Short Takes
August 24th 2015
ROUTES: Air China will launch a thrice-weekly Chengdu-Paris A330-200 route on January 28. All Nippon Airways (ANA) will reduce frequency on the Narita-Dusseldorf B787-8 route from daily to five-weekly from January 4 through to February 4; it has cancelled its Narita-Paris launch planned for October 25. Read More » Emirates Airline will resume four-weekly Dubai-Baghdad A330-200 operations from September 17 and it will increase frequency from daily to eleven-weekly on the Dubai-Phuket B777-300ER route from December 1. Japan Airlines (JAL) will replace the B777-300ER with the B787-9 on the daily Narita-Frankfurt route from October 25. Juneyao Airlines will launch a daily Pudong-Nagoya A320 service starting September 25. Nepal Airlines will add a thrice-weekly Kathmandu-Bangalore B757-200 rotation starting September 1, and it will resume service to Mumbai from February 1 with thrice-weekly A320 operations. Oman Air will replace the A330 with the B787-8 on the Muscat-Frankfurt and Muscat-Paris routes from October 25 and December 1, respectively. Qantas Airways will increase frequency on the Perth-Singapore B737-800 route from five-weekly to daily commencing November 30. Qatar Airways will add a fifth weekly rotation to the Doha-Asmara A320 route starting September 7. Scoot will increase capacity from four- to six-weekly on the Singapore-Nanjing route using a mix of B787-8 and -9 variants from January 18. Shenzhen Airlines will launch a daily Guangzhou-Bangkok A320 route from September 11.
AIRLINES: Air Bagan managing director, Htoo Thet Htwe, said his airline has suspended operations until October owing to fleet maintenance requirements. The airline operates a pair of ATR42-300s and an ATR72-500 on flights throughout Myanmar as well as to Chiang Mai.
MANUFACTURERS: Airbus has begun assembling wings for the first A350-1000 at Broughton, North Wales. Airbus said the -1000 wing has the same span as the -900 variant already in service, but 90% of the parts have been modified and the trailing edge has been extended to resize the wing for the additional payload and range. Boeing has delivered two off-factory B737-900ERs to Sriwijaya Air, the first of the type for Indonesia’s third largest carrier.
MRO: Qatar Airways has engaged Direct Maintenance to provide line maintenance on its A320 and A330F aircraft at Entebbe.
