Short Takes
April 1st 2016
MANUFACTURERS: Boeing said it is cutting approximately 4,000 jobs in its Commercial Airplanes unit by mid-year as part of a cost reduction campaign. Read More »
ROUTES: China Southern Airlines will launch a thrice-weekly Changsha-Chiang Mai A320 service from June 21. Etihad Airways will add a four-weekly Abu Dhabi-Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen A320 rotation commencing July 1. HK Express will add three A320 routes to Japan, including a twice-weekly Hong Kong-Ishigaki flight from June 16, a thrice-weekly service to Takamatsu effective July 6, and a four-weekly Kagoshima rotation beginning July 11. IndiGo Airlines will add a fifth daily Bengaluru-Chennai A320 rotation and a second daily Bengaluru-Guwahati flight from April 7, followed by a second daily Bengaluru-Lucknow, and a sixth daily Bengaluru-Chennai service from April 12. From the same date, it will also launch a daily Chennai-Jaipur route. Jin Air will start a daily Incheon-Saipan B737-800 service commencing June 9. Regent Airways will add a four-weekly Dhaka-Chittagong-Muscat B737-800 flight from April 7. Tigerair Taiwan will add a four-weekly Taipei-Daegu A320 route effective May 5. Turkish Airlines will replace the A330-200 with the B777-300ER on the daily Istanbul-Jakarta route starting October 31.
TRAFFIC MONITOR: According to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), the region's airlines carried 23.7 million international passengers in February, an 8.2% increase compared to the same month last year. Capacity expansion matched demand growth, with load factors for the month marginally lower at 78.2%. Cargo continued to slip, reflected in a 12.1% decline FTKs for the month. Freight load factors remained under pressure, with the average load factor registering an 8.6% decline to 56.8%, after accounting for a 1.3% expansion in capacity.
