Short Takes
February 24th 2017
GDS: Gulf Air has signed an order for Sabre’s AirCentre Flight Plan Manager solution to streamline the airline’s operations. Thai Lion Air has signed a content agreement with Amadeus, making its fares available for purchase through the GDS’ travel agency network. Read More »
Airlines: Asiana Airlines on Thursday announced it had installed an A350-900 full-flight simulator at its Asiana Town headquarters in Seoul. Citilink this week took delivery of the first of 35 on-order A320neos. The LCC is Indonesia’s first neo operator. Citilink parent, Garuda Indonesia, has scheduled its last B747-400 flight for April 22 on the Makassar-Jeddah route. Hawaiian Airlines has placed an order for Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines to power an additional A330 aircraft. The deal includes TotalCare support. Korean Air has taken delivery of the first of ten on-order B787-9s; it will perform Incheon-Jeju crew familiarization flights before being deployed internationally to Toronto from June. Oman Air will receive its first B787-9 next week and plans to deploy it daily between Muscat and Bangkok starting March 1. Qatar Airways will lease four A350-900s from LATAM and deploy them double daily on both Doha- Munich and Doha- Madrid from April 1 and May 1, respectively.
MRO: Etihad Airways Engineering has signed a contract with Kenya Airways to carry out mandatory checks on the African operator’s B787-8 fleet. The first of six scheduled C-checks will begin this month at its UAE facility; the final check is scheduled for October.
Routes: Air Astana will add a fifth weekly Astana-Heathrow B757 frequency from June 4. Air China will launch a thrice-weekly Shanghai-Barcelona A330-200 flight from May 5. Air Seoul will start a twice-weekly Incheon-Kumamoto A321 route commencing April 2. Emirates Airline will launch a daily two-class Dubai-Yangon-Phnom Penh B777-300ER route starting July 1, replacing Dubai-Yangon-Hanoi, which will be converted to a Dubai-Hanoi nonstop service from the same date. Etihad Airways will reduce frequency on the Abu Dhabi-Tehran A320 route from double daily to daily from April 15. Kuwait Airways will increase frequency on the Kuwait-Colombo A330-200 route from daily to ten-weekly beginning April 7. Malindo Air has added a third daily Kuala Lumpur-Dhaka B737-800 rotation. Qatar Airways will add an eighth weekly frequency on the Doha-Incheon B777-300ER route from April 29. SAUDIA has shelved plans for new A330 services from Jeddah and Riyadh to Thiruvananthapuram initially scheduled to launch in early April. Sichuan Airlines will launch a thrice-weekly Chengdu-Auckland A330-300 service from June 13. Thai AirAsia will increase frequency on the Don Mueang-Mandalay A320 route from daily to double daily starting March 18, and it will launch daily services from Utapao to both Phuket and Ubon Ratchathani from March 30. Tigerair Taiwan will launch a twice-weekly Taipei-Jeju A320 route from March 28, which will increase to four-weekly operations from June 7.
