Short Takes
July 13th 2015
CODESHARES: SriLankan Airlines and airberlin have started a reciprocal codeshare agreement whereby SriLankan placed its ‘UL’ designator on airberlin’s Abu Dhabi-Berlin and Abu Dhabi-Vienna services, while airberlin added its ‘AB’ code to SriLankan’s Colombo-Abu Dhabi rotations. Read More »
MANUFACTURERS: ATR is to be the launch customer for Elbit Systems’ latest wearable heads-up display technology. The SKYLENS system displays high-resolution information, images and video on a visor worn by the pilot, enabling aircraft to take-off and land in low-visibility conditions. The SKYLENS system is to be integrated with Elbit’s ClearVision flight vision system and will be installed onto new -600 series ATR42 and ATR72 aircraft, as well as being offered as a retrofit option.
ROUTES: Air Arabia will launch a thrice-weekly Sharjah-Tabuk A320 service July 30, its 13th destination in Saudi Arabia. Air China will add a four-weekly Beijing-Colombo A330-300 rotation from October 27. Beijing Capital Airlines has leased an A330-200 from Garuda Indonesia (configured 36/185) and will commence daily Beijing-Sanya and Beijing-Chengdu operations from July 24. China Airlines will add a thrice-weekly Kaohsiung-Kumamoto, and a twice-weekly Kaohsiung-Fukuoka service, from October 25 and October 26, respectively, and both operated by the B737-800. Emirates will launch five-weekly Dubai-Mashhad A330-200 operations beginning September 1. Indonesia AirAsia X has commenced twice-daily Jakarta-Denpasar A330-300 services, replacing two Indonesia AirAsia A320 frequencies. Lufthansa will replace the B747-400 with the A340-300 on the thrice-weekly Narita-Frankfurt rotation starting October 25. Malaysia Airlines will terminate its thrice-weekly Kuala Lumpur-Istanbul B777-200ER service beginning August 25; it will also reduce A330-300 frequency to Delhi from twice-daily to daily from September 1. Oman Air will increase frequency on the Muscat-Manila A330 route from thrice-weekly to daily starting August 1. Philippine Airlines will increase frequency from four- to five-weekly on the Manila-Heathrow A340-300 route commencing October 25. Qatar Airways will increase frequency on the Doha-Peshawar A320 route from thrice-weekly to daily beginning September 1. Shanghai Airlines will launch a thrice-weekly Pudong-Haneda B737-800 service commencing August 5. SWISS will deploy its new B777-300ER daily to Hong Kong from May 12, and daily to Bangkok from July 7, ending A340-300 operations. THAI will restore twice-daily operations to Frankfurt and London starting October 25, with both routes seeing a mix of A380 and B777-300ER services. Thai AirAsia will add a daily Bangkok (DMK)-Bangalore A320 service beginning September 1. TransAsia Airways will replace the A320 with the A330-300 on its twice-daily Taipei-Narita operations effective October 25.
SUSTAINABILITY: Boeing and Japanese aviation industry stakeholders have charted a course to develop sustainable aviation biofuel for flights during the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. The Initiatives for Next Generation Aviation Fuels (INAF)—a consortium of 46 organizations including Boeing, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines, Japan's government and the University of Tokyo—laid out a five-year roadmap to develop biofuel by 2020 as a way to reduce aviation’s environmental footprint.
