SEOUL, 16 May 2024: Korean Air wins recognition for its food and beverage service from Global Traveler as part of its 2024 Leisure and Lifestyle Travel Awards.

The carrier won the best Airline Onboard Menu for its first-class cabin, chalking up another win for its catering programme. The airline previously won best airline cuisine, among other awards, in Global Traveler’s 2023 Tested Reader Survey awards.

Depending upon the route and season, the airline offers menu choices such as roasted Chilean sea bass with vermouth sauce, spicy beef short rib stew, spicy buckwheat noodles, and traditional Korean bibimbap.

US-based Global Traveler conducts annual surveys in which its online and offline subscribers vote for the best companies in travel-related categories. This is the 12^th year it has conducted its leisure travel survey.

Korean Air’s continued recognition can be attributed to its ongoing investment and focus on service enhancements. Last year, the airline introduced vegan options based on traditional Korean temple cuisine. It also has a diverse selection of pre-order meals, including vegetarian, glucose-free, and children’s meals.

The airline also refined its wine programme with the guidance of internationally renowned sommelier Marc Almert and introduced more than 50 new wines to its award-winning collection.

Last year, the airline was awarded a Skytrax five-star airline rating for the second consecutive time, an APEX 5-star global airline rating for the seventh consecutive year, and named Best Business and First Class Airline in the USA Today 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards.

SINGAPORE, 16 May 2024: Qantas Airways is scheduling flight increases on routes to popular Asian destinations from gateway cities in Australia, starting with the northern hemisphere winter timetable 2024/2025 that kicks in late October. 

A new route from Brisbane to Manila will be introduced on 28 October 2024, and additional flights are planned for Singapore and India. However, due to low demand, the airline confirmed it would suspend flights on the Sydney-Shanghai route starting on 28 July. Qantas resumed its Sydney-Shanghai service in October last year after a long pause during the Covid pandemic.

Customers can continue to travel to Shanghai and other destinations in China on Qantas flights to Hong Kong with onward connections on partner airlines. Aircraft on this route will be redirected to boost flying to other destinations across Asia with increasing demand or new tourism opportunities.

New route from Brisbane to Manila

The airline confirms it will commence four weekly flights between Brisbane and Manila in the Philippines using an A330-300 aircraft. Reservations for the new service will open this month. The airline last served the Brisbane – Manila route in 2013.

The direct Brisbane—Manila flights are in addition to the airline’s existing daily service from Sydney and will add more than 100,000 seats annually between Australia and the Philippines.

Additional flights to Singapore and India

Qantas will increase flying to Singapore by around 10%, offering more than 2,500 additional seats per week between Australia and the Lion City.

Sydney to Singapore will increase from 14 to 17 weekly return flights starting 11 December 2024.

Brisbane to Singapore will increase from seven to nine return flights per week from 27 October 2024. This is timed to improve connectivity with Qantas’ daily service from Singapore to London, reducing overall travel time to Heathrow by around four hours.

Flights from Sydney to Bengaluru in India will also increase from five per week to daily to accommodate strong demand during the peak holiday season. The extra flights will operate between mid-December 2024 and late March 2025, adding over 12,000 seats between the two cities over the four-month period.

Tickets for the additional flights are available for sale at qantas.com. 

Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace commented: “Since Covid, the demand for travel between Australia and China has not recovered as strongly as expected. In some months, our flights to and from Shanghai have been operating around half full.

“That’s why we’ve decided to suspend this route and boost flights to other popular destinations with a new route from Brisbane to Manila and additional flights to Singapore and Bengaluru. This will create more choices for our corporate and leisure customers and make it even easier for them to access the places they need to travel to in Asia.

“We’ll continue to maintain a presence in China through our partners and our existing flights to Hong Kong, and we look forward to returning to Shanghai in the future.”

Brisbane – Singapore increases from seven to nine weekly using A330-200s and A330-300s.

Flight QF051 departs Brisbane (BNE) at 1035 and arrives in Singapore (SIN) at 1645 (daily flights).
Flight QF053 departs BNE at 1540 and arrives in SIN at 2150 (Friday and Sunday).

Flight QF052 departs SIN at 1940 and arrives in BNE at 0530+1 (daily)
Flight QF054 departs SIN at 2340 and arrives in BNE at 0920+1 (Friday and Sunday)

Flights on the Sydney – Bangalore route, effective 12 December 2024, increase from five to seven weekly using an A330-200.

As of 30 October, Sydney – Singapore direct flights will increase from seven to eight weekly, A330-300. A second round of increases from eight to 10 weekly flights will kick in on 14 December. 

SINGAPORE, 15 May 2024: Air Astana will introduce improvements to the Nomad Club frequent flyer programme effective 17 May, based on an analysis of passenger feedback. It marks an important milestone in the programme’s development.

The methodology for point allocation in the Nomad Club programme has been restructured as part of the comprehensive update. Instead of per-flight distance, points will now be allocated based on the expenditure per fare. In addition, the process for making bookings utilising earned points will be improved, with direct accessibility using only one click on the airline’s website homepage. Additionally, flight load will dynamically adjust the minimum threshold for acquiring award tickets or upgrades.

During the transition period from 17 to 20 May 2024, Nomad Club services, including those at check-in, the reservation centre, sales offices, the website and the app, will be temporarily suspended. From 21 to 25 May 2024, access to personal accounts may be restricted due to the ongoing corporate website upgrade. 

Air Astana aims to conclude the programme’s transformation by the end of summer, and new privileges available to Nomad Club members will be announced later. 

Air Astana’s Nomad Club frequent flyer loyalty programme was launched on 1 December 2007 and currently has 600,000 members in 155 countries. It offers four membership tiers: Blue, Silver, Gold and Diamond.