DOHA - Qatar Airways doesn’t appear modest at all when praising its new premium product as “the best Business Class in the world” or, literally, “First in Business”. Anyone who puts the benchmark this high should make sure to be able to deliver.

CAPE TOWN - Ethiopian Airlines is Africas biggest airline since some time, ranging in front the former market leaders from the continent, SAA, Kenya Airways and Egypt Air. Ethiopian Airlines has long held the reputation of being Africa’s best airline, an assertion supported by its continuous profitability, its modern aircraft fleet and its impressive route network.

DUBAI - In 2003 Emirates was the first airline offering fully private suites in First Class. Now other carriers are upping the ante and the Dubai-based carrier has to catch up. At the Dubai Air Show this week, Emirates managed to launch a few industry firsts in First – question is: Are they really enhancing the experience?

San Francisco - Hardly any product launch has stirred so much interest and discussions among frequent fliers as United Airlines did when it launched Polaris. When the world’s third largest airline announces a revamp of its premium product as United did in June 2016, this naturally raises expectations.

HAMBURG - Icelandair is a booming airline, last year it jumped the four-million threshold for the first time, carrying 4.1m passengers. Only in 2009 it flew just 1.3m customers. Then in 2010, a volcano erupted on the Atlantic island, paralysing air traffic over Europe for days.

AMSTERDAM - For all Delta departures from Amsterdam, an important hub for the Skyteam partner, there are special procedures before boarding. All departure monitors and even the boarding passes don't indicate the real departure gate, but instead a special gate at which US-bound passengers have to undergo special questioning.

LUANDA - The national airline of Angola in the southwest of Africa is one of the continent's oldest airlines, having commenced operations already in 1940. Still it is fairly obscure internationally. Its home state Angola is one of the most expensive countries on earth, where a civil war raged until 2002.

FRANKFURT - Holiday flights have been a class-less society for long. Since the 1990s some European holiday carriers have tried out premium offers on long haul flights, but rarely did they exceed the status of a minimally enhanced Economy. The holidaymaker wants to travel on the cheap, that seemed to have been the assumption.

MONTRÉAL - Nothing about flight BT9801 is ordinary. Including its scheduled departure time of 2am EST from Montréal this Tuesday night. On board the delivery flight for Air Baltic of the first Bombardier CS300 from Montréal to Stockholm.

ABU DHABI - Back in May 2014 Etihad Airways gathered 150 media representatives in Abu Dhabi to unveil its upcoming A380 and 787 interiors. Well, the A380 "Uber-First" Residence Suite stole the show and overshadowed the new Business Class Etihad introduced the same day. It deserves more attention.

FRANKFURT - Even for frequent fliers it's not easy to keep track with the different aircraft types and cabin products Air Canada offers on long haul routes. In Frankfurt alone, Air Canada this summer deployed five different aircraft types on the four routes it operated:

BELGRADE - The former Yugoslavia played a long and proud role in aviation. A glimpse of that can still be seen in the aviation museum, one of Europe's biggest, opened in 1989, located at the entrance to Belgrade's Nikola Tesla airport.

HONG KONG - Since the summer, Cathay Pacific is the sixth operator of the new Airbus A350-900, on September 1st the new aircraft took up its first long haul route in the Cathay network: From Hong Kong to Düsseldorf and back.

MADRID - Iberia operates a first-rate hub terminal in Madrid Barajas, with plenty of capacity. The Spanish national carrier offers a formidable route network focusing on routes from Europe to Central and South America. Since recently it also flies again to Tokyo, Shanghai and Johannesburg, as well as to other destinations in Africa and North America.

ZURICH - This first half of 2016 has been an exciting time for Swiss, the star performer of the Lufthansa Group. In February, Swiss introduced the Boeing 777-300ER into its fleet. While the biggest version yet of the 777 is nothing new on a global scale, it's different now:

JOHANNESBURG - Shortly before my return flight from South Africa, a friend of mine from the Cape said: "I'm flying SAA so often, they are technically bankrupt for a long time, but somehow they do a good job." I am following the endless story of how South Africa's national airline tries to get out of the woods financially since the 1990s.

KUALA LUMPUR - "Due both catastrophes in 2014, we are maybe more known now than any airline our size would usually be," says the German CEO of Malaysia Airlines, Christoph Mueller. Even if the old principle establishes that bad PR is better than no PR, the case of the Asian airline is unprecedented globally.

ZURICH - The stakes were high. It doesn't happen often that a bunch of CEOs of some of the world's most important airlines fly on one and the same aircraft. And unlike in other industries, where the top brass can never travel together in the air, the airline industry rather demonstrates its full confidence in an aircraft that is not in commercial service - yet.

COPENHAGEN - For decades, the route between Denmark and Greenland was a monopoly, just served by SAS. Since 1998, former Greenlandair, now Air Greenland, competed with a Boeing 757, although the Scandinavian airline owns 37.5 percent of Air Greenland.

SINGAPORE - SIA is biggest customer for the A350-900 with 67 on order, including the ultra long haul version. Andreas Spaeth delivered the first one from Toulouse to Singapore.