Emirates Airline will start its non-stop direct flights from Dubai and Madrid from August 1 to create the first air services between United Arab Emirates and the popular southern European country.

With this, Emirates Airlines will fill the gap in its European network and underlines growing trade and traffic between the both nations. It will be the fourth new route for Emirates in 2010, after Tokyo, Amsterdam and Prague.

According to the reports, budget airline easyJet will add more flights to the country from Robin Hood Airport, near Doncaster in South Yorkshire.

The carrier has announced recently in a press conference that its new routes will go to Barcelona and Palma from April 2010, along with several other European nations.

The European aircraft developers announced that Airbus’ long-delayed A400M military transport will make its very first appearance during the week starting December 7, "weather permitting".

The A400M will replace the old military cargo carrier in several European air forces; however, its development has been determined by series of serious technical faults and its in service data has been extended from 2009 to 2013.

According to the report published in the international financial newspaper, La TribuneA said, “The EADS was seriously considering canceling most of the orders that have already been signed, worth about 400 million euros, in the framework of a partnership with (South African) industry (notably with the Denel and Aerosud groups) and which were linked to the contract to purchase eight A400Ms.”

Earlier, South Africa confirmed that it had cancelled its order for eight A400M military transporters, citing cost escalations. The A400M program was already three years behind schedule.

British Airways (BA) and Iberia Airlines are about to finalize a merger agreement, which would help in streamlining the cargo haulage via airfreight.

The two flight operators are looking to strengthen their businesses after the recession affected them, which caused lower cargo and passenger numbers.

The merger will give birth to a new company, Topco, which will stand in competition with Lufthansa and Air France-KLM as one of the largest airlines on the continent. The airline is expected to earn € 400 million in five years duration.

Spain's Iberia airline has announced that it is going to cancel around 440 flights following a two-day strike by its cabin crews supporting demands for increase in wages.

Iberia has made a statement on its site that the strike would badly affect its domestic air services as well as its European and trans-Atlantic flights.

Spain's government has granted loan up to 359 million euros for subcontractors of the Airbus A350. The socialist government has approved loans for the companies that have established in Spain and are supplying parts for Airbus' A350 XWB aircraft project.

Spain’s industry ministry said that the companies under the loan scheme should be the subcontractors for top-level programmes of new A350 XWB Airbus and its Trent XWB engine, which has been developed by the Rolls Royce Group.