Short Takes
October 30th 2015
AIRLINES: Cathay Pacific Airways “at this stage has no decision to change the seat width and seat pitch of our 777 fleet as indicated in the said media report,” the carrier told This Week in Asia-Pacific Aviation after a South China Morning Post article last Sunday suggested it might add more economy seats in exchange for improved amenities and services. Read More » Ethiopian Airlines will assign Chinese crew members on all flights to the Mainland from November. "Asia and particularly China is our focus. This is our biggest market," the airline’s chief, Tewolde Gebremariam, told AFP. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued a draft determination that re-authorises commercial co-operation between Virgin Australia and Etihad Airways for another five years. Etihad holds equity of 24.2% in Virgin Australia Holdings and has a seat on the Virgin Australia board.
CODESHARES: All Nippon Airways (ANA) has added its ‘NH’ designator to 29 Brussels Airlines ex-Brussels regional services. Asiana Airlines has placed its ‘OZ code’ code on seven Air Busan ex-Busan services to China and Southeast Asia. China Eastern Airlines has added its ‘MU’ designator to 22 additional Qantas Airways domestic services. CSA Czech Airlines has placed its ‘OK’ code on Hainan Airlines’ new thrice-weekly Beijing-Prague B767 service. Emirates Airline and Alaska Airlines have sought government approvals for a unilateral codeshare agreement whereby Emirates would add its ‘EK’ designator to 49 Alaska regional services within the U.S., as well as to Mexico and Canada.
MANUFACTURERS: CFM International has delivered its first advanced LEAP-1B engines to Boeing to support the factory rollout of the first B737MAX for year end and its fist flight in early 2016. Embraer has posted a third-quarter net loss of $109.6 million, compared to a loss of $10.7 million in the year-ago period. It said the loss was due to $24.2 million in foreign exchange losses, as well as income tax expenses of $164.4 million. Revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% to $1.28 billion year-on-year, driven by growth in its commercial and executive jet segments. Rolls-Royce is evaluating whether the trend toward larger aircraft will provide an opening for it to re-enter the short-haul engine market, according to a Bloomberg report, citing a person with direct knowledge of the company's plans.
MRO: Delta TechOps has been granted approval from Rolls-Royce for the MRO’s expanded Atlanta facility to become a maintenance centre for the Trent XWB and 7000 engines.
ROUTES: AirAsia will add a daily Kota Kinabalu-Wuhan A320 rotation starting January 22. AirAsia India will launch a daily Delhi-Visakhapatnam A320 route November 15. Air Canada will launch its thrice-weekly Vancouver-Brisbane B787-8 route on June 1 instead of June 17. Asiana Airlines will increase frequency on the A321/A330 Incheon-Taipei route from eleven-weekly to twice daily commencing January 25. Bangkok Airways will cease operations to Udon Thani, with the last flights from Chiang Mai having operated on October 25 and the last service from Suvarnabhumi scheduled for November 29. Beijing Capital Airlines, the HNA Group carrier, is seeking government approvals to launch a Hangzhou-Madrid and a Qingdao-Melbourne A330 service from December and July, respectively, and it launched a Beijing-Male A330 service this week. China Southern Airlines will launch a four-weekly Shenzhen-Sydney A330, and a thrice-weekly Shenzhen-Wuhan-Dubai A330 service from December 1 and January 12, respectively, pending government approvals. Dragonair will increase frequency on the Hong Kong-Penang route from ten- to twelve-weekly starting November 30. Etihad Airways will replace the B777-300ER with the A380 on one of its twice-daily Abu Dhabi-Melbourne rotations from June 1. At the last minute, Hong Kong Airlines has postponed the October 25 launch of a daily Hong Kong-Krabi A320 service to November 13, and it plans to open a twice-weekly Hong Kong-Kumamoto A320 route from December 14. Lufthansa has started deploying the A380 on the daily Hong Kong-Frankfurt service, replacing the B747-8. Malindo Air has postponed the launch of daily Kuala Lumpur-Hong Kong B737-800 operations by a month to December 10. Myanmar National Airlines will add a four-weekly Hong Kong-Yangon B737-800 service from December 4. Philippine Airlines has revised planned operations on the Manila-Abu Dhabi A330-300 route to commence December 1, from daily to five-weekly. Qatar Airways will launch an eight times a week Doha-Birmingham B787-8 rotation beginning March 30. United Airlines will terminate its four-weekly Washington-Kuwait-Bahrain B777-200ER service from January 13.
