Qatar Airways aircraft flies from London to Doha fuelled by kerosene !

Qatar Airways has become the first carrier in the world to operate an aircraft powered by gas-to-liquid kerosene on a revenue flight. The Airbus A340-600 flew a six-hour flight from London Gatwick to Doha with all four of its Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines powered by a 50/50 blend of GTL and Jet A1 kerosene. Qatar is set to be the market leader in the production of GTL, with Qatar Petroleum and Shell having created a multi-billion dollar integrated GTL 'Pearl' plant.

Flydubai starts flights to Doha

Dubai's low cost airline, Flydubai has received its fifth aircraft, Boeing 737-800NG, which will immediately serve the airline's inaugural flight to Doha. The plane is part of the historic order of 50 aircraft placed with Boeing at the Farnborough Airshow.

Etihad Airways to resume flights to Sri Lanka

Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways has said that flights to Colombo in Sri Lanka will be resumed starting in January 2010. The carrier will operate four flights per week from Abu Dhabi to Sri Lanka's largest city and commercial capital, using an Airbus A320 aircraft. Flight EY266 will depart Abu Dhabi on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 9.55pm and arrive at Colombo's Bandaranaike international airport at 3.45am the following day. Return flight EY267 will depart Colombo on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 4.45am, arriving in Abu Dhabi at 8.00am the same morning.

Flydubai to launch flights to Khartoum

Flydubai has announced that it will launch daily service to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, from November 8. At a distance of 1,600 miles from Dubai, the flight to Khartoum will be the longest in the low-cost carrier's network and its eighth destination since it started operations in June.

Emirates to increase flights on India route

Emirates Airlines has announced plans to increase frequencies from Dubai to Kozhikode in India's southern state of Kerala to 11 flights a week by December. The carrier, which currently operates six weekly flights to Kozhikode, said the total number of flights from the state would go up to 37 a week. Emirates operates 166 weekly flights to 10 Indian destinations connecting to over 90 destinations in 60 nations via Dubai.

Sudanese cargo plane crashes in Sharjah

A Sudanese cargo plane crashed on Wednesday in the desert near the airport in the United Arab Emirates, killing all six crew members, Sharjah civil aviation director Khaled al-Qassimi said. "A Sudanese cargo plane crashed two miles (three kilometres) from the Sharjah airport shortly after takeoff and there were no survivors among the six crew," Sheikh Khaled said, saying the crash site was in the desert. Officials had earlier said the the aircraft was Iranian. A civil aviation official said the airport had been closed to air traffic. The UAE emirate of Sharjah lies hard by the Gulf federation's trade and leisure hub of Dubai.