Norwegian announces London-Singapore nonstop

Norwegian Airlines has officially announced that it will be increasing its presence out of London Gatwick with a new long haul nonstop service to Singapore.

DY will launch the new route effective 28SEP operated 4 times per week using a 344 seater B789 which shall be further increased to 5 weekly from the on set of the IATA W17 season. 

Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/budget-airline-norwegian-announces-plans-for-singapore-london/3691986.html

London-Singapore is a huge P2P market segment with 570,000 pax flying in 2016.

Qatar Airways increases Bali frequencies

Qatar Airways has officially announced that it shall be increasing its presence in the popular Bali-DPS market segment effective 07MAY17.

Currently, QR operates double daily nonstop flights on the DOH-DPS route catering largely to EU/UK passengers. However from 1st May onwards, frequencies shall be raised to triple daily nonstop using an A333 + B77W + B788 each respectively.

The new daily service is scheduled as follows:

QR 964 Dep DOH 1745 Arr DPS 0810+1 788

QR 965 Dep DPS 0930 Arr DOH 1405 788

Dhaka flights suspended by Oman Air

Oman Air has officially announced another round of major capacity reductions as it looks to reduce its losses and redeploy its aircraft on more popular routes. The carrier revealed the following:

DAC - all daily flights suspended effective 01JUN. 

This has come as a big surprise considering the large P2P traffic that already exists between MCT and DAC which numbered over 200,000 pax in 2016. WY currently operates a daily B738 between MCT and DAC as well as a daily B738 to CGP (Chittagong). Flights to CGP remain un-touched as its another huge P2P market out of MCT with over 150,000 passengers flying last year. 

In addition to suspending DAC, WY also revealed the following effective 01MAY:

DOH - frequencies reduced from 4 to 3 daily flights 

AUH - frequencies reduced from 4 to 2 daily flights only

All of the above changes are now published and visible on Sabre GDS system.

Emirates reduces USA flights

As a result of a big drop in bookings to USA on its flights, Emirates has officially announced a huge cut back in frequencies to 5 of its online destinations which are effective from May 2017:

BOS - frequencies reduced from double daily to single daily B77W

SEA - frequencies reduced from double daily to single daily B77W

LAX - frequencies reduced from double daily A380 + B77W combo to daily A380 only

FLL - frequencies reduced from daily to 5 weekly B77Ls

MCO - frequencies reduced from daily to 5 weekly B77Ws

Sri Lankan Airlines reveals A321NEO configuration

Sri Lankan Airlines has officially released information about its soon to be delivered Airbus A321NEOs with regards to its cabin layout and initial routes that it intends to operate. In total, UL ordered 6 A321NEOs a couple of years ago.  

To begin with, the configuration will be for 188 seats in a 2 class layout seating 12 business + 176 economy class passengers each respectively. As far as which routes it intends to operate the aircraft with initially, those are Abu Dhabi, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi and Singapore.

Qatar Airways increases Larnaca services

Qatar Airways has officially announced that it shall be boosting its presence in Cyprus by increasing frequencies to LCA-Larnaca effective 04MAY17.

QR has been gradually increasing its services on this route ever since Etihad suspended its own AUH-LCA 3 weekly flights on 31OCT16. Initially in W16, QR boosted LCA from daily to 10 weekly using an A320 and this shall be further increased to 12 weekly nonstop flights using the same aircraft type from 04MAY.  

Brussels-Bangkok increased by Thai Airways

Thai Airways has officially announced that it shall be increasing its services on the Brussels-Bangkok sector effective 25MAR18 (on set of IATA S18 season) as the carrier looks to increase its presence in this high yielding EU market segment.

Frequencies will be raised from 4 to 5 weekly nonstop using their new A350-900 exclusively offering 321 seats in total i.e. 32J + 289Y.

The top SE-Asian markets in 2016 to/from BRU were as follows:

BKK - 115,000

PEK - 68,000

NRT - 62,000

HKG - 30,000

MNL - 29,000

HKT - 28,000

PVG - 27,000

DPS - 26,000

SIN - 24,000

CGK - 16,000

KUL - 15,000

ICN - 15,000

SGN - 13,000

HAN - 10,000

Emirates increases Bali to double daily nonstop

Emirates has officially announced that due to rising demand from both Europe and GCC for DPS-Bali, Indonesia, it shall be expanding its presence on this sector by increasing frequencies effective 02JUL17.

