21AUG edition

Cathay Pacific has officially announced that it shall be launching 2 new routes i.e. one medium haul and one long haul to further expand its global network catering to markets that are in particular seeing ever growing demand from mainland China. The new medium haul route announced is MLE-Male in the Maldives which shall be launched effective 27OCT13 operated 4 times per week nonstop using an A333. MLE over the past year has seen over 200,000 tourists arriving from mainland China alone and the market demand for this destination is also rapidly growing from South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan alike. CX's MLE announcement of MLE comes on the back of its main HKG based competitor i.e. Hong Kong Airlines also announcing that its own MLE services have been reinstated 4 times per week since July.

With regards to the new long haul route, CX announced EWR-Newark in USA which shall be flown on a daily basis nonstop using a 2 class configured Boeing 777-300ER. In turn, this will make CX service the New York area market with 5 daily flights i.e. daily EWR + daily HKG-YVR-JFK + 3 daily HKG-JFK nonstop all operated with B773ERs. CX also revealed some other long haul capacity changes to its network for the upcoming IATA W13 season of which the main highlights are as follows:

CDG - frequencies reduced from double daily to 11 weekly i.e. daily B773ER + 4 weekly A343

FRA - capacity reduced from daily B744 to daily B773ER

JNB - capacity reduced from daily B744 to 3 weekly B773ER + 4 weekly B744s

Air Canada has officially announced that it has adjusted its original order with Boeing for 37 Boeing 787-800s to be divided between both the -800 and the more popular larger -900 models. The new breakdown is 22 B789s + 15 B788s. The B789s provide the airline with the right capacity to perfectly replace its A333s on European services as well as replace the B763ER in the future on certain YVR-Asia flights. The attractive economics of this aircraft type also give the option to AC in allowing it to open new long haul routes from Canada that do not require the additional capacity of the B773ER such as Montreal-Beijing and Montreal-Casablanca in particular.   

Emirates has officially announced many changes to its IATA W13 schedule of which the main highlights are as follows:

AMS - frequencies increased from daily to double daily i.e. daily A380 + daily B772LR effective 02DEC

BKK - frequencies increased from 5 to 6 daily nonstop flights

SKT - new 4 weekly flights to be launched effective 05NOV using an A332

KBP - new daily nonstop flights using an A340-500 to be launched effective 16JAN14

BCN - effective 01FEB, capacity increased from daily B773ER to daily A380

MRU - effective 16DEC, capacity increased from double daily B773s to daily A380 + daily B773

Qatar Airways has officially revealed few capacity changes to its medium haul route network of which the main highlights are as follows:

NBO - frequencies increased from double daily to 18 weekly nonstop flights all operated with an A320 effective 01SEP13

DME - frequencies increased from 10 to 12 weekly nonstop flights using a mixture of A320s and A321s

JKT - frequencies increased from 11 weekly to double daily nonstop flights i.e. daily B773ER + 3 weekly A330s

Malaysia Airlines has officially announced that it will be increasing its presence in Austral-Asia during the upcoming IATA W13 season as the carrier looks to take advantage of the growing O&D + transfer traffic demand from these markets and focus its expansion primarily within a 7-8 hour flying radius of its main KUL hub. The main highlights are as follows:

JED - frequencies increased from 5 weekly to double daily nonstop flights effective 28JAN14 using a B772ER for all flights

MEL - frequencies increased from double daily to triple daily effective 21NOV i.e. double daily A333 + daily B772ER

BLR - frequencies increased from 10 to 11 weekly nonstop flights using a B738

DEL - frequencies increased from 12 weekly to double daily i.e. daily A333 + daily B738

AKL - frequencies increased from 6 weekly to daily nonstop flights using a B772ER

COK - new daily nonstop flights to be launched effective 27OCT13 using a B738

Turkish Airlines has officially announced that it will be launching new nonstop flights to BOS-Boston, USA effective 12MAY14. Flights shall be operated on a daily basis from IST using an A330-200 offering excellent connections in both directions to Middle East, Africa and Indian Subcontinent. TK will henceforth become the first airline from the Middle East region to operate into BOS. In addition to BOS, TK too revealed that it will be launching 2 new African destinations from 12DEC13 onwards i.e. Kano-Nigeria and N'Djamena which will be operated 4 times per week using a B737-800 in a triangular routing manner.

With regards to its fleet, TK confirmed that it has placed an order for 3 additional A333s + 5 additional B773ERs as the carrier is betting heavily for its long haul route network to grow rapidly over the next three years. Some of the A333s by 2015 will be replacing the A321s on selected flights to mainland European airports which have slot restrictions.

United Airlines has revealed that due to lower demand stemming from the U.S. forces pull out from Iraq in particular, it has seen reduced demand for its services to Kuwait and Bahrain in particular and as a result has decided to reduce its presence in these two markets from September onwards. Currently, UAL operates a daily IAD-KWI-BAH service using a B772ER. These shall be reduced to 4 times per week only using the same aircraft type.

Egypt Air has disclosed that it will be launching new services to CGK-Jakarta, Indonesia effective 02DEC13 as the carrier looks to take advantage of its CAI geographical hub location to tap into the growing Indonesia-Saudi Arabia and Europe bound market segments. GA revealed that the new flights shall be operated 4 times per week via Kuala Lumpur using an A330-200 and as a result of which the daily CAI-BKK-KUL service using an A333 shall terminate in BKK itself. Other changes for the W13 season revealed by MS are as follows:

BOM - frequencies increased from 4 to 5 weekly nonstop flights using a B738 (this is one of the world's longest B737 operated flights nonstop)

YYZ - frequencies reduced from 4 to 3 weekly nonstop flights using a B773ER

08JUL edition

Air India has officially announced that it will be launching new daily services to Australia effective 29AUG13 from its Delhi hub. Flights shall be routed as 3 weekly DEL-MEL-SYD-DEL + 4 weekly DEL-SYD-MEL-DEL all operated with a 256 seater Boeing 787-800. The triangular services are operated to ensure a daily presence exists in both key market segments and for each to have a minimum 3 weekly nonstop service to India in either direction. All flights depart DEL at 1300 and arrive back the next day at 1800 local time.


Alitalia officially announced that it will be embarking on a new long term corporate plan designed to help it achieve an "operating profit in 2014" and a "net profit from 2016" onwards as the carrier looks at identifying ways to help it achieve these set goals.

Details of the new plan can be read here:

http://corporate.alitalia.com/en/media/press-releases/03-07-2013.html

Analysis:

With regards to the new long haul markets identified, their demand levels over the past year (stats from MarketIS and Shepherd System) were as follows:

VCE/NRT - 33,000

MXP/AUH - 32,000; this is obviously a partnership arrangement with Etihad similar to their FCO-AUH deal
MXP/PVG - 125,000
MXP/KIX - 24,000

FCO/ICN - 120,000; Sky Team hub to hub service should do well. What will happen here is that KE operates 3 weekly B744s on this route, so one would expect AZ to operate the remaining 4 days a week using a B777 !

