KLM will be retiring the workhorse of their fleet this weekend in Amsterdam after 97 years of faithful service. The back bone of the short-haul fleet the Fokker will appropriately fly in from London where it began service in May 1920. The airline will be bidding farewell on Saturday evening with a "shower of affection". On Sunday, a special Fokker monument will be unveiled outside Building 102 at Schiphol-Oost at about 10am. Be the last to fly on these classic aircraft. There are a few seats available on the final flights from Heathrow, Luxembourg, Brussels, Hanover, Norwich and Dusseldorf on Saturday. The Fokkers have begun to be replaced by Embraer 175+ aircraft.
Lufthansa increasing capacity to Ireland
It is a good week all round for Lufthansa with third-quarter earnings EBIT raised by €883 million and the best ever nine-month result. Capacity to Ireland increased by 10 per cent and passenger numbers are up by 10 per cent.The recently approved agreements with three groups of unions including pilots mean a stable future for Lufthansa. Capacity will increase again to Ireland in 2018 with four flights a day to Frankfurt, 13 a week to Munich. Swiss, part of the LH Group will operate 10 flights to Zurich in summer and three to Geneva. Cork will have three weekly flights to Zurich and Shannon will have one weekly flight to Frankfurt. Eurowings, the low-cost carrier, will operate three flights a week from Dublin from Cologne and six a week to Dusseldorf. Key onward destinations for travellers from Ireland are Zagreb, Moscow, Tel Aviv and Kiev.
Finding the best beer
Lufthansa recently launched an online interactive map to help you search for the best beer spots at destinations across Europe, beermap.net. You can click on a city that Lufthansa flies to and you will get suggestions of places to try and the recommended beverages based on insider knowledge of locals. Recommendations include the Porterhouse in Dublin for a creamy pint of stout to farmhouse ales at Pub Snekutis in Vilnius. The website also has travel guides for your destinations.
New aircraft for Ethiopian
Ethiopian takes delivery of another Airbus 787 Dreamliner today, this time the 787-9, six metres longer than the 787-8 which they use on the Addis Ababa to Dublin to Los Angeles. This new aircraft brings the average age of the fleet to four years. Ethiopian operates to 95 international destinations.
jscales@irishtimes.com