Short Takes
September 9th 2016
Airlines
AirAsia on Wednesday took delivery of its first A320neo, equipped with Airbus’ Space Flex Cabin seating 186 passengers. The aircraft is powered by CFM International’s LEAP-1A. AirAsia has another 403 A320neos on firm order. Read More » Austrian Airlines has painted a B777-200ER in a special “Servus Hong Kong” livery to coincide with its launch of five-weekly flights between Vienna and Hong Kong last Monday. Garuda Indonesia has selected an end-to-end suite of operations and crew technologies from the Sabre AirCentre Enterprise Operations portfolio, the U.S.-based GDS aggregator its primary airline operations technology provider. Air Astana is planning to shift to a single hub strategy, consolidating its international operations at Astana Airport, rather than continuing split operations between Astana and Almaty, CAPA has reported. Mega Maldives Air this week said it had registered an 11% drop in passenger numbers on its routes from the Maldives to China (Beijing, Chengdu, Pudong) and Hong Kong during the first half of the year.
Routes
Air India Express will add a daily Varanasi-Sharjah B737-800 flight commencing September 14, as well as a thrice-weekly Chandigarh rotation launching the following day. Air Niugini will add a third weekly B737-800 rotation on the Port Moresby-Sydney route starting November 1. Bangkok Airways plans to add a four-weekly Koh Samui-Guangzhou A319 route from December 14, followed by a thrice-weekly Koh Samui-Chongqing route launching the next day. China Eastern Airlines will add a daily Xian-Bangkok A320 route beginning September 15, and it will launch a thrice-weekly Chengdu-Manila A319 service from September 23. Ethiopian Airlines will increase frequency on the Addis Ababa-Guangzhou route from daily to eleven-weekly from October 8. Hainan Airlines will add a twice-weekly Guangzhou-Da Nang B737-800 service from September 22. Peach Aviation will launch five-weekly A320 services between Osaka and Pudong, as well as Haneda-Pudong, both effective November 1. Spring Airlines will launch a four-weekly Guangzhou-Siem Reap A320 route from September 26. THAI will increase frequency on the Bangkok-Manila B777-200ER route from ten-weekly to double daily beginning December 1, and it will increase frequency on the Bangkok-Dhaka B777-200ER route from daily to eleven-weekly starting January 1. Turkish Airlines will replace the A330-200 with the B737-800 on its daily Istanbul-Kabul rotation effective October 30. Virgin Australia has resumed thrice-weekly Sydney-Abu Dhabi operations following the return of its fifth B777-300ER from maintenance.