FCO/NBO - 15,000
FCO/SFO - 53,000
FCO/JNB - 31,000
FCO/SCL (Santiago) - 21,000

Now as one can see from the above market size levels, there are 2 routes that are no brainers i.e. PVG-MXP + ICN-FCO and one which is good to provide feeder traffic at low cost beyond another airline's hub i.e. MXP-AUH which EY/9W will code share on and then they will feed it with GCC, ISC and SE Asia pax.

However, the choices which are not commercially justifiable include JNB, SCL and NBO for the following reasons:

1. JNB is not a Sky Team hub and low yielding for VFR traffic as the premium market demand between South Africa and Italy is marginal. The market size demand level is not high enough to even warrant a 3 weekly A332 nonstop service. It is best code sharing via CDG/AMS on AF/KL to South Africa. In addition, FCO-JNB is a long haul flight averaging 10 hours in flying time + in order to ensure good connections via FCO in both directions to Europe, the aircraft would also have a long ground time at JNB airport thus the aircraft utilization mixed with the low yield market characteristics of this route does not make it viable.

2. NBO maybe a Sky Team focus airport which can in turn result in KQ feeding it with pax bound to Central/East/South Africa via its hub but if an airline such as KQ could not itself make FCO work on its own over the past few years coupled with the fact that the O&D demand between Italy and Kenya is very low + what is even lower yielding would be the 6th freedom transfer traffic between EU/UK/USA and NBO. Another issue with FCO-NBO is that since its a 7 hour flight, it cannot be operated with AZ's A320/A321 fleet in order to reduce costs hence only an A332 needs to be utilized and unfortunately both these aircraft are too big to service this route and too expensive to justify a daily or even 4 weekly service !

3. SCL is a One World hub airport and not Sky Team. The flying time from FCO would be approximately 11:45 hours to service a market segment of 21,000 pax? In addition, transfer traffic volume potential via FCO to Eastern/Central Europe is also not that high. Once again, the return on investment on utilizing an expensive B777 on this sector is not commercially justifiable.

Instead, to replace these 3 above mentioned routes, AZ should seriously think about the following:

a) FCO/PEK - market size 101,000 + another 80,000 bound to other parts of Italy + huge feeder traffic potential available via FCO to Europe and North Africa. Good mix of high yielding business class and leisure/VFR traffic to be obtained here. Currently, only Air China operates this route nonstop on a daily basis using an A332 with a flying time of 10 hours 15 minutes which means for AZ a daily A 332 is perfectly well suited too. In case anyone is wondering why CAN-FCO is not being advocated in spite of it being a Sky Team hub of CZ, its due to the O&D market size between FCO and CAN being only 9,000 pax over the past year !

b) MXP/HKG - this market segment is very high yielding and has exploded in terms of demand levels since Cathay Pacific launched its services here 2 years ago. Market size is 102,000 and the O&D yield here is 35% higher than FCO/HKG ! Kindly note that before CX launched daily MXP-HKG services using a B77W, the annual market size demand on this route was only 36,000 pax which means over the past 2 years, it has grown by over 200% primarily due to CX creating this market stimulation ! For MXP-HKG, I would propose a daily B777-200ER operated service as it has a larger J class cabin (30 vs 20 on A332) and can carry more cargo in the belly. In addition to the O&D demand, it can carry transfer traffic via code share or on its own operated service to Europe out of MXP.

c) FCO/HND - the current demand between Tokyo and Rome alone is 190,000 passengers with only AZ operating a daily nonstop service using a B772ER. Along with this they also operate a daily MXP-NRT service using the same aircraft type and the annual demand for this route is 108,000 passengers. One option that should be considered by AZ here to increase their dominant monopolistic position is to launch a new daily service to HND with the B777. Currently, AZ's flights from Japan arrive into both MXP and FCO at 1800-1900 which limits the number of onward connections via their hubs to Europe + for some the arrival time early evening might be un-attractive. The yields of both FCO-NRT and MXP-NRT are identical and in order to offer another flexible schedule option + provide feed from Japan for its EU bound flights, AZ needs to consider the below mentioned schedule:

AZ XXX Dep FCO 2300 Arr HND 1810
AZ XXX Dep HND 0030 Arr FCO 0615


Emirates has officially announced that it shall be launching a new long haul route to West Africa namely to the city of Conakry (CKY) in Guinea effective 28OCT13. Flights shall be operated 4 times per week with a tag on to DKR-Dakar, Senegal using an A340-300. The routing will be triangular service i.e. DXB-CKY-DKR-DXB as EK looks at ways to help boost its current DKR operations. In other news, EK too revealed some further capacity changes to its long haul network for the upcoming IATA W13 season of which the main highlights are as follows:

WAW - capacity increased from daily A332 to daily B773

VIE - capacity increased to 13 weekly B773s from daily A345 + daily B773

KUL - capacity increased to triple daily B773s + daily A380


United Airlines has officially announced that it has placed a further order with Boeing for 5 additional B787 models as the carrier looks to rapidly accelerate getting these aircraft into its fleet to replace its aging B767s and early bird B772As to realize the mega operational cost saving benefits that the B787 brings to the table. In total, UA's 65 B787 order is henceforth split as being 21 B787-800s + 24 B787-900s and 20 B787-100Xs.


Air China has announced capacity reduction changes for its Germany bound flights for the upcoming IATA W13 season where demand levels tend to be light. On its core PEK-FRA route, frequencies reduced from double daily to 11 weekly flights all operated with B773s where as PVG-FRA gets reduced from daily to 6 weekly nonstop using an A332.  


Malaysia Airlines has revealed that it will be launching 2 new medium haul routes to expand its regional network offering less risk and higher yields versus experimenting with new routes to Europe or Africa. MH confirmed that the cities of Kochi in India + Darwin in Australia will be inaugurated effective 27OCT13 flown nonstop from its KUL hub along with frequencies to AKL (Auckland) being increased in the following manner:

COK - new daily nonstop flights using a B738

DRW - new 5 weekly nonstop flights using a B738

AKL - frequencies increased from 6 weekly to daily nonstop using a B772ER


Eva Air of Taiwan has officially announced its long term fleet plan that will see the carrier through to 2025 across its regional and long haul route network. The main highlights are as follows:

i. Regional narrow body network will be exclusively operated by Airbus A321-200s of which an additional 10 shall be ordered bringing the total expected A321 fleet size to 14 aircraft

ii. Eleven A332s + three A333s to be replaced exclusively by the Boeing 787-100X of which an order shall be placed in due course. The B787-100X will also be used on long haul flights to Europe, Australia and North America along side high density regional services to the ASEAN region.

iii. Size of freighter fleet to be reduced i.e. 9 B744Fs + 6 MD11Fs to be all replaced eventually by only 11 B777-200LR freighters!

iv. Long haul and high demand regional routes to be exclusively operated by the Boeing 777-300ER of which an additional 9 units shall be ordered to the 15 already in service. Airline is showing keen interest in Boeing's 777-900X program for growth in the next decade.

