Hawaiian Airlines will introduce new non-stop flights from Austin, Texas, and Orlando, Florida, to Honolulu beginning in the first half of 2021.

Virgin Australia Group has pushed back the delivery timeline of its Boeing B737 MAX 10 aircraft by two years, now beginning in mid-2023.

Qantas and Accor have forged deeper bonds that will see mutual members of their loyalty programs be rewarded at every stage of their travel journey. Scheduled to launch mid-2021, it will be the first partnership of its kind between an airline and hospitality group in the Asia-Pacific region.

Virgin Australia’s new CEO and Managing Director, Jayne Hrdlicka, has this week taken over the Australia airline and unveiled the carrier’s future direction as a “mid-market” player. Hrdlicka, who replaced Paul Scurrah after Virgin Australia exited voluntary administration, said the airline would retain its core domestic lounge network in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and the Gold Coast, and would be uniquely positioned in the local market as the only carrier with a triple-cabin choice of seating; Business, Economy X and Economy.

Star Alliance has completed development of an interoperable biometric identity and identification platform that it says will significantly improve the travel experience for frequent flyer programme customers of Star Alliance member airlines.

After a five-year hiatus, United Airlines will resume services out of New York’s JFK Airport from 1 February, 2021, offering transcontinental nonstop flights to the west coast.

Qatar Airways has rolled out new, simplified fare families across all travel classes to offer greater choice and flexibility to passengers. Effective this week, Qatar Airways will offer six fare families.

The Australian and Tasmanian Governments will bankroll the relaunch of nonstop international flights to Hobart from January 2021.

Sabre has bolstered its partnership with Qantas that will benefit travel advisors, providing them access to richer information about the airline’s fares, products and services.

Berlin’s long-overdue Brandenburg Airport has this week adopted the airport identifier code of BER ahead of its transition to become the city’s primary air gateway. The airport’s switchover from the previous three-letter code, SXF, is a crucial milestone ahead of this weekend’s opening of the new US$3.1 billion German facility.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is relocating its operations in New York, commencing non-stop flights to John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport effective 9 November 2020. The airline has historically been operating to Newark International Airport before pausing the service due to the pandemic.

Emirates is rolling out a redesigned premium cabin experience aboard its Airbus A380 double-decker fleet.