Travel News Round-Up 19th August

Air France asks passengers for cash

Air France faced an embarrassing situation this week when it was forced to make a whip round its passengers for a contribution towards refuelling one of their planes. The plane was en route from France to Lebanon when violent demonstrations near Beirut airport forced the plane to divert. The pilot ended up landing in war torn Damascus, Syria, but once on the ground the crew admitted to the passengers that their Air France company credit card could not be used to pay for refuelling due to the embargoes placed on it by the West. Around RM55,000 in cash was raised, but in the end the dispute was settled before having to take their money. Goes to show how much loose change some people have lying around... Read more at The Telegraph »

Qatar Airways increases its KL flights

Travellers looking to travel to the Middle East and onwards will be happy to know that an extra flight has been added from Doha to KL every day, bringing the number of daily flights from two to three. Not only that, Qatar Airways has been rapidly expanding and have this week announced an expansion to their route, flying to Chicago, USA from April 2013, as well as Belgrade in Serbia and Warsaw in Poland by the end of this year. They have also increased their African network this year to include Kigali in Rwanda, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Maputo, Mozambique (from October 31). Read more at Qatar Airways »

Malaysia Airlines still in the red but a silver lining in sight

Malaysia Airlines posted its Q2 2012 results which showed that they are still making losses. However, the silver lining is that the airlines has managed to significantly reduce its operating losses by 77%, from RM443 million in the same period last year to RM102 million for last quarter. Malaysia Airlines Group Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said, “The much improved second quarter results, compared against the performance year-on-year and even the first quarter of 2012, show that the tough decisions taken earlier to suspend high loss-making routes is showing results.” Read more at Malaysia Airlines »

and finally... flying can be exhausting

Airport security at Rome Fiumicino airport in Italy got a shock this week when instead of seeing luggage on their X-ray screens, they saw a sleeping Norwegian. The man had apparently laid down on the baggage conveyor and had been sleeping for around 25 minutes, unaware that he was circling the airport until he had a rude awakening. We're sure we can think of comfier places to go to sleep than a baggage conveyor! Read more at Gadling »