Source: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2013/06/19/2003565118


Korean Air has officially revealed few changes to its long haul route network for the IATA W13 season of which the main highlights are as follows:

CDG - capacity reduced from daily B744 to daily B773ER

SVO - frequencies increased from 4 to 5 weekly nonstop using a B772ER

MXP/FCO - capacity reduced from 3 weekly B744s to 3 weekly B772ERs
HKT - capacity increased to daily B744 nonstop service


Philippine Airlines has finally officially released information regarding its highly anticipated launch of new nonstop flights to DXB-Dubai, UAE from its Manila hub. Services will be launched effective 01OCT13 using an all economy class configured A333 operated daily with a 1815 arrival time into DXB and a departure at 1945. As a result of this, planned services to Doha are for the time being pushed back to be launched in IATA Summer 2014 season.


British Airways has revealed few capacity changes to its long haul route network for the upcoming IATA W13 season of which the main highlights are as follows:

BOM - capacity increased to double daily B744s
PEK - frequencies increased from 6 weekly B744s to daily nonstop using a B772ER
ORD - capacity increased from double daily B772ERs to daily B744 + daily B772ER

FNA/ROB - frequencies increased from 3 to 4 weekly flights using a B763ER

PVG - frequencies increased from 6 weekly B772ERs to daily nonstop i.e. 2 weekly B773ERs + 5 weekly B772ERs

new Alitalia corporate strategy review

Alitalia today officially announced that it will be embarking on a new long term corporate plan designed to help it achieve an "operating profit in 2014" and a "net profit from 2016" onwards as the carrier looks at identifying ways to help it achieve these set goals. 

Details of the new plan can be read here:

http://corporate.alitalia.com/en/media/press-releases/03-07-2013.html

Analysis:

With regards to the new long haul markets identified, their demand levels over the past year were as follows:

VCE/NRT - 33,000

MXP/AUH - 32,000...this is obviously a partnership arrangement with Etihad similar to their FCO-AUH deal
MXP/PVG - 125,000
MXP/KIX - 24,000

FCO/ICN - 120,000...Sky Team hub to hub service should do well. What will happen here is that KE operates 3 weekly B744s on this route, so I expect AZ to operate the remaining 4 days a week using a B777 !


FCO/NBO - 15,000
FCO/SFO - 53,000
FCO/JNB - 31,000
FCO/SCL - 21,000


Now as one can see from the above market size levels, there are 2 routes that are no brainers i.e. PVG-MXP + ICN-FCO and one which is good to provide feeder traffic at low cost beyond another airline's hub i.e. MXP-AUH which EY/9W will code share on and then they will feed it with GCC, ISC and SE Asia pax.

However the choices which I dont agree with at all are JNB, SCL and NBO for the following reasons:

1. JNB is not a Sky Team hub and exceptionally low yielding. The market size demand level is not high enough to even warrant a 3 weekly A332 nonstop service. It is best code sharing via CDG on AF to South Africa. Plus FCO-JNB is a long haul flight averaging 10 hours in flying time + in order to ensure good connections via FCO in both directions to Europe, the aircraft would also have a long ground time at JNB airport thus the aircraft utilization mixed with the low yield market characteristics of this route does not make it viable.

2. NBO maybe a Sky Team hub which can in turn result in KQ feeding it with pax bound to Central/East/South Africa via its hub but if an airline such as KQ could not itself make FCO work on its own over the past few years coupled with the fact that the O&D demand between Italy and Kenya is very low + what is even lower would be the 6th freedom transfer traffic between EU/UK/USA and NBO. Another issue with FCO-NBO is that since its a 7 hour flight, it cannot be operated with AZ's A320/A321 fleet in order to reduce costs hence only a B767 or an A332 needs to be utilized and unfortunately both these aircraft are too big to service this route and too expensive to justify a daily or even 4 weekly service !

3. SCL is a One World hub and not Sky Team. The flying time from FCO would be approximately 11:45 hours to service a market segment of 21,000 pax? In addition, transfer traffic volume potential via FCO to Eastern/Central Europe is also not that high. Once again, the return on investment on utilizing an expensive B777 on this sector is unjustified.

Instead, if I was in charge here, to replace these 3 above mentioned routes, I would launch the following for AZ:

a) FCO/PEK - market size 101,000 + another 80,000 bound to other parts of Italy + huge feeder traffic potential available via FCO to Europe and North Africa. Good mix of high yielding business class and leisure/VFR traffic to be obtained here. Currently, only Air China operates this route nonstop on a daily basis using an A332 with a flying time of 10 hours 15 minutes which means for AZ a daily A 332 is perfectly well suited too. In case anyone is wondering why I'm not advocating CAN-FCO as its a Sky Team hub of CZ, its due to the O&D market size between FCO and CAN being only 9,000 pax over the past year !

b) MXP/HKG - this market segment is very high yielding and has exploded in terms of demand levels since Cathay Pacific launched its services here 2 years ago. Market size is 102,000 and the O&D yield here is 35% higher than FCO/HKG ! Kindly note that before CX launched daily MXP-HKG services using a B77W, the annual market size demand on this route was only 38,000 pax which means over the past 2 years, it has grown by over 200% primarily due to CX creating this market stimulation ! For MXP-HKG, I would propose a daily B777-200ER operated service as it has a larger J class cabin (30 vs 20 on A332) and can carry more cargo in the belly. In addition to the O&D demand, it can carry transfer traffic via code share or on its own operated service to Europe out of MXP.

c) FCO/HND - the current demand between Tokyo and Rome alone is 190,000 passengers with only AZ operating a daily nonstop service using a B772ER. Along with this they also operate a daily MXP-NRT service using the same aircraft type and the annual demand for this route is 108,000 passengers. One option that should be considered by AZ here to increase their dominant monopolistic position is to launch a new daily service to HND with the B777. Currently, AZ's flights from Japan arrive into both MXP and FCO at 1800-1900 which limits the number of onward connections via their hubs to Europe + for some the arrival time early evening might be un-attractive. The yields of both FCO-NRT and MXP-NRT are identical and in order to offer another flexible schedule option + provide feed from Japan for its EU bound flights, AZ needs to consider the below mentioned schedule:

AZ XXX Dep FCO 2300 Arr HND 1810
AZ XXX Dep HND 0030 Arr FCO 0615

Now with regards to the 6 additional aircraft, if my 3 route recommendations were taken into account, it would have to be B772ERs only but from the original AZ plan it looks like it would be possibly an equal split of 3 A332s + 3 B777s !

