WAM The United Arab Emirates represented by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar to increase the number of flights between the two countries.

According to the MoU, Fly Dubai was appointed as the UAE national carrier along with Emirates, Etihad, Air Arabia and Rak Air as the UAE's national carriers while Qatar Airways was appointed as Qatar's national carrier.

Terror stricken Mumbai would take more time to resume normal air services. The air services are expected to be further hit in the coming days, following the impact of the terrorist attack on the financial and entertainment capital of the nation. Leading international carriers halted air services after the attack and marginally resume on Friday. The Mumbai airport witnessed 13 cancellations by the carriers like GoAir, Indigo and Kingfisher.

The recent terror attack on the financial capital of the country would affect the aviation sector in forthcoming Christmas holiday season in December. Airlines would move very cautiously to terror-struck Mumbai after recent large scale terrorist attacks in various prominent locations of the city. However, almost all domestic carriers continued with their air services to Mumbai despite low traffic due to the recent terrorist attack. The attack happened in the season in which carriers are expecting good earning due to Christmas.

Sydney  - A Qantas Airways jet aborted a flight to Singapore and returned to the Australian west coast city of Perth after one of its two engines was shut down, news reports said Saturday.

The Airbus A330 with 168 passengers aboard turned back Friday when an engine oil warning light flashed in the cockpit.

Aviation sources told The Sydney Morning Herald that the engine starter motor failed because maintenance engineers in Hong Kong had forgotten to oil the motor after an overhaul last week.

Vienna  - Budget carrier SkyEurope reported Friday that its net loss for its business year running until the end of September more than doubled to 59.4 million euros
(77 million dollars), as results were affected by high fuel prices.

The company defaulted on an aircraft lease earlier this week and has to repay loans worth 25 million euros to US investor York Global Finance, one of its major stakeholders, by December 15.

As of September 30, the budget carrier's cash reserves amounted to 1.3 million euros, down from 11.6 million euros in 2007, SkyEurope said in its preliminary annual report.

The airline is listed on the Vienna stock exchange but operates from the Slovak capital Bratislava.

Vienna  - Austrian Airlines AG announced Friday that its losses for 2008 would amount to up to 415 million euros (538 million dollars), more than triple the previously forecast net loss of 125 million euros.

The Austrian flag carrier that is expected to be taken over by Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa AG in early December also said it needed interim financing until the European Commission approved the deal.

The widening of the net losses are a result of up to 200 million euros of write-offs of aircraft, which have been losing market value in the current economic climate, as well as from around 90 million euros of negative tax effects.