RUSSIA's Federal Air Navigation Authority has granted budget long-haul carrier Oasis Hong Kong Airlines permission to fly over Russian territory.
This comes after the fledgling airline's second Boeing 747-400 entered into service on November 24 to expand the carrier's network coverage.
Permission to fly over Russian airspace is expected to shorten the flying time on the Hong Kong-London route. Oasis said in a statement that flights to London will now take 12 hours 20 minutes, and 10 hours 50 minutes on the return leg, weather conditions permitting.
Stephen Miller, chief executive officer of Oasis said: "The arrival of our second Boeing 747 increases the operational robustness of our schedule. After London, we will fly to Oakland in the first half of 2007 and later to other European and North American cities including Cologne/Bonn, Milan, Berlin and Chicago."
The two Boeing 747-400s that Oasis owns were previously owned and maintained by Singapore Airlines. The company says it is now actively seeking to acquire up to five aircraft a year and expand its fleet to 25 by 2010.
The airline's flights operated at a 73 per cent average passenger load factor in November. Since Oasis launched at the end of this October, nearly 40,000 customers have already booked flights with the airline, the release added.
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