26JUN edition

SAS of Scandinavia has officially announced that as part of its fleet rationalization and long term cost cutting exercise, it has placed an order with Airbus for 8 A350-900s (plus 6 options) + four additional A333IGWs as the carrier looks to gradually retire its A340-300s as soon as possible. Currently, SK has in its fleet 7 A343s + 4 A333s for its long haul flights to Asia and North America. The A359s will be delivered from 2018 onwards where as the additional A333s from 2015. According to information available, SK's A359s will seat 308 pax in a 3 class configuration i.e. 36 business + 32 premium economy + 240 economy class.

Comments:

It is expected in the future that the 6 options on the A359s shall be firmed up so that SK's wide body fleet will be further standardized to revolve entirely around the A359 exclusively which is a sensible option no doubt !


Jet Airways of India has filed for slots with Amsterdam airport authorities requesting permission to launch double daily flights from India into the airport from the on set of the IATA W13 season. In effect, this means the end of 9W's Brussels scissors hub as well as possible total suspension of the destination itself. According to AMS slot filing documents, 9W has requested for a daily DEL-AMS-YYZ using an A333 + a daily nonstop terminator BOM-AMS flight using an A333 as well. The schedules are as follows:

9W 224 Dep DEL 0540 Arr AMS 0940 // 9W 224 Dep AMS 1210 Arr YYZ 1420
9W 223 Dep YYZ 2025 Arr AMS 0940+1 // 9W 223 Dep AMS 1210 Arr DEL 0025+1

9W 231 Dep BOM 0420 Arr AMS 0940
9W 232 Dep AMS 1210 Arr BOM 0145+1

With regards to 9W's EWR service, that is expected to be re-routed as Mumbai-Abu Dhabi-Newark using a B777-300ER in code share with Etihad.

Comments:

There has been an enormous amount of investment put into BRU both as a hub and destination by 9W over the past 6 years. It would be an absolute waste if they decided to suspend operations in its entirety as over the past year the BRU-India market size was over 140,000 pax with nearly 50,000 bound to BOM alone! 9W should seriously look at maintaining at least a daily BOM-BRU flight using an A332 as there is fair enough premium traffic on this sector + via its BOM hub it can easily connect to other points in India + SE Asia.

If 9W does indeed suspend all of its BRU flights, this provides a mega opportunity for both EY and QR to grab the left over traffic + gives an excellent chance for Emirates to seriously consider launching its own DXB-BRU services using a B777. With regards to EY, its current 8 weekly BRU flights could easily be increased to 12 and via AUH it can connect the whole of India with its partner 9W. As far as QR is concerned, it should look at initially making its Flt # 193/194 a daily service hence in turn making BRU-DOH increase from the current daily to a 10 weekly operation from W13 season. The reason why QR 193/194 should be increased is because this flight number rotation offers the most connections via DOH in both directions to QR's network versus QR 195/196.


EVA Air's CEO has officially revealed the carrier's 5 year fleet and long haul route network expansion plan as it enters the Star Alliance membership club. As far as the fleet plan is concerned, it will be as follows:

i. A total of 35 Boeing 777-300ERs the carrier envisions having by the end of the decade. Currently it has 15 in service + 7 more on order hence a further order for 13 aircraft is to be made which will be mix of 10 Boeing 777-200LR freighters (replacing B744Fs) + 3 B773ERs.

ii. Regional high density and medium density long haul flights to be exclusively operated with Boeing 787-100Xs. The B781s will replace 11 A332s + 3 A333s once delivered.

iii. Narrow bodied fleet to revolve exclusively around the 14 A321-200s it has on order. 
 
With regards to route expansion plans, BR will be adding Houston and Chicago in 2014-15 with nonstop service out of Taipei using a B7777-300ER. Frequencies to LAX and SFO are also planned to be increased as both are major STAR hubs of fellow partner UNITED. New services to ORD and IAH shall be operated by BR in code share with UA too.


The 2013 Paris Air Show concluded last week with major orders placed for both Boeing, Embraer, Bombardier and Airbus aircraft by the following airlines + leasing companies:

Qatar Airways ordered 2 firm + 7 options for the B777-300ERs
United Airlines ordered 20 B787-100Xs + 35 A350-1000Xs
Air France/KLM ordered 25 A350-900s
Sri Lankan Airlines ordered 4 A350-900s + 6 A330-300IGWs
ILFC ordered 50 A320NEOs
Doric Air Leasing ordered 20 A380s
Easyjet ordered 135 A320NEOs
Korean Air ordered 5 B747-800s + 6 B777-300ERs
GECAS (leasing firm) ordered 10 B787-100Xs
Air Lease Corp ordered 3 B787-900s + 30 B787-100Xs
Ryanair ordered 175 B737-800NGs
British Airways ordered 12 Boeing 787-100Xs
Singapore Airlines ordered 30 Boeing 787-100Xs + 50 Airbus A350-900s
Arik Air ordered 4 Bombardier Dash 8Q400s + 3 CRJ1000s


Malaysia Airlines has officially announced that it will be relaunching its services to DXB-Dubai, UAE effective 05AUG13 as the carrier embarks upon a sustained expansion plan in line with its positive operating performance over the past year. Flights to DXB will be operated on a daily nonstop basis from its KUL hub using a B777-200ER with the below mentioned timings:

MH 162 Dep KUL 2330 Arr DXB 0220+1
MH 163 Dep DXB 0410 Arr KUL 1525

Comments:

From the above mentioned schedule, connections via KUL in both directions are easily available to SIN, MNL and Indonesia mainly. However to Australia, the connection from Dubai involved a cumbersome long transit in KUL but its very good on the way back though !


