Short Takes
July 6th 2015
ROUTES: Air China will launch a four-weekly Beijing-Kuala Lumpur A330-300 service beginning October 25. China Southern Airlines will increase frequency from 14- to 18-weekly on the Guangzhou-Melbourne A330-300 route from December 5, as well as from twice- to thrice-daily on the Guangzhou-Sydney A330-300 route starting December 10. Read More » Hainan Airlines will launch thrice-weekly Beijing-Prague B767 operations from September 23. Lufthansa will cancel its five-weekly Jakarta operations from October 25; the A340-300 service will terminate in Kuala Lumpur instead. Malaysia Airlines will replace the A380 with the B777-200ER on the daily Kuala Lumpur-Paris route beginning August 4; it will also reduce A330-300 frequency to Shanghai from twice-daily to daily from August 15, and reduce capacity to Denpasar by replacing the B777-200ER with the B737-800 on all three daily rotations. Mandarin Airlines, the China Airlines subsidiary, will add a twice-weekly Kaohsiung-Changzhou E90 service starting September 16. Thailand’s Nok Air will increase frequency on the Bangkok-Yangon B737-800 route from 14- to 18-weekly beginning September 2. Qatar Airways will deploy its high-density two-class A340-600 on all three daily Doha-Colombo rotations from October 25, replacing the B787-8 and B777-300ER. Rotana Jet will start a daily Abu Dhabi-Doha E145 service from July 15. Shanghai Airlines will launch a thrice-weekly Pudong-Kota Kinabalu B737-800 service commencing July 15. Turkish Airlines will launch a twice-weekly Istanbul-Khudzhand B737-800 rotation from August 3.
CODESHARES: From July 27, Etihad Airways will add its ‘EY’ designator to Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA’s) services between Abu Dhabi and Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar, while PIA will place its ‘PK’.
MANUFACTURERS: Boeing has confirmed it will reduce production of the B747-8 to just one aircraft per month from March.
MRO: Lufthansa Technik will be equipping the 100th aircraft of the Lufthansa A320-family fleet with noise-reducing vortex generators in the next few weeks. SR Technics has signed a $150m contract to provide component services on Etihad Airways’ B787 fleet. ST Aerospace has signed a $350 million, six-year engine maintenance agreement with India’s Jet Airways for off-wing engine support and on-wing services for the carrier’s 76 CFM56-7B-powered B737NGs.
