Short Takes
September 30th 2016
Airlines: Cebu Pacific Air has taken delivery of the first of 16 on order high-density ATR72-600s, configured with 78 versus the more typical 68 seats. Read More » Thai Airways International (THAI) has told Orient Aviation its first A350-900 suffered a runway excursion incident on September 21 while landing at Phuket International Airport in “heavy rain and strong wind”. The aircraft remained on the ground for over 24 hours while four replacement tyres had to be flown in. Taiwan’s V Air has denied accusations of illegal employee dismissal, and said all staff would be given more than three months’ salary as severance pay, exceeding Taiwan’s one-month minimum requirement. The budget subsidiary of TransAsia Airways will cease operations on October 1 after accumulating more than $35 million in losses since it was launched in December 2014.
Airports: Dubai International Airport will add ten additional A380 gates through to end-2018, bringing the total number of superjumbo gates to 47. Home carrier Emirates Airline currently operates 83 A380s, with another 57 on firm order.
Lessors: Air Lease Corp. (ALC) has signed a long-term contract with Air Arabia for six A321neos from January 2019. BOC Aviation has ordered five shipsets of International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500s to power on-order A320ceo aircraft. China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Ltd (CALC) has entered into finance lease receivables transactions (“FLR Transaction”) with an undisclosed trust that agreed to purchase the financial lease receivables of three aircraft for $103.5 million.
Routes: Air India will launch a thrice-weekly Delhi-Madrid B787-8 route on December 1. Air New Zealand will resume bi-weekly Auckland-Ho Chi Minh B787-9 seasonal operations from June 24 through to September 23. Cebu Pacific Air will increase frequency on the Clark-Hong Kong route from daily to ten-weekly from December 16. China Eastern Airlines will launch a four-weekly Chengdu-Cebu A319 route on October 28. Jet Airways will add a daily Thiruvananthapuram-Dubai B737-800 service starting October 30, and it will replace the A330 with the B777-300ER on the Delhi-Amsterdam-Toronto route from January 14. Australia’s Jetstar has terminated its twice-weekly Gold Coast-Wuhan B787-8 service. Jin Air will replace the B737-800 with the B777-200ER on the daily Incheon-Phuket rotation from December 12 through to March 5, and it will also deploy the B777 on four of seven weekly Incheon-Okinawa flights during that period. Lion Air will launch a daily Solo-Kuala Lumpur B737-900ER rotation beginning September 30. NokScoot will increase frequency on the Don Mueang-Nanjing B777-200ER route from six-weekly to daily starting October 30. Scoot will terminate its thrice-weekly Singapore-Hong Kong B787-8 route on October 30. Singapore Airlines will launch a thrice-weekly Singapore-Jakarta-Sydney B777-200ER route from November 23. Thai AirAsia has launched a daily Hat Yai-Kuala Lumpur A320 flight.
