British Airways

British Airways has officially confirmed that it has placed an order with Boeing last week for 10 brand new Boeing 777-300ERs + 4 options. These jets will be powered by GE engines. BA's B 773ERs will be configured in a 4 class layout like its flagship B 744 aircraft.

BA will also be reducing its flights to India this winter with cutbacks to its Chennai and Delhi bound flights. From December onwards, BA will reduce frequencies to DEL from double daily to 12 weekly flights all using a Boeing 747-400. With regards to MAA, BA will reduce MAA from Feb 09 onwards to 4 weekly using a Boeing 777-200ER for all MAA bound flights. In addition, BA has also disclosed changes to its capacity on offer for its YYZ-Toronto and SEA-Seattle bound flights in Summer 2009. The main highlights are as follows:

YYZ - no more B 744 service...capacity reduced to daily B 772ER + 10 weekly B 763ER.

SEA - 13 weekly flights flown with a B 772ER only.

Delta Airlines

Delta Airlines has announced that it will be launching new daily nonstop flights from its Atlanta hub to Mumbai effective November 1st 2008. DL will be using its new Boeing 777-200LR's for this service which can easily fly this sector in both directions with a full payload of passengers + cargo. As a result of this new service, the existing JFK-BOM nonstop flight will be terminated.

Flight timings are as follows:

DL 184 Dep ATL 1955 Arr BOM 2140
DL 185 Dep BOM 0105 Arr ATL 0930

Comments:

It seems that DL will be suspending JFK-BOM nonstop flights in favor of ATL-BOM nonstop as it can attract more feeder traffic from its bigger ATL hub than JFK can. Plus from JFK directly, there is more competition to BOM than there is from Southern USA. I wonder if there is any interest in launching JFK-BLR nonstop? It has great potential to do well due to DL's large hub presence out of JFK and can do even better if DL launches it with a same plane service from SFO i.e. daily B 772LR routed SFO-JFK-BLR-JFK-SFO.

Thai Airways

Thai Airways will be increasing frequencies to KIX-Osaka from Oct 26th from double daily to 19 times a week as a result of it re-routing its LAX flights via the airport. TG will have full 5th freedom rights on this trans-pacific route and will use the Boeing 777-200ER to fly it. Previously, a B 744 was being used when TG last flew to LAX via KIX. Therefore, TG will now fly daily B 773As + daily B 772As + 5 weekly B 772ERs to KIX from BKK.

Air France

Air France will be launching an additional daily flight to New York's JFK airport from its CDG hub due to its Sky Team partner i.e. Delta Airlines suspending services using its own B 757-200 aircraft. For this new daily flight, AF will use an A 332 four times a week and an A 343 three times a week. As a result of this, from the on set of the Winter 08-09 timetable, AF will be flying CDG-JFK-CDG five times daily nonstop using a B 772ER double daily + daily B 773ER + 10 times a week A 343 + 4 times a week A 332.

Flight timings are as follows:

AF 12 Dep CDG 1020 Arr JFK 1245
AF 17 Dep JFK 1755 Arr CDG 0725+1

In other AF related news, it is reducing its Heathrow-LAX daily nonstop flights for the winter season to 5 times a week only using a B 772ER. All flights to IKA-Tehran will be suspended effective late October due to low yield. However, to compensate for the loss of IKA, KLM will be increasing its AMS-IKA bound flights from 4 to 5 times a week using a MD 11.

Malaysia Airlines

Malaysia Airlines has announced a series of frequency reductions across its long haul network to rein in losses attributed to high fuel costs and lower than forecasted yield. The main highlights of their Fall/Winter 08-09 cutbacks are as follows:

FRA - reduced from 5 to 4 weekly flights.

CDG - reduced from daily to 5 weekly flights.

AKL - reduced from 5 to 4 weekly flights.

LHR - reduced from double daily to 12 weekly.

LAX via TPE - reduced from daily to 5 weekly flights.