Air India has officially announced that it will be launching new services to BHX-Birmingham, UK effective 01AUG13 as the carrier looks to utilize its fleet of Boeing 787-800s to expand on medium density long haul routes in a cost effective manner. Flights will be flown nonstop 4 times per week out of its DEL hub catering to the huge Sikh/Punjabi community residing in the UK Midlands region. All services will be operated using a 256 seater B788 configured to accommodate 18 in business + 238 in economy class. The flight schedule is as follows:

Days: 1/2/4/6

AI 113 Dep DEL 1330 Arr BHX 1800
AI 112 Dep BHX 2130 Arr DEL 1005+1


Qatar Airways has revealed that it has been awarded additional bilateral rights by the Egyptian Govt to increase its services to the capital Cairo effective 01JUL13. Currently, QR operates 16 times per week nonstop from its Doha hub to Cairo. These shall be increased to triple daily nonstop using an A330 double daily + an A321 daily effective 01JUL13. Recently, Etihad too announced that it won permission from the Egypt authorities as well to increase their own AUH-CAI services from double to triple daily which they already are now operating. In other QR related news, the carrier also announced that it will be significantly increasing its capacity to Manila for the entire IATA W13 season in the following manner:

CRK - capacity increased from daily A332 to daily A333

MNL - capacity increased from daily A332 + daily B773ER to double daily B773ER

Comments:

FYI, the B773ER used by QR on MNL is the high density version seating 380 passengers i.e. 24J + 356Y therefore in total with this upgrade in W13, the added weekly capacity in terms of round trip seats is 2,338.


Gulf Air has officially announced that it has secured additional bilateral flying rights into JED-Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as the carrier looks to slowly expand on higher yielding regional routes using its fleet of 20 A320s. The new third daily service will be operated effective 09JUL13 using an A320 departing BAH at 0035 and arriving back by 0700.


Airblue of Pakistan has officially announced that it will be significantly expanding its services to Saudi Arabia effective 10JUL13 as the carrier looks to expand its presence on the high volume and high yielding PAK-KSA marketplace. PA will operate a 327 seater A343 four times per week from Lahore nonstop to JED plus 3 times per week nonstop from Karachi to Jeddah thereby giving it a daily presence on the PAK-JED sector.


Etihad Airways has officially announced that due to surging demand for its Kuala Lumpur bound service from AUH, it will be increasing services on this sector effective 15JUL13 by adding a second daily nonstop flight using an A332. The A332 used for this new service is leased from India's Jet Airways. The flight schedule for the new service enables EY to offer good connections in both directions to its European network which currently only connects nicely in one direction. The timings are as follows:

EY 416 Dep AUH 1105 Arr KUL 2240
EY 413 Dep KUL 0325 Arr AUH 0630


Fly Dubai has officially announced a major change of its business model as the carrier unveiled that it will install a proper business class cabin on board all of its Boeing 737-800s from the on set of the IATA W13 season. The new configuration will go from 189 seats in an all economy configuration to have 12 in business class + 138 in economy. The business class seat pitch shall be 42 inches offering 7 inches of recline and 21 inches of width.

For more information on this, click here http://www.flydubai.com/en/business/?utm_source=flydubai.com&utm_medium=fz_banner&utm_campaign=201306_flydubai_BusinessClass_Seat&utm_content=BusinessClass_Seat_fz_homepage_banner_eng

 
Philippine Airlines has further revealed that its newly announced services to both Doha and Abu Dhabi will see a capacity uplift from the start. Originally all flights were to be operated using an A343 seating 260 passengers but now all 6 weekly Doha + 5 weekly Abu Dhabi services will be flown using a 414 seater A330-300IGW similar to how its KSA bound flights are also planned.

12JUN edition

Emirates has officially announced major changes to its medium and long haul route network for the upcoming IATA W13 season of which the main highlights are as follows:

LAX - capacity increased from daily B773ER to daily A380 effective 01DEC

DAR - capacity reduced from daily B773ER to daily A332

MAD - capacity reduced from daily B773ER to daily B772LR

ZRH - capacity increased from double daily B773ER to daily A380 + daily B773ER

CMB - frequencies increased from double daily to 17 weekly with all flights operated with a 434 seater B773ER

Air France has officially announced that it will be expanding its services to New York's JFK services from the on set of the upcoming IATA W13 season as the carrier looks to further increase its market share in the face of increasing competition from its rivals. Originally, AF was operating 4 daily (28 weekly) services into JFK, these will be increased to 32 weekly with additional 4 flights operated by an A332 departing JFK at 1740. Therefore in W13, the CDG-JFK will see a daily A380 + double daily B772ER + 11 weekly A332. Apart from JFK, AF also is increasing capacity in a major manner on its popular ABJ-Abidjan, Ivory Coast route from Paris-CDG from the IATA W13 season as well. Currently, AF operates 10 times per week to ABV using a daily B773ER + 3 weekly A343. The latter gets upgraded to 3 weekly B772ERs in turn. Lastly, concerning ABJ, many media outlets in Europe and Africa are reporting that ABJ shall also be the first African route to receive daily scheduled Airbus A380 operated flights by the French national carrier effective Sept 2014.


Philippine Airlines has officially revealed further information on its planned expansion into Saudi Arabia which shall take place effective 01DEC 2013. To begin with, all flights shall be operated with an all economy class configured Airbus A330-300 seating 414 passengers.

The breakdown of the operation is as follows:

DMM - 3 weekly nonstop flights on Days 1/3/5

RUH - 6 weekly nonstop flights on all days except SAT

JED - 4 weekly nonstop flights on Days 1/3/5/7

Above mentioned routes are available for sale across all major GDS booking systems.

Comments:

The DMM-MNL market segment has almost double the demand compared to JED-MNL plus DMM-MNL is higher yielding as well therefore since there is enough lead in time for PAL to change their schedule around, it should seriously consider making DMM 4 weekly and reducing JED to 3 weekly as this will benefit them far more than their original plan.


Virgin Atlantic has officially announced that due to on going cost cutting measures in place, it shall be suspending all its services to ACC-Accra, Ghana effective 23SEP13. Currently, VS operates 5 times per week to ACC using an A343 and has a one third market share on this high volume market segment. Its main competitor, BA operates a daily B772ER on this route.

Comments:

The one stop carriers such as IB, KL, TAP etc must be overjoyed with this move as they will get a huge chunk of the spill over traffic as BA's current ACC flights average 80% S/F and they cannot accommodate all the VS pax in the future.


Oman Air has officially announced that it has placed an order with Boeing for 5 additional new aircraft comprising of the largest member of the B737NG family i.e. the Boeing 737-900ER. WY plans to utilize the extra 20% capacity that these aircraft offer versus its B738s on its high volume Indian subcontinent and Jeddah routes in particular. The B739ER with a full payload has the capability to operate Muscat-Chittagong nonstop without any restrictions.


Qatar Airways has announced many changes to its Boeing 787 operational schedule as now that the lithium battery issue is passe, the airline can fully utilize its existing fleet of 5 aircraft and is expected to take delivery of a few more by the year end. The main highlights are as follows:

MUC - all double daily flights to be operated by a B788.

