Short Takes
October 14th 2016
Airlines: Air Madagascar plans to resume twice-weekly Guangzhou-Antananarivo A340-300 flights from February, but will route the flights via Reunion rather than Bangkok as it did previously. Read More » Biman Bangladesh reportedly owes $260 million in charge fees to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh. China Eastern Airlines’ Yunnan branch has received its 28th B737-800, bringing its total fleet tally to 73 aircraft. Fiji Airways has halted all flights from Suva, citing runway deficiencies. Lion Air has donated a B737-400 to Indonesia’s Air Force. SpiceJet has wet-leased a B737-800 from Turkish Corendon Airlines. SriLankan Airlines has secured four A320neos on lease from Air Lease Corporation (ALC), and another two from AerCap, with deliveries starting in early 2017. TransAsia Airways has confirmed it will part with its entire A330 wide body fleet as it prunes its network.
Information Technology: Enterprise software company, IFS, has appointed Roya Chan as its ASEAN strategic Market Development co-ordinator to strengthen the company’s position in ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) with civil aerospace customers.
MRO: Diehl Aerospace and Thales have established a joint venture, Diehl Aerospace Pte, in Singapore, to better service customers in the region.
Passenger traffic: Global passenger traffic increased 4.6% year-on-year in August, a significant slowdown from July’s 6.9% growth as total market capacity increased 5.8%, leading to average loads of 83.8%, down 0.9% from July. The Middle East had the biggest increase in traffic in August, up 9.9% year-on-year, followed by the Asia-Pacific with 7.8% more passenger boardings.
Manufacturers: Airbus has delivered its 10,000th aircraft, an A350-900, to Singapore Airlines. Airbus and Boeing booked over $11 billion in combined commercial aircraft orders in September. Boeing led the race with 55 firm orders from six customers valued at approximately $6.02 billion, while Airbus firmed orders for 41 aircraft from three customers, valued at approximately $5.11 billion. Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services on Tuesday announced the completion of C-check work on an Aeromexico B787-8, the first of three Aeromexico Dreamliners that will be maintained at the Shanghai MRO facility under a new agreement with the carrier. Bombardier’s CS300 has been awarded type validation by European regulator EASA. Sukhoi Civil Aircraft plans to offer a 120-seat variant of the Superjet (SSJ) by stretching the centre of the fuselage and using larger wings.
Routes: Cathay Pacific Airways will operate a once a week freighter service to Brisbane, Australia. Emirates Airline will launch a daily Dubai-Fort Lauderdale B777-200LR route starting December 15. Etihad Airways will increase frequency on the Abu Dhabi-Dallas B777-200LR route from thrice-weekly to daily starting February 2. From June, Finnair will increase frequency on the Helsinki-Narita route from daily to eleven-weekly, and on the Helsinki-Hong Kong route from daily to ten-weekly. All additional rotations will be operated by the A350-900. Hainan Airlines will add a thrice-weekly Haikou-Hanoi B737-800 route from October 31, and a twice-weekly Haikou-Da Nang flight B737-800 flight starting the following day. From October 30, Jet Airways will replace the B737-800 with the A330-200/-300 on the Delhi-Dammam and Mumbai-Dammam routes, although this means it will reduce overall frequency from double daily to daily operations. Additionally, Jet will launch a daily Bangalore-Singapore B737-800 service from December 14. Lucky Air will add a daily Kunming-Shantou rotation commencing October 30, as well as four-weekly Kunming-Zhuhai flight. Malindo Air will launch a four-weekly Kuala Lumpur-Phuket B737-800 route commencing November 10. Philippines AirAsia will add a daily Manila-Taipei A320 route starting November 21, and a thrice-weekly Cebu-Taipei flight effective November 25. Qatar Airways has increased overall frequency to Dubai from 105 to 107 weekly flights. Shenzhen Airlines will launch a daily Shenzhen-Kuala Lumpur B737-800 flight beginning December 8. Sichuan Airlines will add a twice-weekly Chengdu-Zhengzhou-Vancouver A330 rotation from November 11. Thai Lion Air will launch a daily Don Mueang-Guangzhou B737-800 flight on October 28. Thai Smile will add a thrice-weekly Suvarnabhumi-Jaipur A320 route on November 15, and a thrice-weekly Lucknow A320 route on December 1. Tigerair Australia will add a daily Melbourne-Canberra flight beginning December 8. T’Way will increase frequency on the Daegu-Taipei B737-800 route from thrice-weekly to daily beginning November 25. Vietnam Airlines is delaying its thrice-weekly HCMC-Chengdu A321 launch from November 1 to January 12.
