Emirates has officially revealed major changes on the GDS to its long haul route network for the IATA Winter 09-10 season effective Oct 26th 09. The main highlights are as follows:
SFO - capacity increased from daily B 772LR to daily B 773ER. This flight will be payload restricted and thus out of 304 seats in economy, only 270 will be sold along with 42 in J and 8 in F on the DXB-SFO leg. On the return sector i.e. SFO-DXB an extra 20 seats in Y class can be sold. In total 320-340 seats can be sold which is better than the B 77L (by 54-74 seats daily) which seats 266 pax in a 3 class layout. Cargo too will face a heavy penalty with the B 773ER in both directions.
SYD - capacity increased to daily B 772LR + daily B 773ER via BKK + daily A 380 nonstop.
JFK - capacity reduced from double daily B 773ERs to daily B 772LR + daily B 773ER.
PER - capacity reduced from daily B 773ER + daily B 772LR to daily A 345 + daily B 772LR.
JNB - capacity reduced from triple daily B 773ERs to daily A 345 + double daily B 773ERs.
Sri Lankan Airlines has revealed on the GDS that it is increasing its nonstop flights to London Heathrow for the IATA Winter 09-10 season. Currently, UL flies 6 weekly nonstop flights from CMB to LHR + 4 weekly flights via MLE with full 5th freedom rights. However, these will be increased to 8 weekly nonstop flights using an A 343 for the winter season plus the 4 weekly CMB-MLE-LHR services.
Biman Bangladesh has revealed on the GDS that it is increasing frequencies on its popular London Heathrow route by adding a 5th weekly service for the IATA Winter 09-10 season. All of its 5 weekly flights will be flown via Dubai using an Airbus A 310-300. BG will fly this route nonstop once it finalizes a lease deal for used Boeing 777s which will eventually be replaced by its newly ordered half a dozen B 773ERs.
Singapore Airlines has officially announced that it will be increasing its frequencies to Manchester, England in the IATA Winter 09-10 season to cater for increasing demand bound to SE Asia and Australia during this period. SQ will be increasing flights from a 3 weekly nonstop service using a B 772ER to a 5 weekly nonstop operation using the same aircraft type. Other changes that SQ has announced for their Middle East network for the Winter season are as follows:
SIN/DXB/RUH - capacity increased from a 4 weekly B 772ER to a 4 weekly B 773A.
SIN/DXB/CAI - capacity reduced from a 4 weekly B 773A to a 4 weekly B 772A.
Lufthansa has revealed few capacity changes to its Munich hub plan for the IATA Winter 09-10 season with regards especially to its long haul network from this hub. The main highlights are as follows:
DXB - capacity increased from a daily A 343 to a daily A 346.
NRT - capacity increased from daily A 343 to daily A 346.
PEK - maintains 5 weekly nonstop A 346 service.
With regards to its Frankfurt hub, it will be suspending 1 out of 2 daily Cairo bound flights in the winter season thus making the route a daily A 346 operation out of FRA. Along with that, capacity to Lagos, Nigeria for the entire winter season is being reduced from a daily A 346 to a daily A 343.
Finnair has officially revealed that it will be increasing its flights to Tokyo from its Helsinki hub from the on set of the IATA Winter 09-10 time table. Currently, AY flies this route 4 times a week nonstop using an A 343 but these will be increased to a 5 weekly service using an A 330-300.
Turkish Airlines has officially revealed on the GDS that it is increasing capacity on its 4 weekly Istanbul-Tokyo nonstop services from the on set of the IATA Winter 09-10 season. Currently, these flights are operated using an A 340-300 but the capacity will be increased to a 4 weekly B 777-300ER operation with a first class cabin on board. TK too confirmed that once its new fleet of B 77Ws and A 330s arrive into the fleet, it will launch more new long haul destinations from 2011 onwards. This was officially confirmed by TK's CEO in Sydney today where he announced:
a) new daily flights will be launched from IST via JKT to SYD on a daily basis using a B 773ER with 5th freedom rights on the JKT-SYD-JKT sector.
b) new flights to Manila and Ho Chi Minh City will be launched from IST using A 332s.
Air Canada has confirmed on the GDS that it will be suspending its flights to Madrid, Spain for the IATA Winter 09-10 season which has been traditionally the case as this route sees more demand in the summer months. It was originally going to be a year round service with the winter flights being flown 3 times per week only with a B 763ER but that has now fizzled out. AC too confirmed that it is increasing frequencies on its Toronto-Santiago-Buenos Aires route from December onwards with the addition of a 6th weekly flight on this Latin American sector. In addition, a B 773ER will be used for all of the 6 weekly frequencies rather than a B 763ER.
