Thai Airways makes Beijing triple daily

Thai Airways has officially announced that as a result of a surge in bookings being currently witnessed on its Beijing bound flights, it will be increasing its presence on the BKK-PEK route by adding a new daily flight effective 30JAN16.

Overall frequencies will climb as a result of the above from double daily B777s to triple daily with the new service being operated using an A333 with the below mentioned schedule:

TG 686 Dep BKK 2300 Arr PEK 0440+1
TG 687 Dep PEK 0555 Arr BKK 1010

Cathay Pacific announces London Gatwick

Cathay Pacific has officially announced that it will be launching new services to London Gatwick airport effective 02SEP16. CX shall be operating the flight nonstop from its HKG base using its new Airbus A 350-900 with the below mentioned schedule:

Days: MON/WED/FRI/SUN

CX 349 Dep HKG 0055 Arr LGW 0710
CX 344 Dep LGW 1235 Arr HKG 0725+1

This is in addition to the five daily flights that CX already operates into LHR !

Source: http://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_HK/about-us/press-room/press-release/2015/Cathay-Pacific-new-Gatwick-service-for-London-travel.html

Emirates next A380 destination - Guangzhou, China

Emirates has officially confirmed that it has applied to the Chinese Civil Aviation Authorities to increase its current daily Guangzhou-Dubai nonstop service to an Airbus A380 from the on set of the IATA Summer 2016 season.

EK disclosed that the high density dual class 615 seater A380 will be used for this service from the on set of the IATA Summer 2016 season once approval is obtained.

Source: http://gulfnews.com/business/aviation/emirates-plans-to-fly-a380-to-guangzhou-to-compete-in-china-1.1634710

Comments:

This capacity upgrade from a daily B77W to a daily 615 seater A380 represents a 46% capacity increase for EK on the DXB-CAN route and it is primarily aimed at poaching away the CAN-Africa market share from QR, ET and KQ as with the higher capacity on offer, EK can now compete more effectively with cheaper fares matching these three airlines to woo them away!

FYI the P2P demand between DXB-CAN (round trip) in 2014 was 181,000 passengers!

United suspends Dubai-Washington

United Airlines has officially announced that it will be suspending its current daily nonstop service from IAD-Washington DC to DXB-Dubai effective 23JAN16. UA cites the below mentioned reasons for the cut:

• Loss of a lucrative U.S. Govt contract of 15,000 fed employees to B6-Jetblue who are EK's biggest code share partner in USA
• Unable to compete against Emirates and Etihad effectively on the IAD-DXB route
• B772ER usage can yield better margins being used on shorter LATAM or trans-atlantic flights to EU as well as to replace B744s (which are being retired)

Source: http://gulfnews.com/business/aviation/united-airlines-to-stop-dubai-flights-1.1634890

British Airways increases Shanghai

British Airways has officially announced as a result of rising demand along with great encouragement from the U.K government to boost business and leisure links with China, it shall be increasing its services to PVG-Shanghai effective 20FEB16.

Currently, BA operates a daily nonstop flight from LHR to PVG using a B777. These will be increased to 10 weekly nonstop flights operated by a daily B773ER + 3 weekly B772ER. 

Point to point demand in 2014 between London and Shanghai was 336,000 passengers and this is expected to grow by at least 15% by end of 2016. 

Air France announces Tehran

Air France has officially announced that it will be re launching its flights to Tehran operated nonstop from its Paris hub base effective April 2016. Services will be flown 3 times per week using an A330-200 with the below mentioned schedule:

Days 3/5/7

AF 738 Dep CDG 1030 Arr IKA 1840
AF 755 Dep IKA 0715 Arr CDG 1055

AF suspended CDG-IKA flights in 2008 as a result of global economic meltdown and the negative effects sanctions were having on Iran.

In addition, the French national carrier also confirmed that it will be increasing its services into New York JFK airport by adding a new daily flight from Paris's second airport i.e. Orly (ORY) effective June 2016. These flights will be operated using a B777-200ER.

Sri Lankan to cut Frankfurt Rome and Paris

Sri Lankan Airlines CEO has publicly stated in an address in Colombo recently, that the airline is undertaking a major cost restructuring exercise aimed at bringing the airline's operations in a sustainability mode after years of massive losses on its long haul routes in particular.

He confirmed that the "Vanity routes" in question to be cut are Rome, Paris and Frankfurt where it cannot compete against the GCC carriers funneling traffic via their respective hub airports to Asia as the yields are far too low to justify continuing operating. 

