERS SPECIAL FARES ON ACCRA FLIGHTS

Emirates is offering Ghanaian customers return airfares of up to 50 per cent off for a limited time period to Dubai, one of the world’s most iconic cities


(webphotos)

This special offer, which is available for both Economy and Business Class travel, must be purchased from October 24 to November 5, with travel completed from October 2016 and 31 May 2017.

QUICK BITS ON THE WORLD NOMAD GAMES 2016

                                      (webphtos)

The World Nomad Games 2016 was recently concluded in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. The event held between the 3rd - 8th September, 2016 with 40 countries attending including about 8 African countries (Benin Republic, Botswana, DR Congo, Madagascar, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe). More than 2000 athletes participated in the 23 ethnosports events. 

AIRASIA PILOT FLIES TO MELBOURNE INSTEAD OF MALAYSIA AFTER NAVIGATION ERROR

An AirAsia flight from Sydney to Malaysia ended up in Melbourne instead when the pilot entered the wrong coordinates into the internal navigation system, an air safety investigation has found.

The Airbus A330 was scheduled to leave Sydney international airport at 11.55am on 10 March 2015, and arrive in Kuala Lumpur just under nine hours later. 

Instead, through a combination of data entry errors, crew ignoring unexplained chimes from the computer system, and bad weather in Sydney, it landed in Melbourne just after 2pm.

Melbourne airport is 722km southwest of Sydney. Kuala Lumpur is 6,611km northwest.

According to a report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) published on Wednesday, the problem occurred when faulty earmuffs prompted the captain and first officer to swap their usual pre-flight checks.

HURRAY!, THE CALABAR MONORAIL IS SET FOR OPERATION

The multi-billion Naira Calabar Light rail project, the first in Nigeria, would soon be inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari.

SOUTH AFRICA'S TOP 10 RESIDENTIAL ESTATES

    Photo courtesy: Wikimedia

New World Wealth just completed its annual review of the top 10 residential estates in South Africa. The results are revealed below:

EMIRATES TO FLY AIRBUS A380 ON THE DUBAI - JOHANNESBURG ROUTE

Emirates will be upgrading one of its four daily flights between Dubai and Johannesburg to an Airbus A380-800 from February 2017.

Emirates currently uses Boeing 777 aircraft for each of the four daily flights between the two cities, making it the busiest route in the airline’s African network with over three million passengers carried in the last five years.

Once launched, Johannesburg will join more than 40 destinations in Emirates’ extensive global network that is served by its flagship A380 aircraft.

MY DUBAI LEISURE POSTS -1

The imposing Mall of the Emirates in Dubai is not just a shopping complex, but a complete leisure, pleasure and entertainment destination; and SKI DUBAI is one of the numerous entertainment facilities. Here are some posts from my visit:

OZHARVEST DELIVERS UNTOUCHED AIRLINES FOOD TO LOCAL AUSTRALIAN CHARITIES

      Unwanted plane food is being collected from flights in and out of Brisbane. PHOTO: Flickr  JONOFROMCBR

Food untouched by passengers flying first class is coming off flights and being transported to those less fortunate in Brisbane, as part of a charity initiative to reduce food waste.