The airline Finnair announced that the route between Helsinki and Tel Aviv will be temporarily suspended. Specifically, the route will be cancelled until March 31. The airline Finnair announced that the route Helsinki-Tel Aviv will be temporarily suspended. Accordingly, there will be no flights to Tel Aviv until the end of March.
The Turkish airline Southwind Airlines will start the route between Antalya and Frankfurt. The route is to be launched from November 2023. The Turkish carrier Southwind Airlines plans to adapt the Antalya-Frankfurt route to its flight schedule from November 2023. The flights in question will be operated with Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, according to the Aero Routes portal. The flight volume will be one flight per week, and the route will be launched from November 11th.
Zagreb Airport was able to realize the busiest September ever at the end of last month. The Croatian national airport Zagreb was able to realize a passenger volume of 370.845 passengers last month. With this result, last month can be concluded as the busiest September ever, according to the portal Ex-Yu Aviation News. In relation to the pre-Corona September 2019, this corresponds to an increase of 5,9 percent. Compared to the previous year, the current passenger numbers have achieved an increase of around 14 percent.
For financial reasons, the young airline MyAirline had to cease flight operations on October 12, 2023. The airline is under enormous financial pressure and therefore cannot fly until a necessary restructuring and recapitalization is completed. Last week, company boss Rayner Teo resigned - officially for health reasons. The carrier is currently managed by Stuart Cross, who previously served as Chief Operating Officer. Flight operations only began in December 2023 from Kuala Lumpur.
Last week, Leipzig/Halle Airport officially opened an extension to the non-Schengen arrival zone. The area is around 900 square meters in size and also houses additional counters for passport and customs controls. The operator expects that the Federal Police will be able to carry out the necessary entry controls more quickly in the future, as more counters will be available. An additional waiting area with toilets has also been created. Recently, passengers arriving from non-Schengen destinations in Leipzig/Halle have had to wait longer in some places. It is also said that it has become quite crowded at times.
In September 2023, Vienna-Schwechat Airport was used by 2.919.579 passengers. This represents an increase of 10,1 percent compared to the same month last year and reached the pre-crisis volume of 98,1 percent. The group of companies, which consists of the airports in Kosice, Luqa and Vienna, had a total of 2023 travelers in September 3.801.022. Compared to the same month last year, this represents an increase of 12,7 percent. The volume that was before the corona pandemic was thus reached by 99,9 percent. At the Vienna location, the number of local passengers rose to 2.212.441 (+15,5%) and the number of transfer passengers fell slightly to 702.008 travelers (-3,5%). Flight movements increased to 20.729 takeoffs and landings (+6,3%). Cargo volume fell by 2022% to 5,1 tonnes compared to September 20.209. In September 2023, passenger volume at Vienna Airport to Western Europe rose to 994.705 passengers (+8,0% compared to the previous year). A total of 2023 passengers (+225.877%) travelled to Eastern Europe in September 3,6. The airport recorded 49.085 travellers (+0,5%) to North America and 24.852 (+26,9%) to Africa. A total of 2023 (+90.581%) and 33,8 passengers (+39.416%) travelled to the Middle East in September 101,5. Vienna Airport's holdings are already growing beyond pre-crisis levels: At Malta Airport, passenger volume rose to 2023 travelers (+812.176%) in September 23,3, 6,5% above the pre-crisis level (September 2019). At Kosice Airport, passenger volume increased to 69.267 travelers (+11,8%), 9,3% above the pre-crisis level.
On September 29, 2023, there were extremely long waiting times at the security checkpoint at Bremen Airport. This meant that at least 100 passengers missed their flights despite arriving at the airport on time. According to a report by Radio Bremen, the reason for the delays was that the security companies commissioned by the Federal Police suffered from a significant shortage of staff. Due to short-term sick leave, only 35 of the 21 scheduled employees actually showed up for work. It was also not possible to get off-duty colleagues to come to the airport at short notice.
On Thursday, October 12, 2023, the Airbus A320 operated by Austrian Airlines with the registration OE-LBN set off for Tel Aviv on behalf of the federal government. Austrians will be picked up there and brought back to Vienna. Under the flight number OS 2651, the flight will initially take a "ferry", i.e. without passengers on board, to the metropolis in Israel. The OE-LBN will then fly back to Austria with passengers on board. This is the first evacuation flight from Israel to Austria. The previous evening, some citizens were flown out on board an Israir plane from Tel Aviv to Larnaka. From there, scheduled flights to Vienna will continue. According to the Foreign Ministry, emergency accommodation has been organized in Cyprus. The Austrian federal government had actually planned for a Lockheed C-130 to be stationed in Paphos. From there, the military aircraft was supposed to carry out "shuttle flights" between Tel Aviv and Paphos. The Austrians were supposed to have been flown home from Cyprus on scheduled flights. But this did not happen because the only C-130 that was airworthy was not able to leave the Alpine republic. A technical defect caused smoke to form and the crew had to be medically examined. The army's aircraft is not yet operational again. Ultimately, this led to the Austrian government commissioning Austrian Airlines to carry out repatriation flights from Israel without a tender.
On an Indigo flight from Ranchi to Delhi, a baby suffered a medical emergency. Two doctors who happened to be on board were able to save the toddler's life. According to official information, the baby is suffering from a congenital heart defect. During flight 6E5043, operated on the Airbus A320neo with the registration VT-IVJ, the young person is said to have developed severe breathing problems. The two doctors were able to stabilize the baby with an oxygen mask and emergency medication. The flight was aborted. The captain decided to land the baby back in Delhi, where it was immediately handed over to the emergency services. The baby was then treated further in a nearby hospital. Indigo expressed its sincere thanks to the two doctors for their fight for the young passenger's life. The baby is now said to have largely recovered.
The situation in Israel also has an impact on cruises that were supposed to dock in this country. Several shipping companies have decided that the planned stops will be cancelled or replaced by stops in other countries. The providers Tui Cruises and MSC have decided that, due to the tense situation in the Middle East, the ports of Haifa and Ashdod will not be called at until further notice. Instead, alternatives in Greece and Turkey will be included in the program. For example, instead of docking in Israel, Tui Cruises will do so on the island of Santorini and in Marmaris, Turkey. This applies to the trips in the near future. The other trips are currently in the planning phase. When asked, the company assures that it will proactively contact the affected passengers. Competitor MSC will also not dock in Haifa today, Thursday, October 12, 2023. The ship Musica has already changed course and docked in Cyprus instead of Israel. The trip will then continue to Antalya. The other stops planned in the currently war-torn country will be replaced by stops in Rhodes, Marmaris and Bodrum. This company also wants to proactively inform passengers about the necessary changes. The two cruise operators are only exemplary examples, as numerous competitors have also decided not to call at Israeli ports for security reasons. How long this measure will last will depend primarily on developments in the security situation, which is considered to be extremely tense after the major attack by Hamas terrorists. At the moment,
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