China Southern Airlines (based out of Guangzhou) has officially announced that it has placed a US$ 2.3 billion order with Airbus for the procurement of 10 new A330-300s.
CZ has not indicated whether these units will be used to expand regional services or to replace its oldest A330-200 units. Currently, CZ has 16 A332s + 19 A333s in its operational fleet.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-airbus-idUSKBN0U60US20151223
Emirates has officially announced that it will be launching new daily nonstop flights between Dubai and Cebu, Philippines effective 30MAR16.
EK will be operating the new service using a 430 seater Boeing 777-300ER but in a triangular manner as the flight will be combined with CRK-Clarke, Manila (a route that EK suspended in 2014). The schedule is as follows:
Frequency - Daily
EK 338 Dep DXB 0255 Arr CEB 1620
EK 338 Dep CEB 1750 Arr CRK 1910
EK 338 Dep CRK 2040 Arr DXB 0125
The only GCC carrier that used to fly to CEB was Qatar Airways who operated a 3 weekly DOH-CEB service using an A332 until early 2012.
Philippine Airlines has officially announced that it will be launching new services to Doha, Qatar effective 28MAR16. Flights will be operated 5 times per week using a 368 seater A330-300 via Abu Dhabi.
The schedule calls for operations on Days 1/2/4/5/6 with an 0805am arrival / 1005am departure to/from Doha.
Turkish Airlines has announced that as a result of its gradual phase out of the aging Airbus A340-300 fleet from their own mainline operations, it will be increasing capacity on the Istanbul-Manila route effective 27MAR16.
The original plan was to operate 3 weekly B77Ws along with 3 A343s on a nonstop basis, however from the on set of the IATA S16 season, all 6 weekly flights will be flown by the 349 seater B77W thus representing an increase of 210 seats per direction per week.
Air Canada has officially announced that as a result of a liberalized bilateral accord struck between Canada and Australia last week, it shall be increasing its frequencies to Brisbane from June 2016.
Originally planned to be 3 weekly nonstop flights from YVR-Vancouver using a B788, these will now be increased to daily nonstop from the on set itself using the same aircraft type.
As a result of the above, the total number of weekly seats (one way) in IATA S16 season that AC will be deploying to Australia is 2100 (SYDYVR B77L daily) + 1757 (daily BNEYVR B788) giving a total of 3857 which means AC has the liberty to add another 2143 seats per week into the market should it be merited as the new bilateral allows 6000 per week per direction. If they decide to launch YVR-MEL on a daily basis with the B789 it means 2086 seats added hence under the 2143 balance amount remaining!
Source: http://www.ausbt.com.au/air-canada-daily-brisbane-vancouver-boeing-787-flight-from-june-2016
Delta Airlines has officially announced that it has placed a large order with Boeing for 20 used Embraer 90s (ex Air Canada birds) plus 20 additional Boeing 737-900ERs. The latter will be used to gradually replace its oldest MD88s and B757s operating on domestic + Central America services.
This order was actually placed many months ago for the same number of E90s but 40 B739ERs. It got later on cancelled as it was subject to a new union deal being reached between DL and its pilots which failed. Now with things in order, DL has possibly obtained further discounts over here especially with the 20 E90s which Boeing bought from Air Canada in exchange for the Canadian carrier ordering a truck load of B737MAXs to replace its entire A320 family fleet.
EVA Air has officially announced that it will be expanding its services to New York JFK and IAH-Houston in 2016 as the carrier looks to build on the popularity of these two flights as well as the beyond connectivity options on offer by fellow STAR member United Airlines out of IAH in particular.
JFK will be increased from daily to ten weekly nonstop flights using a B777-300ER with the additional 3 weekly flights scheduled as follows:
Days 2/4/6
BR 030 Dep TPE 0750 Arr JFK 1045
BR 029 Dep JFK 1245 Arr TPE 1615+1
IAH will be increased from the current 4 to daily nonstop services using also a B777-300ER effective 10OCT.
