Short Takes
September 30th 2014
Alliances: Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines (SIA) have received regulatory approval to start a quasi-alliance from January 6, 2015, to boost capacity and frequencies between New Zealand and Singapore by up to 30% year-round over time. Read More » Both carriers will operate one daily flight each between Auckland and Singapore, while SIA will also fly once daily from its hub at Changi to Christchurch. Effective from November, members of SIA’s KrisFlyer and Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer will be able to convert points between both programmes.
Communications: Hawaiian Airlines will become the first passenger airline to install Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband for flight deck applications, including safety services on its B767-300ERs. Philippine Airlines will install OnAir wireless IFE on a further five A330s and six A340s.
Codeshares: The planned codesharing between Air Canada and Air India has received regulatory blessing. From October 2, Air Canada will put its ‘AC’ code on 16 Air India domestic and intra-Asian flights, while Air India is adding its ‘AI’ code to 10 of Air Canada’s long-haul services to Europe and Asia. Emirates plans to expand its codeshare operation with JetBlue from October 26 to include 36 additional U.S. domestic routes, subject to government approval.
Fleets: China Eastern Airlines has received the first of 20 new B777-300ER aircraft and will first deploy it on services to Los Angeles and New York (JFK) from November. Etihad Airways has taken delivery of the first of ten A380 superjumbo aircraft, as well as the first of 71 ordered B787-9. Both aircraft types will primarily serve fleet and route network expansion purposes. Indonesia’s TransNusa has taken delivery of its first ATR42-600 and plans to use the aircraft for its new fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) charter segment.
Inflight: Virgin Australia has unveiled a new business class suite that will be rolled out on its A330 and B777-300ER fleet over the next year. The seats will be configured 1-2-1 on both aircraft and convert to an 80in fully-flat bed.
Routes: From May 1 until October 24, Air Canada Rouge, Air Canada’s long-haul LCC arm, will launch a five-weekly B767-300ER Vancouver – Osaka service with Rouge, Rouge Plus and Premium Rouge cabins. From October 22, Asiana Airlines will serve Wenzhou twice a week using two-class Airbus A321. China Eastern Airlines has revised its schedule on the Shanghai – Honolulu route. From October 26, the carrier will serve the route four times a week onboard A330-200 aircraft. It will also open a new twice-weekly route from Changzhou to Hong Kong using A320 aircraft from September 25. Delta will maintain the B777-200ER on the Tokyo Narita – Singapore route from December 1, based on a recent schedule update. Previously the SkyTeam member planned to switch from the 777 to the B767-300ER. From October 8 to November 30, Emirates will change the operational aircraft on the Dubai – Hong Kong route from the B777-300ER to the smaller A340-300. flydubai will start services to Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar using B737-800 from October 16. Japan Airlines will replace the B767-300ER on the Haneda – Taipei (Song Shan) route with the B777-200ER from December 1. Korean LCC Jin Air has said it is looking to establish long-haul services to Europe, Australia and the Pacific Islands, and will start its first B777-200ER long-haul route from Incheon to Guam in December. Malindo Air has announced a new thrice-weekly Kuala Lumpur (Subang) – Ipoh service from October 3 using ATR72 aircraft. Philippine Airlines has announced it will no longer operate a third daily Manila – Bangkok service from December 1. Qatar Airways has announced it will deploy a second A380 on the Doha – Heathrow route from December 1. SriLankan Airlines from October 26 is upping frequency on the Colombo – Singapore route from 14 weekly to 19 weekly flights. THAI will not launch the Bangkok – Dusseldorf B747-400 service as originally planned from December. Starting October 6, Thai Lion Air will launch a daily B737-900ER Bangkok (Don Mueang) – Krabi service. LCC VietJet will service the Hanoi – Siem Reap route daily from November 1, and the Ho Chi Minh – Taipei (Taoyuan) route five-weekly from December 12. Both will be served using one-class A320 aircraft. Virgin Atlantic will replace the A330-300 with the new B787-9 on the Heathrow – Delhi route from March 29, 2015.
Strategic Decisions: China Eastern Airlines has introduced a new livery after 25 years. Garuda Indonesia has invited bids for participants in the financing of an order for 18 A320s, consisting of eight A320ceo and ten A320neo, to be delivered between 2016 and 2018. Vietnam Airlines has again identified Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) as a possible strategic partner for a 20% stake in the Vietnamese flag carrier. Xiamen Air has launched a Beijing branch company and allocated 13 aircraft on 10 routes from Beijing.
Airports: Sri Lanka’s Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport has launched the second stage of the second phase of its development that will see the airport’s capacity raised from currently six to 15 million passengers by adding an additional pier and a new terminal by early 2017. The government has revealed plans to build a new Dalian International Airport on reclaimed land off the coast of Dalian as part of a 26.5 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) development project.
Cargo: AeroLogic is introducing a weekly Frankfurt – Ashgabat – Hong Kong – Frankfurt B777F service from October 26.
Lessors: Air Lease Corporation (ALC) has announced the lease placement of two new A321s with Sichuan Airlines from first-half 2015. China’s BOC Aviation has delivered the first of six A320 aircraft to Beijing Capital Airlines, and the first of 20 A320s to TATA-SIA brainchild Vistara.
Manufacturers: Bombardier has said it is confident the CSeries is back on track for service entry in second-half 2015 for the CS100, while the CS300 will follow six months later. COMAC has said its C919 will complete final assembly by September 2015, with its maiden flight scheduled for October.