CPH - all daily flights to be operated by a B788

ARN - all daily flights to be operated by a B788

ZRH - all daily flights to be operated by a B788

OSL - all daily flights to be operated by a B788

LHR - one out of 5 daily flights to be operated by a B788 i.e QR 007/008 (dep DOH 0625 and dep LHR 1505)

In addition, QR too confirmed that it will be launching a new freighter service to ORD-Chicago effective 03JUL13. The routing will be Doha-Milan-Chicago and operated twice a week using a 101 ton Boeing 777-200LR freighter. According to the airline, it has 5th freedom traffic rights on the MXP-ORD-MXP sector which saw in 2012 a total of 16,500 tons of air freight carried between it on all airlines.


South African Airways has officially announced that it is accepting proposals from both Boeing and Airbus for an order for 30 wide bodied aircraft valued at US$ 7 billion as the carrier is extremely unhappy with the performance economics as well as its high leasing costs of its fleet of 9 Airbus A340-600s and 8 Airbus A 340-300s. The carrier last year had indicated that the Airbus A350 would be the perfect aircraft family to replace its A340s as it took into account the various payload restrictions that its primary JNB hub airport has due to elevation issues. The issue that SAA has with the A350 from a commercial stand point that it will not be delivered to them till the latter part of the decade and would prefer a twin engined replacement aircraft as soon as possible in order to save on operational costs.


Etihad Airways has officially revealed many capacity and frequencies increases for its medium haul route network for the current S13 season of which the main highlights are as follows:

BOM - capacity increased from daily A320 to daily A332

CAI - frequencies increased from 18 weekly to triple daily A320s

MSQ - frequencies increased from 3 weekly to daily nonstop flights using an A320

GRU - frequencies reduced from daily A346 to 3 weekly A345s

DME - capacity increased from daily A320 to daily A332 (operated as a daily same plane service to BOM)

ISB - frequencies increased from daily to 9 weekly

MCT - frequencies increased from 20 to 23 weekly

AMM - frequencies increased from double daily to 18 weekly


RAM (Royal Air Maroc) has officially announced that it will be launching a new long haul route i.e. GRU-Sao Paulo, Brazil effective 16DEC13 as the carrier looks to expand into emerging markets that can help feed its EU and Northwest African network via its primary CMN-Casablanca hub. RAM will fly to GRU nonstop from CMN 3 times per week using a Boeing 767-300ER.


Air Arabia of Sharjah, UAE has officially announced that due to rising demand out of Bangladesh for its services as well as for general travel to the GCC region, it shall be increasing its services to DAC-Dhaka effective 17JUN13. Currently, G9 operates 12 weekly nonstop flights from its SHJ base to DAC using an A320, these will be increased to double daily nonstop with a standardized schedule i.e. dep SHJ at 0325 and 1445 respectively.


Air Canada has officially announced two additional routes that shall be receiving its high density configured (458 seater) Boeing 777-300ERs from later on this year. These include daily Vancouver-Hong Kong (from W13) plus daily Vancouver-London Heathrow (from S14). The YVR-HKG route was a favorite from the on set to receive this aircraft type from the get go but YVR-LHR was not anticipated by many but it makes commercial sense as instead of operating a double daily A333 service to cater for peak summer season demand on this route, AC can save big time on operational costs by deploying the 450 seater B77W which would have almost the same capacity as two A333s. In addition to the above, AC also revealed 3 new European routes that its low cost subsidiary i.e. Rouge would be launching from May 2014 onwards. These include 5 weekly Toronto-Dublin + 3 weekly Toronto-Edinburgh + 3 weekly Toronto-Venice nonstop services all operated with B767-300ERs.


Singapore Airlines officially announced that it has placed a mega order with both Boeing and Airbus worth a total US$ 17 billion for its Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 models. With regards to the latter, SQ was revealed to be the first airline to order the largest B787 family member i.e. the Boeing 787-100X of which it ordered 30. These aircraft are ideally suited to replace the A333s, A343s and B772ER fleet of airplanes worldwide. As far as Airbus is concerned, SQ announced that it became the newest customer for the largest A350 family member as well i.e. the A350-1000X of which it ordered 30 + took an additional 20 options for the smaller A350-900 which can be converted to the larger -1000X if the need arises.

26MAY edition

Qatar Airways has officially announced many changes to its route network for the current IATA S13 season as well its future plans of which the main highlights are as follows:

CAI - frequencies increased from double daily to 16 weekly i.e. daily B77W + 9 weekly A320/A321

KHI - frequencies increased from daily to double daily

LHE - frequencies increased from 4 weekly to daily

PEW - frequencies increased from 2 to 3 weekly

Three new destinations were revealed to be added to the airline's rapidly growing network which are Philadelphia (daily effective April 2014), Addis Ababa (daily effective September 2013) and Clarke Airport (Manila secondary airport effective October 2013).

As far as fleet news is concerned, QR's CEO revealed that the airline is keenly interested in being a launch customer for the newly launched Boeing 777X program and would be willing to place an order for 50 aircraft comprising of both the B778X and the B779X. Along with this, Mr Baker too disclosed that QR may sign an order with Airbus at June's Paris Air Show for a dozen more Airbus A330s as a safety measure to protect its expansion plans against any further delays to the B787 and upcoming A350 delivery schedules.

Comments:

QR's new PHL bound flight schedule is revealed to be departing DOH at 0100 and arriving back the next day by 0730am DOH time respectively using a B777-300ER (77W). Unfortunately, this schedule does not offer 2 way connectivity to the high volume India market in either direction which would be a vital source of feeder traffic for a new PHL service. In fact, the only Indian subcontinent routes that connect in both directions to PHL with this released schedule are CMB and KTM of which both have minimal demand on this sector. The reason for QR choosing PHL is because its now a major One World alliance hub via the take over of US Airways by American Airlines. However one feels that even though the flight schedule timings might be changed to match the current JFK service, using a 335 seater B77W for PHL is a bit too much but the B787 on the other hand is an ideally sized aircraft to use here efficiently.


Emirates has officially announced that it will be undertaking significant expansion of its route network during the current IATA S13 season as well as Winter 2013/14 of which the main highlights are as follows:

ISB - frequencies increased from 8 to 11 weekly effective 17JUN

PEW - frequencies increased from 3 to 5 weekly effective 17JUN

BNE - capacity increased from double daily B77W to daily A380 + daily B77W

AKL - capacity increased to triple daily A380s operated via BNE/MEL and SYD each respectively

CMB - frequencies increased from 21 to 24 weekly with all flights operated using a mixture of B772s and B773s

HKG - capacity increased effective 01JAN14 to double daily A380 + daily B77W + daily A332


Ethiopian Airlines has officially announced that it will be increasing its services to Dubai effective 01JUN13 as the airline continues to witness very high demand on this route. Currently, ET operates 17 weekly services into DXB and these will be upgraded to triple daily nonstop flights using a B787 daily + B738 daily + B763ER daily.