London will be retained as the sole EU destination served nonstop from Colombo using the A332/A333 fleet and the aircraft coming out of FRA/CDG/FCO will be instead used to boost frequencies to China.

Source: http://www.economynext.com/SriLankan_Airlines_to_ditch_%E2%80%98vanity%E2%80%99_routes-3-3671.html

KLM increases LAX and Muscat flights

KLM has officially announced that it will be increasing its presence in Muscat and Los Angeles from the on set of the IATA S16 season as the carrier looks to take advantage of available opportunities in the long haul market segment. 

MCT - frequencies will be increased from 4 weekly to daily flights using a B789 operated via AUH

LAX - frequencies increased from 12 weekly to double daily nonstop using a B744 Combi

China Airlines increases JFK and FRA

China Airlines (Taiwan) has officially announced that it will be increasing its services to New York JFK and Frankfurt, Germany from the on set of the IATA W16 season i.e. 30OCT

Currently, JFK is operated 3 times per week nonstop using a B777-300ER (77W). These flights will be increased to 5 times per week using the same aircraft type. As far as FRA is concerned, the route will also be increased from 5 weekly to daily nonstop using a B77W as well. FRA is one of CI's top performing long haul routes in terms of cargo revenue.

Qatar Airways increases Maputo capacity

Qatar Airways officially announced today that it will be increasing capacity on its services to MPO-Maputo, Mozambique effective 29MAR16. Currently, all 3 weekly flights are flown via JNB using a B77W however from the on set of the IATA S16 season, it will make MPO a nonstop terminator destination (DOH-MPO-DOH) using a 254 seater B787-8. 

The schedule is as follows:

Days - 2/4/7

QR 1361 Dep DOH 0630 Arr MPM 1340
QR 1362 Dep MPM 1505 Arr DOH 0010+1

China Eastern announces 3 new long haul routes

China Eastern Airlines, the largest carrier based out of Shanghai airport has officially announced that it will be launching three new long haul destinations in 2016. All the routes will be operated out of its primary PVG (Shanghai) hub base and they are to Brisbane (BNE), Prague (PRG) and Chicago (ORD) respectively.

The operational highlights are as follows:

BNE - to be launched effective 16JAN three times per week using an A332

ORD - to be launched effective 18MAR using a B77W on a daily basis nonstop

PRG - to be launched effective 02APR using an A332 on a three weekly basis

Philippine Airlines chooses Airbus A359 and announces Paris-Manila

PAL (Philippine Airlines) SVP Commercial Mr Lim today revealed to the local media of two important developments concerning the airline's future operational plans. They are as follows:

1. PAL has chosen to purchase the A350-900 over the B787-9 and will be using the normal version of the aircraft which its Ops department has confirmed shall be able to operate its longest route i.e. MNL-JFK nonstop without a payload penalty. A total of 6 units initially are ordered.
2. A new long haul EU destination will be launched in Summer 2016 i.e. Paris served from Manila via Dubai with 5th freedom traffic rights

Source: http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/pal-to-fly-to-the-city-of-light/

Comments:

PAL should not look at flying to CDG via DXB but rather via KWI instead. DXB-CDG already has 4 daily nonstop flights being operated i.e. daily AF + triple daily EK therefore there is no chance for PAL to be remotely competitive. Instead, KWI-CDG no airline flies nonstop as KU currently operate their service via FCO-Rome four times per week hence un-competitive versus a nonstop product. In addition, yields on KWI-CDG are much higher than DXB-CDG !

JAL looking at USA expansion

Japan Airlines CEO has announced that the carrier is looking to launch at least two new USA routes in 2016 during a press conference inaugurating the new nonstop Tokyo-Dallas nonstop service. 

The one route that was mentioned as a possible reinstatement was Las Vegas which JAL previously operated for many years. JAL is very happy with the performance economics of the plane and should seriously consider being the first Asian airline to fly nonstop to Miami which is a major hub of its fellow One World partner i.e. American Airlines. NRT-MIA traffic demand in 2014 was 24,000 passengers + via AA support it can access easily Latin/Central America + Caribbean islands providing passengers with one stop access. NRT-MIA can be sustained 4 times per week using a B789 with the flying time of the route being 14 hours 30 minutes hence easily do able from an aircraft flying range perspective.

TAP Portugal orders 14 A339s + 39 A320/321NEOs

TAP Portugal has officially announced that it has signed a deal with Airbus for the procurement of 53 new aircraft that will see the airline commercially through the entire 2020-30 decade. The breakdown of the order is 14 A330-900s + 15 A320NEOs + 24 A321NEOs. Previously it had ordered 12 A350-900s which were in turn exchanged for 14 A339s as TAP's internal studies revealed it was cheaper for them overall to operate the A339 versus the A359 whose extra flying range was not required for any destination in its current and future network plan.