Kingfisher Airlines has officially announced that it will be launching new daily nonstop flights from its Mumbai hub to Singapore and Hong Kong effective Sept 16th 09. Both routes will be served using the airline's flagship Airbus A 330-200 aircraft and the flight schedule is as follows:
IT 071 Dep BOM 2255 Arr 0805+1HKG
IT 072 Dep HKG 1405 Arr BOM 1750
IT 029 Dep BOM 2305 Arr SIN 0705+1
IT 030 Dep SIN 1015 Arr BOM 1305
Jet Airways of India has officially announced that it will be launching new daily nonstop flights from Delhi to Hong Kong from Oct 1st 09. 9W will utilize the A 332 for this new route and will compete against CX's 11 weekly flights + 4 weekly Air India nonstop operated flights. The flight schedule is as follows:
9W 072 Dep DEL 2250 Arr HKG 0705+1
9W 071 Dep HKG 1330 Arr DEL 1650
Jet Airways of India has officially confirmed that it will be increasing capacity on its daily Delhi-London Heathrow flight from the on set of the IATA Winter 09-10 season. Currently, it flies the route using an A 332 three times per week + 4 times per week using a B 773ER. However from Oct 27th, it will upgrade capacity to a daily B 773ER to cater for higher demand on this route during the winter season.
Etihad Airways has officially announced that it will be launching new 4 weekly nonstop flights to Hyderabad, India from Nov 1st 2009 using an Airbus A 320-200. EY will fly this route on MON/WED/FRI/SUN and the flight schedule allows perfect connections in both directions to JFK, YYZ, LHR, JED and ORD. In India, EY also has rights to fly to Calcutta and Jaipur.
Kuwait Airways has officially confirmed due to low yields and stringent competition, it will be suspending all its flights to Hyderabad, India from the on set of the IATA Winter 09-10 time table. Currently, KU flies to HYD 4 times per week using a mixture of AB6s and A 310-300s. According to the travel trade in India, KU is hoping to instead replace HYD with new flights to BLR (subject to bilateral modifications) as the latter doesn't have QR and EY flying there.
Thai Airways has officially confirmed that it will be launching new nonstop flights to AUH-Abu Dhabi, UAE from Oct 26th 09 onwards. TG will be flying this route nonstop from its BKK hub four times a week using one of its refurbished Airbus A 330-300s (which have the new J and Y class in-flight cabin seat product). If the route performs well, it plans on increasing it to a daily flight by mid June 2010 using an Airbus A 340-600 which has more premium class seats.
Oman Air has officially confirmed that it will be increasing capacity on its flagship Muscat-London Heathrow route from Oct 1st 09 onwards. Currently, it flies the route on a daily bass using one of its leased A 332s of India's Jet Airways. However, from Oct 1st, it will be using its very own larger Airbus A 330-300 daily which it directly ordered from Airbus and has the airline's new first, business and economy class in-flight product.
Japan Airlines has unveiled further changes to its medium and long haul network for the IATA Winter 09-10 season. The main highlights are as follows:
DEL - frequencies reduced from 4 to 3 weekly nonstop flights using a B 772ER.
LAX - capacity reduced from a daily B 744 to a daily B 773ER.
ORD - capacity reduced from a daily B 744 to a daily B 773ER.
CAN - frequencies reduced from double daily to daily.
ICN - frequencies reduced from 4 to 3 times daily.
Gulf Air has officially revealed in the GDS systems that it will be launching new 5 weekly nonstop flights to BGW-Baghdad International Airport from its BAH hub effective Sept 1st 2009. All flights will be flown using an A 320 and the timings are as follows:
GF 201 DEP BAH 0945 ARR BGW 1130
GF 200 DEP BGW 1245 ARR BAH 1425
Flights will be operated on TUE THU FRI SAT SUN only.
Good connections are available to LON especially in both directions as well to FRA and CDG on certain days of the week.
Egypt Air has officially confirmed that it has placed "an order of exchange" with Boeing last week by canceling a pending order for 2 Boeing 777-300ERs and instead replacing them with an order for 8 Boeing 737-800s. MS has done this as it wants to further develop its intra-Africa and regional Middle East network so that by the time the 5 new B 773ERs arrive into the fleet, their large capacity will provide sufficient feeder traffic to all cities within a 6 hour flying radius of Cairo.
