Japan's Peach Aviation said today it planned to resume international flying on October 25 with nonstop flights to Taipei Taoyuan from Osaka and Tokyo. The LCC will operate nine weekly services to Taipei Taoyuan – three from Osaka Kansai, three from Tokyo Haneda and three from Tokyo Narita. Peach has not flown internationally since March, when it suspended all 17 of its international routes due to the coronavirus pandemic. Read More »
Air New Zealand (Air NZ) has announced its 777-300ER and 777-200ER fleet was expected to remain grounded until at least September 2021. As a consequence, four 777-300ERs and all eight 777-200ERs are to be stored long-term. Three 777-300ERs will remain in Auckland in case they are required. Air NZ chief operating officer, Carrie Hurihanganui, said the recovery of the airline's international network from COVID-19 had been slower than initially thought.
Virgin Australia (VA) is to drop flights to 10 domestic destinations as it reshapes its fleet under new ownership and also adjusts its network to subdued demand. The regional cities losing VA’s service are Albury, Cloncurry, Hervey Bay, Mildura, Port Macquarie, Tamworth and Uluru (Ayers Rock). VA planned to continue flying to 20 regional destinations Australia-wide.
United Airlines (UA) will introduce two nonstop routes between the United States and India into its network. The Star Alliance member said overnight a daily Chicago-New Delhi service would commence in December 2020 and San Francisco-Bangalore flights would take off in the northern hemisphere spring 2021 season. Both routes would be served with 787-9s, UA said in a statement.
AirAsia Group revealed yesterday it would consolidate its engineering and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) functions under a new subsidiary, Asia Digital Engineering. “This new business division provides numerous efficiencies and will leverage off our combined 19 years of experience in operating and maintaining a large fleet of more than 250 A320 and A330 family aircraft. All AirAsia engineers and MRO assets will be consolidated to provide a centralised technical support service for our fleet of aircraft, and potentially for other commercial airlines in the near future," AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes, said in a statement.
Finnair said overnight it had pared back its proposed flying schedule for October to about 70-80 flights a day, from 200 flights daily previously, due to low demand. The Helsinki-headquartered carrier will maintain long-haul flights to Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo – destinations it described as important for cargo – while service to Nanjing would continue in September and October as would cargo-only flights to Singapore. Finnair said frequencies would be reduced on "almost all" its 42 destinations in October.
Hours after announcing its cancellation due to the coronavirus pandemic yesterday, organisers of the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as the Zhuhai Airshow, have reversed course. The organisers issued a statement late last night that stated the event would go ahead as planned in November.