The A321NEO order will be split between the normal NEO version and the LR version which TAP has stated will be used to fly on medium demand trans-atlantic routes from Lisbon to U.S. East Coast and Northeast Brazil. The cities identified for this purpose include Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Washington DC, Bayeux, Parnaiba and Aracaju. The configuration of these A321NEOLRs will see 16 flat bed seats in business class plus 159 in economy totaling 175.

Malaysia Airlines suspends Paris and Amsterdam

Malaysia Airlines has officially announced that it will be suspending all flights to both Paris and Amsterdam effective 25JAN16 as the carrier enters into its last phase of route network restructuring designed to save the airline large amounts of operating cash. As a result of this, London Heathrow will be MH's sole EU destination where it shall continue to operate double daily flights using the Airbus A380 exclusively in code share with fellow One World partner British Airways. 

MH also revealed on the sidelines that it has concluded signing a broad based code share agreement with Emirates that will see the former place its code on EK's operated flights from DXB to EU and selected MENA destinations. In return, EK will do the same on MH's operated flights to the Austral-Asia region. This arrangement is very similar to the EK-QF venture initiated few years ago.

Emirates reduces DAR and increases MNL

Emirates has officially confirmed that due to network demand requirements, it will be implementing the below mentioned changes:

DAR - frequencies reduced from double daily B773s to a daily nonstop service only effective 15DEC

MNL - frequencies increased from double daily to 18 weekly with all flights exclusively being operated by the B777-300ER (B77W) effective 29MAR

It is highly surprising that a route such as Addis Ababa with its massive labor market demand to GCC has yet to warrant double daily A332 operated service by EK where as ET currently operate 18 weekly flights DXB-ADD !

Turkish orders 20 more A321NEOs

Turkish Airlines has officially confirmed that it has ordered 20 additional Airbus A321-200NEOs catered for additional planned growth in the 2020-30 decade. 

In total as a result of this order, 72 A321NEOs have been ordered by the carrier which has the capability to fly up to 7 hours nonstop from Istanbul with a full payload of passengers plus cargo. 

Source: http://www.eturbonews.com/66479/turkish-airlines-firms-order-20-additional-a321neo-aircraft

Cathay Pacific reveals Airbus A350 strategy

Cathay Pacific has officially revealed details on how it is configuring its upcoming Airbus A350-900s as well as on what routes it will be operating to and lastly what purpose it brings to the airline in terms of long haul expansion. 

To begin with, the cabin configuration will be in a 3 class layout seating 280 pax in total i.e. 38 business + 28 premium economy + 214 economy. CX has on order a total of 22 A359s + 26 A351s. 

The A359 will be used to boost its presence in mainland Europe through frequency increases to Milan, Manchester, Zurich, Madrid, Dusseldorf and Amsterdam as well as launch potential new markets such as Barcelona, Copenhagen and Geneva (these 3 destinations are of my opinion only which have sufficient demand to warrant a CX flight 4 times per week). 

In addition to cater for growth, the A359 will be used to gradually replace CX's oldest B777-200As and A330-300s whilst the larger A350-1000s are geared to increase the carrier's footprint in Australia + North America along side replacing its entire A343 + B773A fleet (used on ASEAN routes). 

RAM announces Rio De Janerio and Washington DC

Royal Air Maroc (RAM) has officially announced that it will be launching 2 new long haul destinations from the Summer 2016 season onwards as the carrier looks to position its CMN-Casablanca hub as the gateway to North Africa and Southwestern Europe. 

The new routes are Washington DC and Rio De Janerio. The former will be flown 3 times per week nonstop using a B787-800 effective 08SEP. The latter will be operated in conjunction with GRU (Sao Paulo) as a triangular service 3 times per week using a Boeing 767-300ER effective 02MAY.

Air India considering Washington DC

Air India has been cited by the Indian media to be seriously studying the prospect of launching a new nonstop service to IAD-Washington DC from its primary Delhi hub base. The carrier's new SFO-DEL nonstop service has received a very strong response from the traveling public as a result of it is looking at new opportunities in USA where Star Alliance partner United has a strong presence. 

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/business/now-air-india-plans-direct-flight-to-washington/article7927525.ece

If launched, it will be maximum a three weekly service operated using the same schedule as DEL-JFK-DEL and the aircraft shall be a B777-300ER only as AI's B788s would struggle to operate the route with a full payload nonstop.