Short Takes
June 29th 2015
AIRLINES: Kuwait Airways has taken delivery of its first of five-on-order leased A330-200s fitted with 17 first class, 30 business and 165 economy seats. Read More » Philippine Airlines (PAL) signed lease agreements with lessor Intrepid Aviation for two additional B777-300ERs during the Paris Air Show, and its president and chief executive, Jaime Bautista, has said he was mulling converting some of its outstanding A321neo orders into A321LR variants. Thai Airways International (THAI) has received its 25th B777, a -300ER.
CODESHARES: From July 6, Alitalia will add its ‘AZ’ designator to Korean Air’s services between Incheon and Busan, Daegu, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Niigata, Okayama, Kansai and Sapporo.
LESSORS: China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings (CALC) has signed an MOU with the administrative committee of the Tianjin Dongjiang Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) for deeper cooperation as CALC continues to expand its business by delivering an estimated total 40 aircraft to its domestic and overseas airlines customers via the DFTZ platform between 2015 and 2018.
MANUFACTURERS: Boeing has opened an 80,000 sq. ft. research and technology centre in Huntsville, Alabama. The facility will serve as the company’s hub for collaborative technology development with academic institutions and research partners in analytics and simulation in the southeast U.S. UTC Aerospace Systems has been selected by IndiGo to supply the wheels and carbon brakes for its 180-on-order A320neo aircraft.
MRO: Air New Zealand (Air NZ) has signed a conditional agreement with Airbus Group’s Australia Pacific unit of Airbus Helicopters (Marseilles) for the sale of Air NZ’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Safe Air. Safe Air is an aviation MRO, design, and manufacturing firm catering to military and commercial customers, including the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The company specializes in Rolls-Royce T56 and Pratt & Whitney engines, C-130 and P3 Orion airframes, propeller repair and overhaul, as well as helicopter expertise.
ROUTES: Air India will add a fourth weekly B787-8 rotation on the Delhi-Narita route starting November 1. Asiana Airlines will add a weekly Incheon-Astana A330-300 rotation from August 8, in addition to its existing twice-weekly Incheon-Almaty service. From October 25, China Airlines will add Melbourne to its network as an intermediate stop on its thrice-weekly Taipei-Christchurch A330-300 service. China Eastern Airlines will launch a twice-weekly Yanji-Osaka A320 service from July 4, as well as a thrice-weekly Kunming-Jinghong-Luang Prabang B737-700 rotation starting July 20. Emirates Airline will launch a daily two-class B777-300 Dubai-Multan service on August 1, and add five additional weekly rotations to Karachi beginning July 1. Etihad Airways will resume daily Abu Dhabi-Peshawar A320 operations beginning October 25. HK Express has reduced frequency on the Hong Kong-Incheon A320 route from thrice- to twice-daily, and cancelled its four-weekly Hong Kong-Jeju A320 service through to July 31. Lufthansa will cancel its five-weekly Jakarta operations from October 25; the A340-300 service will terminate in Kuala Lumpur instead. Malindo Air will launch a four-weekly Kuala Lumpur-Thiruvananthapuram B737-800 service from August 24. Peach Aviation will launch a Haneda-Taipei A320 service from August 8, and it will increase frequency between Osaka and Taipei from twice- to thrice-daily starting August 7. Shenzhen Airlines will add a daily Shenzhen-Phuket B737-800 service from July 10. Tigerair Taiwan will terminate its thrice-weekly Taipei-Chiang Mai A320 service on August 2. United Airlines will continue to operate the B787-9 on the daily Narita-Los Angeles service beyond October 25.
