Malaysia Airlines Berhad group CEO, Captain Izham Ismail, said yesterday there had been an "excellent appetite for domestic travel" since the easing of restriction of movement rules that began in June, - known in Malaysia as the recovery movement control order phase. "This positive development has translated to more than a 500% increase in our flight bookings domestically. Additionally, our tour operating arm, MHholidays has shown an upward trend with holiday packages sold more than 300% from our target," Captain Ismail said. Read More »
The airline will increase flights on nine key routes – Bintulu, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Labuan, Miri and Sibu in East Malaysia as well as Johor Bharu, Langkawi and Penang in West Malaysia. The oneworld alliance member is selling fixed fares for economy class travel, starting at 179 ringgit (US$43) and increasing to 379 ringgit (US$91), across its domestic network until September 13.
Japan Airlines (JAL) carried 1,032,495 domestic passengers in August, a 9.4% decrease from 1,139,054 in July, the oneworld alliance member's preliminary monthly traffic figures showed. Capacity rose 13% month-on-month, while demand fell 11%. As a consequence, load factors were 10.2 percentage points lower month-on-month in July, at 36.4%.
JAL said international passengers carried rose 24.4% in August to 27,307, from 21,951 in July. Despite the month-on-month improvement, the August figures represented just 3.4% of the 806,389 passengers transported on JAL's international services in the same month in 2019. The passenger load factor for last month was 25.6%, compared with 24.1% in July and 83.4% in August 2019.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) said today it would operate two round-trip flights between Tokyo Narita and Honolulu in October with 787-9 equipment "in order to meet the demands of passengers for studying or working purposes". It also will resume its nonstop Tokyo Haneda-Houston service and increase frequencies to Mexico City, New York JFK, Paris and Sydney, ANA said. Nonetheless, the Star Alliance member's October international schedule represented 13% of its normal capacity, up from 12% in September.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Competition (ACCC) said yesterday it had granted interim authorisation for China Eastern Airlines (CEA) and Qantas to continue their alliance on Australia-China routes for another 18 months after the current authorisation expires at the end of October. The carriers' application to the ACCC to extend the alliance, lodged in late July, sought the removal of conditions on a base line level of capacity for certain routes and also requirements to grow capacity over time in response to COVID-19.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said yesterday it has received an application from OTT Airlines to commence domestic passenger and cargo flights from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport with Comac ARJ21-700 aircraft. The CAAC statement said OTT Airlines, which was unveiled in February and is a fully owned unit of CEA, would begin with registered capital of 1.5 billion yuan (US$220 million) and operate under its parent's MU airline code.
American Airlines has brought forward the restart of nonstop Los Angeles-Sydney flights to November 10, from the previously planned resumption of March 26, 2021, the Routesonline website reported. The four times weekly service would be operated with 777-300ERs.
AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes, told the Reuters news agency yesterday the low-cost carrier (LCC) would seek to raise up to 2.5 billion ringgit (US$600 million) to shore up its position amid the coronavirus pandemic, comprising 1.5 billion ringgit from banks and 1 billion ringgit from investors such as private equity players, strategic partners and conglomerates. "It's progressing quite well and I see no reason why that won't be met," Fernandes said.
In the same Reuters report, Fernandes said the LCC group was reviewing its AirAsia Japan affiliate. "I think Japan is something we have to really think hard about. If we had tonnes of cash, then it's something we would probably continue. I think we will have decisions on Japan very soon," the AirAsia Group co-founder said.
