Sri Lankan Airlines

Sri Lankan Airlines will be shortly disclosing major changes across its entire long haul network which are effected to come into effect from the on set of the IATA Winter timetable i.e. Oct 2009. They are as follows:

FRA - all flights to be routed via Dubai with full 5th freedom rights.

NRT - all 3 weekly flights currently flown via MLE to be suspended and be replaced with flights flown via HKG using an A 343.

BKK - frequencies reduced to 4 times a week nonstop terminator flights; onward flights to HKG are cancelled.

LHR via AUH -UL 511/12 will not fly nonstop CMB-LHR but instead will fly this route 3 times a week via AUH to LHR on TUE/SAT/SUN only. UL will have 5th freedom traffic rights on the AUH-LHR-AUH sector.

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines has officially confirmed that it will be suspending its 3 weekly Dubai-Moscow flight from July 4th 09 due to economic reasons associated with the route's overall viability. As a result of this move, SQ's SIN-DXB-DXB weekly flights get reduced from 20 to 17 times per week using a mixture of B 772s and B 773s.

Korean Air

Korean Air has revealed few changes to its worldwide route network on the GDS for the IATA Winter 09-10 season in terms of capacity and frequency. The main highlights are as follows:

AKL - frequencies increase from 5 weekly to daily nonstop flights using a B 772ER.

SYD - capacity increased from a daily A 332 to a daily B 744.

BKK - frequencies increased from double daily to 17 weekly nonstop flights using a B 773A.

AMS - capacity reduced from 3 weekly B 772ERs to 3 weekly A 332s.

PRG - capacity increased from 3 weekly A 332s to 3 weekly B 772ERs.

VIE/ZRH - capacity reduced from 3 weekly B 744s to 3 weekly A 333s.

Lufthansa

Lufthansa has officially announced that it will be adjusting capacity and frequencies to Dammam and Bahrain from late September onwards by flying both routes with smaller aircraft to cater largely for the petroleum traffic. DMM will be only flown to 3 times a week nonstop using a B 738 operated by Privatair which will be extended to BAH. The city of Bahrain though will receive daily flights from FRA using a B 738 as well with 4 flown nonstop and 3 flown via DMM.

Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines has revealed on the GDS system that it will be increasing capacity on its Newark-Brussels bound flights between June and September 2009 to cater for increased premium and leisure demand during the peak holiday period on this route. Currently, it flies the route on a daily basis using a B 764ER however, from June 6th till Sept 7th it will be utilizing the Boeing 777-200ER on this route which seats 50 passengers more per flight compared to their B 764ERs.

Oman Air

Oman Air has officially confirmed that it will be launching new 3 weekly nonstop flights from its Muscat hub to Munich effective September 29th 09. WY will be using an Airbus A 330-200 for this new flight which will compliment its 4 weekly nonstop flights to Frankfurt. The flight schedule to MUC is as follows:

Days of operation - TUE/THU/SAT

WY 123 Dep MCT 1210 - Arr MUC 1710
WY 124 Dep MUC 2230 - Arr MCT 0705+1

British Airways

British Airways has officially announced that it will be launching a new North American route i.e. LAS-Las Vegas, Nevada effective Oct 25th 09. BA will be flying the route nonstop on a daily basis using a Boeing 777-200ER and its flight timings are as follows:

BA 275 Dep LHR 1530 Arr LAS 1820
BA 274 Dep LAS 2020 Arr LHR 1405+1

BA too announced that due to the on going worldwide economic turmoil, it will be grounding 8 Boeing 747-400s + 8 Boeing 757-200s for the IATA Winter 09-10 season. It has not mentioned as yet though which routes in the winter season wont see B 744 service but its expected to be largely in North America.

Emirates

Emirates has revealed on the GDS that it will be increasing capacity to LAD-Luanda, Angola from its launch on set from a 3 weekly A 332 to a 3 weekly Boeing 777-300ER due to increased demand for first and business class travel from this oil rich country. the other major change announced by EK concerns its Athens operation which will see its station's capacity reduced from daily B 773ER + daily A 332 to 4 weekly B 773ER + 10 weekly A 332.

Emirates has revealed on the GDS the following capacity and frequencies across its Indian Ocean network which will come into effect from July 2009. They are as follows :

MRU - frequencies increased to 9 weekly nonstop flights from daily.

MLE - frequencies increased from 11 times weekly to double daily.

CMB - frequencies increased from double daily to 18 times per week.

On the other hand, with regards to its planned increase of KRT-Khartoum from daily to 10 weekly nonstop flights, this plan has been shelved until the worldwide economy improves.

Garuda Indonesia

Garuda Indonesia has announced that it will be launching new 3 weekly nonstop flights to ICN-Seoul from its main CGK-Jakarta hub effective July 1st. It will fly the route using one of its leased Airbus A 330-200s. Currently, it only flies to ICN 4 times a week nonstop from DPS-Bali. With regards to its Australian network, it has announced the following:

MEL - new 3 weekly nonstop flights operated by an A 332 eff Aug 1st where as DPS-MEL would be reduced from 5 to 4 weekly flights flown by an A 333.

SYD - new 3 weekly nonstop flights operated by an A 332 eff Aug 1st where as DPS-SYD would be reduced from 5 to 4 weekly flights flown by an A 333.

Ethiopian Airlines

Ethiopian Airlines has revealed on the GDS that it will be increasing capacity on its ADD-RUH (Riyadh) route from this week onwards by using a larger Boeing 757-200 on the route twice a week along side a Boeing 737-700 which will be used once a week. With regards to its Far East Asia network, it has announced the following effective June 1st 09:

ADD/BKK/CAN - frequencies increased from 6 weekly to daily flights using a B 763ER.

ADD/BKK/HKG - frequencies increased from 3 to 5 weekly flights using a B 763ER.

KLM

KLM has revealed on the GDS system that it will be reducing flights to Cairo, Egypt flown nonstop from its AMS hub for the entire IATA Winter 09-10 season from a daily nonstop flight to a 6 weekly service using a Boeing 777-200ER. No official reason has been cited for this surprising move as CAI sees huge demand in the winter season due to climatic reasons.

Arik Air Nigeria

Arik Air of Nigeria has officially announced that it will be launching a new daily nonstop flight from its main LOS-Lagos hub to JNB-Johanesbourg in South Africa using an Airbus A 340-500. This new flight will be launched from June 2009 onwards and will be the only second airline flying this route nonstop along side South African Airways who flies this route 4 times a week nonstop using a Boeing 747-400.

Arik Air too mentioned that it hopes to launch nonstop flights from LOS to New York JFK from November 1st 2009 with an A 345 flown 3 times a week only.