Short Takes
March 30th 2015
CODESHARES: South America’s TAM has added its ‘JJ’ designator to JAL’s services from Tokyo’s Narita to Fukuoka, Nagoya, New York (JFK) and Osaka (ITM). Subject to government approval, Asiana Airlines is planning to add its ‘OZ’ code to Russian carrier S7 Airlines’ services from Seoul (ICN) to Irkutsk, Novosibirsk and Vladivostok, while S7 wants to place its designator on Asiana’s routes from Seoul (ICN) to Khabarovsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Read More » China Airlines has added its ‘CI’ code to seven Bangkok Airways domestic services ex Bangkok, as well as five Garuda Indonesia domestic routes ex Jakarta.
FLEETS: All Nippon Airways (ANA) has finalized an order for three additional B787-10 aircraft. With this order, originally announced as a commitment in January, ANA becomes the first airline in the Asia-Pacific to operate the entire family of B787 Dreamliners. It operates 34 B787s, with 49 more airliners on order.
ROUTES: Air China will launch a four-weekly Beijing – Minsk – Budapest A330-200 rotation beginning May 1, and a twice-weekly Beijing – Hakodate B737-800 service from July 3. Air Mauritius will add a weekly Mauritius – Chengdu A340-300 operation beginning July 6. Subject to government approval, Air New Zealand has scheduled the first Auckland – Buenos Aires B777-200ER service for December 1. Bangkok Airways has increased frequency on the Koh Samui – Kuala Lumpur A319 route from daily to 11-weekly, and from daily to 10-weekly on the Koh Samui – Singapore A319 service. Emirates will operate a double frequency on the Dubai – Seattle route, with the additional daily B777 service starting on July 7. The UAE carrier has tentatively scheduled its last A340-500 operation for September 30 on the Dubai – Kabul route. In July and August, EVA Air will increase frequency on the Kaohsiung – Fukuoka A321 route from twice to five-weekly. Garuda Indonesia has re-instated its plan to increase frequency to Europe, with the addition of a sixth weekly rotation from July 22 on the Jakarta – Amsterdam – London (LGW) B777-300ER route. Hong Kong Airlines will add a four-weekly Hong Kong – Nanchang all-economy A320 service from April 29. Kuwait Airways will debut its new A330 aircraft on the four-weekly Kuwait – Chennai route starting July 2, replacing the A300-600R. Siam Air has started daily Bangkok (DMK) – Zhengzhou B737 operations. THAI is cancelling the daily THAI Smile Bangkok – Macau A320 route from May 16. Tigerair Taiwan will launch a daily Taipei (TPE) – Tokyo (NRT) A320 service starting April 2, and it will increase frequency on the Taipei (TPE) – Bangkok (DMK) from six- to ten-weekly from May 8. UNITED has sought permission from the US Department of Transportation to delay the launch of its second daily San Francisco – Shanghai (PVG) B777-200ER service from May 6 to July 2 as it needs more time to negotiate slots with the Chinese authorities. VietJet Air will increase frequency on the Ho Chi Minh – Singapore A320 route from daily to double daily from May 30. Vistara will add a daily Delhi – Pune A320 rotation effective April 9.
TRAFFIC DATA: Based on IATA January traffic data, international air travel during the month was in line with the recent trend, up 3.7% year-on-year; economy class travel drove the rise in volumes in January, up 3.8% year-on-year, helped by falling fares affecting this more price sensitive market; the growth trend in premium international passenger travel has flattened over the past several months. Premium international air travel volumes have not increased since August 2014. There was a weak 2.6% rise in premium travel in January year-on-year while longer-haul markets continued to perform more strongly, including the Middle East to the Far East and Europe.
