Short Takes
Shorttakes
March 17th 2017
Airlines: Air Astana has signed a long-term V2500 repair and overhaul agreement, including warranty management and spare engine coverage, with Lufthansa Technik. EAP Shared Services, part of Etihad Aviation Group, has opened a global shared services centre in Belgrade. Read More » The facility will perform contact centre and loyalty operations for Etihad Airways, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles and Etihad Regional, expanding in time to include Alitalia and Air Berlin, as well as their respective loyalty programmes. Etihad Cargo this week took delivery of an A330F, bringing its total freighter fleet to ten (5 A330Fs; 5 B777Fs). Garuda Indonesia’s Citilink budget subsidiary has received its second A320neo on lease from Avolon. Hawaiian Airlines has installed an A321neo full-flight simulator at its Honolulu headquarters. Turkish Airlines has reported a 2016 net loss of US$77 million, reversed from a net profit of US$1.7 billion in 2015. The state-controlled airline this week took delivery of the third of seven on-order A330-300s from Intrepid Aviation.
Air Seoul will add a thrice-weekly Incheon-Toyama A321 service on March 27. Beijing Capital Airlines plans to start a thrice-weekly Hangzhou-Beijing-Lisbon A330-200 route from July 6. Cathay Dragon will launch a Hong Kong-Komatsu A320 seasonal charter from April 16 to June 29. China Eastern Airlines will add a twice-weekly Xian-Okinawa A320 route starting April 3. China Southern Airlines will launch a second daily Guangzhou-London Heathrow B787-8 flight commencing June 1 and it will replace the B737-800 with the A330-200 on the daily Guangzhou-Dhaka route from March 26. IndiGo Airlines has launched a daily Delhi-Amritsar and a daily Mumbai-Amritsar A320 route. Lufthansa will replace the A330-300 with the A350-900 on the daily Delhi-Munich route from April 15. Nok Air plans to launch a daily Phuket-Beijing B737-800 route on May 1. OK Airways will launch a thrice-weekly Xian-Phuket B737-800 flight on March 28. Oman Air will launch a third daily Muscat-Hyderabad B737 service on March 26. Qatar Airways will increase frequency on the Doha-Adelaide A350 route from five-weekly to daily commencing December 2. Tianjin Airlines will reduce frequency on the Tianjin-Chongqing-Auckland A330-200 route from thrice- to twice-weekly beginning March 30. West Air will launch a daily Chongqing-Hefei-Osaka A320 and a daily Chongqing-Zhengzhou-Sapporo A320 route from April 3. Xiamen Airlines will launch the following routes: daily Fuzhou-Denpasar and daily Fuzhou-Phuket from March 26; daily Fuzhou-Kalibo and daily Xiamen-Kalibo from May 1, as well as twice-weekly Fuzhou-Cebu from April 18 and twice-weekly Quanzhou-Cebu from April 10. All routes will be operated by two-class B737-800 aircraft.
Manufacturers: Airbus Asia Training Centre (AATC) in Singapore has signed an agreement with Asiana Airlines for the use of an A380 full-flight simulator. Rolls-Royce PLC’s decision to award CEO Warren East a bonus of 916,000 pounds (US$1.1 million), although the OEM’s profit plunged 49% in 2016, has been met with public and industry criticism.
