Short Takes
November 18th 2016
Airlines: Bangladesh’s Regent Airways will acquire three B737-800s and a B777-200, according to its chairman, Yasin Ali. It currently operates two B737-700s, -800 and two Dash 8-300s. Read More » Vietnam Airlines has applied to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for a Foreign Air Carrier Permit (FACP) in anticipation of a Ho Chi Minh-Los Angeles A350 route from 2018.
GDS: Philippine Airlines (PAL) this week signed up for Sabre’s AirVision Commercial Analytics, a revenue management technology solution designed to simplify and enable consistent commercial decision making through advanced data and analytics.
Lessors: BOC Aviation this week signed lease agreements with Juneyao Airlines for five A321s with deliveries in 2017. BOC last week delivered the first of three B777-300ERs (and two A330-330s) under a purchase-and-leaseback agreement to Air China.
MRO: AAR has signed a long-term contract with Air New Zealand (Air NZ) to provide nose-to-tail, cost-per-flight-hour rotable inventory support covering 740 parts of the airline’s 15 in-service B777-200ERs/-300ERS. Reciprocally, Air NZ will become AAR’s exclusive component repair provider for the selected parts in the Asia-Pacific region and preferred supplier for selected parts worldwide.
OEMs: Boeing has signed an agreement with Taikoo (Shandong) Aircraft Engineering Co., Ltd. (STAECO) naming the facility a conversion service provider for the B737-800 Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF). The Jinan-based MRO joins Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services in providing conversion services for the program, which the Chicago-based manufacturer launched in February.
Routes: Air Carnival has added a four-weekly Coimbatore-Tirupati ATR72 service. Myanmar’s Air KBZ will launch a thrice-weekly Yangon-Chiang Mai ATR72 service commencing December 2. ANA will launch a daily Narita-Mexico City B787-8 service from February 15 and it plans to deploy its new A320neo for the first time internationally from October 29 on the Osaka-Qingdao and Narita-Pudong routes. Cambodia Angkor Air will launch a thrice-weekly Siem Reap-Beijing A320 service from December 16. China Eastern Airlines will launch a thrice-weekly Xian-Wuhan-Sydney A330-200 rotation from January 18. Eastar Jet will launch a daily Busan-Kota Kinabalu B737-800 route on December 15. Etihad Airways will terminate its daily Abu Dhabi-Sao Paulo A340-600 flight from March 26. Gulf Air will increase frequency on the Bahrain-Hyderabad A320/A321 route from daily to nine-weekly starting December 16. Hainan Airlines will replace the A330-200 with the B787-8 on the twice-weekly Haikou-Chongqing-Rome flight. Oman Air will launch a daily Muscat-Manchester A330 flight beginning May 1. Philippines AirAsia will add a four-weekly Cebu-Singapore route starting November 25. Qatar Airways will resume daily Doha-Seychelles A320 operations from December 12. Royal Jordanian will terminate its flights to Jakarta and Guangzhou in January. Singapore Airlines will gradually replace the B777-300ER with the A350-900 on services to Tokyo Haneda and Moscow Domodedowo from mid-December. SriLankan Airlines plans a four-weekly Colombo-Gan Island A320 service from January 6. India’s TruJet will launch a daily Hyderabad-Kochi ATR72 route on November 20.
