December 9th 2016

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Airlines: Aircalin has selected Rolls-Royce’s Trent 7000 and TotalCare for its two on-order A330neos. All Nippon Airways (ANA) plans to debut its A320neo on the Narita-Sendai route from February 10. Read More » A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) ATR42 carrying 48 passengers and crew crashed on Wednesday 40 miles out of Islamabad; no one is believed to have survived. Xiamen Airlines on Tuesday took delivery of the first of six on-order B787-9s. It plans to deploy the stretched Dreamliner between Fuzhou and New York from February. Unlike its three-class -8, the -9 is configured with business and economy cabins only.

Manufacturers: Airbus has said it secured 15 orders and delivered 61 aircraft in November: three A320ceo and five A321ceo from an unidentified customer, five A320ceo from Air Arabia, an A330-200 from Hawaiian Airlines and an ACJ320neo from a private customer. Airbus’ annual net orders for 2016 stood at 410 through to November 30, short of its 670 aircraft target. Boeing has unveiled its 2016 Boeing Pilot & Technician Outlook for the Asia-Pacific, which has projected the region will need 248,000 new commercial airline pilots and 268,000 new technicians to 2035. Embraer has delivered its 1,300^th aircraft, an E195 to Tianjin Airlines.

MRO: FL Technics has opened a 9,000m² MRO facility at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport for line and base maintenance on B737, A319, A320 and A321 aircraft. Lion Air, Batik Air, NAM Air, Sriwijaya Air, K-Mile Air, Kalstar Aviation, Airfast Indonesia, Trigana Air Service, Tri-MG Intra Asia Airlines and Travira Air have thus far signed up for FL’s services. Lufthansa Technik has signed a four year contract with Air India to maintain and repair the flag carrier’s B777-200/300landing gear, with the work to done at Lufthansa Technik Landing Gear Services UK.

Routes: AirAsia will increase frequency on the Kuala Lumpur-Da Nang A320 service from four-weekly to daily starting December 15. Air China will increase frequency on the Beijing-Sydney A330-300 route from five-weekly to daily commencing March 26. China Southern Airlines will increase frequency on the Guangzhou-Kota Kinabalu A320 route from daily to double daily starting December 23 and it will up frequency on the Guangzhou-Singapore A320 route from thrice- to four-daily from the same date. Cathay Pacific Airways will replace the A330-300 with the A350-900 on its daily Hong Kong-Brisbane rotation commencing March 26. Ethiopian Airlines will add a thrice-weekly Addis Ababa-Bangkok-Jakarta B787-8 service from June 2. Korean Air has commenced its five days a week Incheon-Delhi services with A330-200s. Lucky Air will add a thrice-weekly Kunming-Siem Reap B737-800 route from December 14, followed by a twice-weekly Kunming-Penang route from December 20 and a twice-weekly Kunming-Phu Quoc flight from December 22. Malindo Air has launched a weekly Kuala Lumpur-Christmas Island B737-800 charter service. Okay Airways has resumed twice-weekly Nanjing-Jeju B737-800 operations, its sole international flight. Spring Airlines will increase frequency on the Shanghai-Kota Kinabalu A320 route from four-weekly to daily beginning December 16. Thai Airways International (THAI) will replace the B777 with the B747-400 on one of its two daily Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur flights from February 1 through to February 28. Thai Smile will launch a four-weekly Suvarnabhumi-Luang Prabang A320 route from January 16. Vietnam Airlines will start a daily Ho Chi Minh-Busan A330-200 service on January 1, followed by a daily Hanoi-Busan A330-200 flight from February 1.