Comments:

Emirates surprisingly only operates a daily A332 into ADD when its direct competitor operates much more. The O&D demand between DXB and ADD can alone fill up over 60% of an additional A332 operated service.

Turkish Airlines has officially announced that it will be heavily expanding its medium and long haul network during the course of 2013 in the following manner:

NRT - frequencies increased from daily to double daily nonstop i.e. daily B77W + daily A332 effective NOV13

KTM - four new weekly nonstop flights to be launched using an A332 effective 01SEP13

CAI - frequencies increased from 17 weekly to triple daily effective 17JUN13

HBE - frequencies increased from 4 weekly to daily

ELQ (Gassim, Saudi Arabia) - four new weekly nonstop flights to be launched using a B738 effective 03JUN13

MGQ (Mogadishu) - frequencies increased from 4 to 5 weekly flights operated via Djibouti


Kuwait Airways has officially announced that it has received approval from the Kuwait Govt to place an order with Airbus at the upcoming Paris Air show for a major order worth over US$ 4 billion. KU confirmed that the bid from Airbus was overall US$ 280 million cheaper than Boeing's bid and the final aircraft order will consist of 25 new planes replacing entirely its current fleet of 17 aircraft. The breakdown of the 25 airplane order is for 10 A 350-900s + 15 A 320NEOs + an option for five A359s and five A320NEOs each respectively. In an effort to help it bridge the gap between now and the delivery of its new planes, Airbus included in the deal an offer to help place with KU thirteen used A320/A321s and A332/A333s.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-12/kuwait-airways-said-to-plan-purchase-of-25-airbus-planes.html


Philippine Airlines has officially confirmed that due to poor performance of its Delhi route currently operated 3 times per week using an A320 via Bangkok, it shall be suspending all services effective 17JUN13. PAL has never been serious in giving this route a chance to succeed with its route structure, choice of aircraft and weekly frequency from the on set. Operating it in the first place via BKK was bound to fail when it has to compete with multiple daily 9W, AI, TG nonstop flights + CX daily. In addition, one does not operate such a long flight with a stop en-route using an A320 as the operating cost per seat unit is too high. In other PAL related news, it has confirmed that the 4 additional A343s that it has dry leased for its network expansion are ex Iberia (Spain) birds and these shall be used for new services to AUH, DME and IST later on in the year.


Oman Air has officially announced that it has placed an order for 3 additional Airbus A330-300s as the carrier looks to expand its long haul network in the short term with Manila and Jakarta new short listed routes. It is expected that these 3 A333s will be configured in a high density configuration seating at least 290-300 passengers versus the current premium heavy 230 seat version that it operates.


Thai Airways has officially revealed many changes to its route network for the upcoming IATA W13 season of which the main highlights are as follows:

VIE - new nonstop flights to be launched effective 01NOV13 using a B772ER operated 3 times per week

PEK - capacity increased to double daily B744s

OSL - capacity increased from daily B772ER to daily B744

AMD - frequencies increased from 2 to 4 weekly

DME - frequencies increased from 4 to 5 weekly using a B773

LHR - capacity increased to double daily A380s

TPE - frequencies increased from double daily to 18 weekly

HND (Tokyo Haneda airport) - capacity reduced from daily B744 to daily A346


Lufthansa has officially announced major capacity changes to its route network for the upcoming IATA W13 season of which the main highlights are as follows:

DMM - frequencies increased from 4 weekly to daily flights using an A333

YVR - capacity increased from daily A343 to daily A346

PEK - capacity reduced from daily A380 to daily B748

JNB - capacity increased from daily B744 to daily A380

NRT - capacity reduced from daily A380 to daily B744

03MAY edition

Emirates has officially announced that it will be significantly increasing capacity to Hong Kong and Bangkok from the on set of the IATA W13 season as the carrier looks to increase its market share on the Europe-Far East market segment in particular. 

The main highlights are as follows:

HKG – new 4^th daily service introduced using an A332 (dep DXB 2100 and arrives back into DXB at 1455).  As a result, HKG becomes a daily A380 via BKK + daily A332 nonstop + double daily B77W!

BKK – capacity increased with EK 372/373 (dep DXB 0940) from daily B77W to daily A380. Thus BKK becomes a double daily A380 + double daily B77W operated sector.

The Indian Government has officially announced some clarifications on the newly liberalized bilateral accord signed between Abu Dhabi and India as a result of the “Jetihad” alliance. The main highlights are as follows:

DEL/BOM – Etihad is restricted to operating 3300 seats per week to each city respectively. Taking this into account, the choices EY have to BOM and DEL are to operate either triple daily A320 flights or double daily A321 or daily A332 + daily A321. (Personally speaking from a commercial aspect, a double daily A321 makes the most sense, but from a market share penetration point of view, a daily A332 + daily A321 takes the cake especially with now the support of 9W on board for domestic India and beyond AUH feed + cargo for the A332 bound to EU/USA/Africa)

Rest of India – Etihad can only operate daily frequencies but can increase capacity to COK, BLR, HYD, AMD, TRV, CCJ and MAA from daily A320 to daily A321 or A330/B77W if it chooses to. EY also has the right to launch services to CCU and JAI if it wishes to do so.

Good articles on this deal are mentioned below with passenger data stats obtained from IATA MarketIS which is a software used by major airlines and consulting firms worldwide identical to Shepherd System Market Master and PAXIS:

http://www.bangaloreaviation.com/2013/04/jetihad-is-born-etihad-buys-24-stake-in.html

http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/etihad-jolts-the-status-quo-again--jet-airways-and-wait-for-it-air-canada-are-its-newest-partners-107102

Air India’s CEO has officially announced that the airline will engage in an aggressive long haul expansion plan to counter the consequences of how the newly formed alliance between Etihad and Jet Airways will impact its market share and revenue on services to Europe and North America in particular. AI’s CEO revealed that the new destinations that the airline has short listed for launch in 2013/14 are Milan, Rome, Moscow, Sydney, Melbourne and Birmingham and all these new services will be exclusively operated by the Boeing 787-800s only which seat 256 passengers in a 2 class configuration i.e. 18J + 238Y. 

Analysis:

Unfortunately the choice of BHX seems more political rather than commercially oriented because if AI had done some basic research, they would have noticed that the Manchester-India market size is approximately 50% larger than BHX-India plus MAN-India is higher yielding and in turn has a greater demand for SE Asia (6^th freedom transfer traffic) via AI’s DEL hub which it can use to feed pax on to HKG, BKK, ICN, SIN, KTM, DAC and Australia.

