Short Takes
December 16th 2014
Airlines: Air New Zealand has opened its new regional lounge at Auckland Domestic Airport, the first of several new and made-over lounges on the airline's to-do list. Singapore Airlines (SIA) has increased its shareholding in Tigerair from 40% to 56%. Meanwhile, SIA plans to modify the doors across its entire fleet of Airbus A380s to address a micro crack issue that first came to light in January 2014 when a SIA A380 was forced to make an emergency landing in Azerbaijan due to a loss of cabin pressure. Read More » In other news, the carrier has decided to honour the more than 900 business class tickets mistakenly sold in Australia last week at economy class prices. Vistara said it has completed its trial flights schedule and continues awaiting receipt of its air operator’s licence from the Indian authorities.
Codeshares: ETIHAD is expanding its partnership with Alitalia by adding its ‘EY’ designator to 19 of the carrier’s domestic and regional routes from December 15. The Abu Dhabi-based carrier will also launch a new codeshare agreement with SAS from January 19 which will see it place its ‘EY’ code on nine of SAS’ domestic and regional services from Copenhagen and six from Stockholm and Oslo, respectively. In return, SAS will add its ‘SK’ designator to nine of ETIHAD’s Europe-bound services from Abu Dhabi. Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia have deepened their codeshare partnership when the former added its ‘SQ’ code to an additional 23 domestic and cross-Tasman Virgin routes on December 1.
Manufacturers: China will require more than 5,300 new passenger aircraft and freighters worth some $820 billion from 2014 to 2033, Airbus predicted in its latest Global Market Forecast. The Asian nation will account for 17% of global demand for new aircraft over the next two decades. The European manufacturer believes deliveries to China will amount to 5,363 aircraft over the period, comprising 3,567 single-aisle aircraft, 1,477 twin-aisles and 319 in the very large aircraft category. Boeing said it will cut production of its iconic B747-8 from 1.5 to 1.3 planes a month starting September, 2015, amid low demand for cargo aircraft.
Routes: AirAsia X will suspend its four-weekly Kuala Lumpur – Adelaide A330-300 service from January 25. From November 3, Air Canada will launch a thrice-weekly Dubai – Toronto service on-board a mix of B787-8 and -9 aircraft. From the same date, it will also launch a four-weekly Delhi – Toronto service, equally served by a B787-8 and -9 mix. Air China will increase frequency on the Beijing – Los Angeles B777-300ER route from 14- to 18-weekly starting May 2. The service will be upgauged to thrice-daily from July 1. It will also add a second daily A330 service between Beijing and Paris (CDG) from June 1. Starting June 12, Japan’s All Nippon Airways will add the tenth destination in the U.S. to its network with a daily Narita – Houston B777-300ER service. From January 8 to March 16, China Airlines subsidiary Mandarin Airlines will operate a twice-weekly Kaohsiung – Cebu Embraer 90 service, while China Airlines will fly a twice-weekly Taipei – Cebu B737-800 service from January 28 through to July 29. China Eastern Airlines is moving forward the B777-300ER launch on the Shanghai – Los Angeles route from February 1 to January 15. It will introduce a second daily service on the route from June 25, operated by the A330-200. Meanwhile, it will increase frequency on the Shanghai – Toronto route from thrice-weekly to daily from July 11. Emirates will add a second daily Dubai – Barcelona B777-200LR service from May 2. ETIHAD is delaying its second daily Abu Dhabi – Heathrow A380 service from April 1 (originally March 1) to May 1, and its third daily Abu Dhabi – Heathrow A380 service from May 1 to August 1. Its June 1 Abu Dhabi – Sydney A380 launch remains unchanged. EVA Air will launch a thrice-weekly Taipei – Houston B777-300ER service on June 19 (to be upgauged to four-weekly from July 7). It will also increase frequency on the Taipei – Seattle route from five-weekly to daily from March 25 with three of the weekly flights operated by the B747-400 instead of the B777-300ER. flydubai will launch a thrice-weekly Dubai – Chennai B737-800 service from March 31. Garuda Indonesia is reducing frequency on the Jakarta – Beijing A330 route from daily to four-weekly starting January 15. Jetstar Pacific will commence a daily Hanoi – Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) A320 service from March 29. Kenya Airways will replace the B787-8 with the larger B777-200ER on its daily Dubai – Nairobi service from January 19. Singapore Airlines’ low-cost division Scoot will launch a five-weekly Singapore – Melbourne B787-9 service on November 1. THAI will reduce frequency on the Bangkok – Nagoya route from twice-daily to 12-weekly from January 10 through to March 28. Turkish Airlines will replace the A340-300 with the smaller A330-300 on the daily Jakarta – Istanbul nonstop service starting May 11. Vietnam Airlines has cancelled the December 18 ATR72 service launch between Phu Quoc and Siem Reap.
