Aeronautical newsletter. Airbus decided to concentrate its efforts in the field of metal hydrogen tanks by creating two complementary Zero-Emission Development Centers (ZEDCs) at its sites in Bremen (Germany) and Nantes (France). The goal of the ZEDC is to produce cryogenic tanks at competitive costs to accelerate the development of technologies for hydrogen propulsion and to launch the ZEROe aircraft on the market. The design and integration of the tanks are crucial for the performance of future hydrogen aircraft.
Technological developments will cover the entire product and industrial capabilities from elementary parts to assembly, and from systems integration and cryogenic testing of the final liquid hydrogen (LH2) tank system. Both ZEDCs will be fully operational by 2023 to build the LH2 tanks, with the first flight test scheduled for 2025.
Klm (the Dutch company of the Air France-KLM group) perceives a cautious re-emergence of passenger demand from and to Asia and the Middle East, consequently this summer its network in that macro-zone will be practically identical to that of 2019 Riyad (Saudi Arabia) appears as a new destination, while flights to Phuket (Thailand) will be introduced starting in the winter season.
Overall to Asia there are 17 destinations planned for this summer, compared to 19 in 2019. Xiamen (China) is temporarily closed due to the pandemic and the service to Denpasar (Indonesia) will be offered as soon as Bali reopens, which hopefully it will happen towards the end of the summer. As for the Middle East, in the summer of 2021 KLM flies to seven destinations, the same number as in 2019.
The Dutch airline was recently awarded Diamond APEX status, which places it among the world‘s leading airlines in hygiene and health safety.
Qatar Airways announces the resumption of connections with the island of Phuket, Thailand, starting from 1 July, with four weekly flights. In addition to the 12 weekly flights to Bangkok, the airline will operate a total of 16 weekly flights to Thailand with this destination, providing numerous travel options to its passengers. Qatar Airways is the only airline in the world that, together with its hub global Hamad International Airport, has achieved four 5-star Skytrax ratings: airline, airport, airline security for COVID-19, and airport security on the same front.
Air Senegal encouraged by the high number of bookings it announces that it will increase direct flights from Milan Malpensa from 3 to 5 weekly starting from 1 July 2021. It will therefore be the airline with the highest number of weekly flights between Italy and Senegal for the summer season The 4th flight is scheduled for Sunday starting June 20th, while the 5th flight will start operating on Thursday July 1st. All five weekly flights will be operated by the Airbus A321 every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, offering 16 business class seats and 149 economy class seats. Flights are scheduled to ensure fast connections, in both directions via Dakar, to other African destinations such as Abidjan, Bamako, Conakry, Banjul, Nouakchott, Ziggachoir and soon Freetown.