In 2012, according to Shepherd system data, the total market size between MAN-India was 190,000 (dominated by EK and QR) passengers versus BHX-India being 130,000 (dominated by EK overall). Demand from BHX is mainly concentrated to ATQ/DEL and sees virtually no premium demand. Currently, Emirates, Uzbekistan Airways and Turkmenistan Airlines dominate this market segment (ATQ/DEL) and the Central Asian carriers in particular offer extremely low fares to fill up their flights. 

As far as flying to Australia is concerned, this was in the pipeline since 2010 with two options put forward i.e. DEL-MEL-SYD-DEL triangular service with a B787 or DEL-MEL nonstop terminator as the DEL-MEL market size is way bigger than DEL-SYD. However, the current plan as per Air India is to operate it as a triangular service using a B787. This is not feasible mainly because by having extra costs incurred via a triangular service with no 5^th freedom traffic rights using a 256 seater aircraft. Instead, due to the market size demand between MEL/SYD (combined) and DEL totaling over 200,000 passengers annually, it should be operated using a 342 seater Boeing 777-300ER as it offers 34% more passenger seating capacity + more cargo uplift carrying capacity hence overall more revenue generation potential at a higher operational cost which would be negated with the extra pax/cargo revenue derived. 

With regards to FCO and MXP, the MXP-DEL market size is 3 times bigger versus FCO and higher yielding as well. AI should not look at FCO unless it has intentions of joining Sky Team which it doesn’t  as even if it did, it would be more lucrative launching DEL-AMS instead or increasing DEL-CDG capacity versus operating to FCO. The potential for AI in MXP in terms of sheer volume is most decidedly there, but the issue for them will be how to revenue manage it !

Qatar Airways has officially announced that it will be significantly increasing capacity to COK-Kochi, India effective 01JUN13 in order to capitalize on the growing traffic demand between Kerala and the GCC in particular. Currently, QR operates 11 weekly nonstop flights into COK using a 177 seater A321, however from June, all these flights will be upgraded to a 260 seater A330-200. Thus, overall an increase of 47% in capacity along with the capability of up-lifting an additional 10 tons of cargo per flight in each direction.

Spice Jet of India has officially announced that due to surge of bookings on its recently launched Delhi-Guangzhou services, it will be increasing frequencies on this sector. Currently, it operates 4 times per week from DEL to CAN using a B737-800 and these shall be increased in turn to 6 times per week using the same aircraft type effective May 2013. The Delhi-Guangzhou market size according to Shepherd system in 2012 was 37,000 and two airlines operate nonstop flights on this route i.e. Spice Jet and China Southern.

 

British Airways has officially announced a series of capacity and frequency changes for its long haul route network for the IATA W13 season of which the main highlights are as follows:

BOS – frequencies increased from triple daily to 24 weekly

DEL – capacity increased to double daily B744

JNB – frequencies increased from double daily to 17 weekly

BOM – capacity increased to double daily B744

PEK – capacity reduced from 6 weekly B744s to 6 weekly B772ERs

MIA – frequencies reduced from triple daily B744s to 18 weekly

Philippine Airlines has officially announced that it shall be embarking on a major expansion of its GCC network from the on set of the IATA W13 season using a fleet of brand new Airbus A 330-300s exclusively. It will be utilizing the planes under the PAL Express branding which will offer a dual class configuration of premium economy (42 seats) and normal economy class (300 seats) only  + it will also end all code sharing agreements in place with GCC carriers on the MNL-GCC sectors it intends on operating.

In other PAL news, the airline has dry leased 4 additional A343s in a dual class configuration and shall be using them to launch new services to Istanbul and Moscow this year which were previously announced. PAL’s CEO also confirmed that the airline has officially filed with the U.S. DOT to launch new flights to New York City effective November 2013 which shall be operated on a 5 weekly basis using a Boeing 777-300ER. PAL is also taking delivery of 2 new B77Ws from Boeing in Q3 which will be used for this new route.  

The main highlights are as follows:

MCT – new 4 weekly nonstop flights to be launched effective 30JAN 2014

DMM/RUH/JED – new daily flights to be launched to each Saudi city effective 01DEC13 using an A333

DXB – new flights to be launched effective 01NOV13

DOH - new flights to be launched effective 01NOV13

AUH – new 5 weekly nonstop flights to be launched effective 01OCT13

Official press release: http://www1.philippineairlines.com/news-and-events/pal-revs-expansion-kicks-12-new-routes/

Comments:

Excellent move by PAL to take advantage of the growing market segment between MNL and GCC especially now that the biggest market i.e. KSA has agreed to implement the minimum US$400 per month salary wage for labor workers from the Philippines. According to Shepherd System Market Master, the 2012 market sizes on the MNL-GCC sector were as follows:

DXB – 460,000 // RUH – 250,000 // DMM-190,000 // JED- 130,000 // KWI- 110,000 // DOH- 105,000 and AUH 80,000

Manila-New York City combined to JFK and EWR is also a high volume market seeing 91,000 passengers flying last year. It will be interesting to see if the B77W can indeed fly nonstop with a full payload or operate via Anchorage.  

Ethiopian Airlines has officially announced that it will be increasing its frequencies to YYZ-Toronto effective 10JUN13. Currently, ET operates twice a week from ADD via FCO to YYZ using a B777-200LR, however from mid June, a 3^rd weekly frequency shall be added using a Boeing 787-800 on THU flown in the same manner.

PIA of Pakistan has revealed on the GDS system that will be no longer going ahead its intentions of re-launching services to ORD-Chicago, USA as the carrier faces a massive operational headache by having only 19 aircraft in its fleet for the IATA S13 season deemed air worthy. All two weekly flights are now showing deleted from across all major GDS systems and in addition to ORD, flights to BCN-Barcelona, Spain are also showing cut off from 01AUG. Between June-August, PIA will be operating 2 weekly terminator flights to BCN from North Pakistan only.

Comments:

Very smart move to cut off ORD as it would have been a waste to operate there with the fleet situation is very critical. PIA should not think of re-launching ORD at all in the short term and even long term future until it first increases its JFK services from the current 3 to at least 5 times per week! Demand from JFK alone to PAK is greater than the rest of USA altogether combined to Pakistan hence PIA needs to focus on increasing its market share first to/from JFK rather than venturing back to places such as IAD, IAH and ORD.

Sri Lankan media has reported this week that Sri Lankan Airlines has made a decision on which aircraft it intends on purchasing soon to modernize its long haul fleet especially its aging A340-300s which have been around since 1994. According to the below mentioned link, six Airbus A330-300IGWs + 4 Airbus A 350-900s will be ordered in the near future along with a further three A359s listed as options. The new A333IGW does have the legs to operate its flagship route CMB-LHR nonstop without payload restrictions. These aircraft will be the ones used to firstly replace the A343s.