Short Takes
January 22nd 2016
AIRLINES: Airberlin has won a court appeal over codesharing rights with parent Etihad Airways, reversing an earlier judgment and allowing the two carriers to continue operating 26 out of 31 codeshare flights through to March 26. Read More » Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) is accelerating the retirement of its B777 fleet as it has scheduled the last “Triple 7” service on the Guangzhou-Kuala Lumpur route for January 26.
MANUFACTURERS: Boeing on Wednesday said it has entered into a tentative agreement with union Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) covering nearly 21,000 engineers and technical staff, including average annual pay rises of 5% from 2017 through to 2022, while adding new provisions for SPEEA members whose jobs are moved elsewhere. Bombardier has started the ramp-up of its CSeries production after completing the structure of launch customer SWISS Air’s first CS100. The first delivery to SWISS is scheduled for the second quarter. Brazilian manufacturer Embraer ended 2015 with firm orders from 13 customers for 185 commercial aviation jets, a 24.2% increase over 2014. In total, Embraer’s 2015 orders comprised 94 E175s, 40 E195-E2s, 21 E195s, 17 E190-E2s and 13 E190s.
MRO: Lufthansa Technik has secured a five-year Total Component Maintenance agreement with Philippine Airlines (PAL) for the carrier’s A320 and A340 fleets.
ROUTES: AirAsia X will launch four-weekly Kuala Lumpur-Delhi A330-300 service from February 3. Air Seychelles will add a fifth weekly A320 rotation on the Victoria-Mumbai route beginning January 28. Emirates Airline will replace the A340-300 with the larger B777-300ER on the daily Dubai-Lusaka-Harare route starting February 1. Hong Kong Airlines will launch a thrice-weekly Hong Kong-Phnom Penh all-economy A320 service commencing February 27. Japan Airlines (JAL) will switch from the B787-8 to the larger -9 variant on the daily Narita-Boston route June 11, and it will replace the B767-300ER with the -9 on the Narita-Kuala Lumpur rotation from September 11. Qatar Airways will replace the A330-200 with the B787-8 on its daily Doha-Ho Chi Minh-Phnom Penh from June 1, and it will also replace the A330-200 with the B787-8 on its double daily Hong Kong service beginning October 30. Tigerair Taiwan will launch a twice-weekly Taipei-Quanzhou and thrice-weekly Taipei-Yiwu A320 service from February 2 and February 3, respectively, subject to government approvals. Turkish Airlines will replace the A330-300 with the B777-300ER on the daily Istanbul-Delhi route from April 24, and it will launch a new Istanbul-Atlanta B777-300ER service starting May 16. It will also increase frequency on the Kuala Lumpur A330-300 route from ten-weekly to double daily commencing May 31, and it will increase B777 service to Taipei from daily to ten-weekly effective July 12.
TRAFFIC MONITOR: Global international passenger traffic slowed in November, registering 3.2% year-on-year growth, according to IATA’s November traffic monitor. The result is a 1.3% drop from October 2015’s overall 4.5% year-on-year increase. As of November 30, 2015, total year-to-date global traffic growth stood at 4.9%; growth was at 3.6% at the same point in 2014. However, premium traffic was 3.2% down, particularly between Europe and the Far East (-2.3%) and Africa and the Far East (-7%). “We saw weak performance on the Europe-Far East market, which was a key contributor to the overall slowdown,” IATA said. “Some of the November result can be attributed to the strikes at Lufthansa [but] further slowdown in the Chinese economy has raised concerns that the weakness in Asia is causing the broader decline in international passenger numbers over the past few months.”