It currently operates a daily two class B77W on the route which shall be upgraded to a double daily service. The double daily flights schedule is as follows:

EK 360 Dep DXB 0125 Arr DPS 1430 - new flight

EK 398 Dep DXB 0830 Arr DPS 2140

EK 399 Dep DPS 0005 Arr DXB 0500

EK 361 Dep DPS 1630 Arr DXB 2130 - new flight

Demand between DPS and the main target markets of GCC/EU in 2016 was as follows:

DXB 52,000
JED 17,000
LON 152,000
CDG 126,000
AMS 191,000
FRA 74,000
MXP 17,000
FCO 13,000
ZRH 49,000
MUC 41,000
BRU 24,000
DME 39,000
CPH 37,000
JFK 11,000

Boeing reveals B777-9X configuration options

Boeing has officially released technical data info including various LOPA configuration options for its upcoming new B777-9X aircraft that is to be the natural replacement to all the B77Ws / B773s existing worldwide presently.

Link: http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/acaps/777-9_Prelim.pdf

The standard configuration options on offer by Boeing are as follows:

• 2 class - 414 seats i.e. 42J (flat beds 85 inch seat pitch) + 372Y (32 inch seat pitch)
• 3 class - 349 seats i.e. 8F + 49J + 292Y

Comments:

From the LOPA provided by Boeing, according to my calculations if I amend it a bit, one can get the below 3 and 2 class configurations each respectively:

Y class (3-4-3) remains 32 inch seat pitch and J class remains 85 pitch (flat bed) using the same design as per Boeing

3 class OP1 - 389 seats (8F/35J/346Y)

2 class OP1 - 408 seats (42J/366Y)
2 class OP2 - 431 seats (35J/396Y)
2 class OP3 - 454 seats (28J/426Y)

Single class all Economy (32 inch seat pitch) - 526 seats

Air India to lease 7 Boeing 787-9s

Air India's Managing Director has officially disclosed plans of its long haul expansion after obtaining approval from its Board of Directors. The main highlights are as follows:

1. Seven (7) Boeing 787-9s to be dry leased to boost expansion
2. Copenhagen-Delhi shall be launched effective August 2017
3. New long haul routes will be Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and one city in Canada
4. Frequencies to Sydney and Melbourne to be increased
5. New nonstop flights to Tel Aviv, Nairobi and Mauritius are being seriously evaluated
6. Amongst the above 3 mentioned U.S. routes, at least one route shall be launched in 2017 (most likely to be LAX)

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/with-plans-of-us-expansion-air-india-to-induct-wide-bodied-boeing-787-9/613229/

Hawaiian releases its A321NEO configuration

Hawaiian Airlines has officially disclosed the configuration of its soon to be delivered Airbus A321NEOs. They will be exclusively deployed on flights between HNL-U.S. West Coast cities and Vancouver.

HA revealed that its A321NEOs will seat 189 passengers in a 3 class layout i.e. 16J + 45W + 128Y. The longest flight it is expected to operate is to Las Vegas from HNL which is a 6 hour 30 minute journey.  

British Airways increases Mauritius

British Airways has officially announced that due to higher demand for Mauritius during the European winter season, it shall be increasing its presence on this market segment effective 29OCT17.

Frequencies will be increased from 3 to 5 weekly nonstop using a B772ER.

Demand between MRU and London P2P in 2016 was 243,000 passengers (LHR + LGW combined)

Air India announces Washington DC-Delhi nonstop

Air India has officially announced that it shall be launching new nonstop flights between Delhi and Washington DC nonstop effective 07JUL17.

Services will be operated 3 times per week nonstop using a B777-200LR with the below mentioned timings:

Days - 3/5/7

AI 103 Dep DEL 0115 Arr IAD 0715

AI 104 Dep IAD 1100 Arr DEL 1030+1 

P2P demand between IAD and DEL in 2016 was 74,000 passengers and for other Indian cities it was as follows:

BOM - 49,000

MAA - 35,000

BLR - 29,000

HYD - 66,000

CCU - 7,000

AMD - 16,000

COK - 9,000

AI also previously announced that it is in the market looking to dry lease into its fleet 6 additional wide body aircraft i.e. either B77Ws or B789s. If B789s can be obtained and one aircraft dedicated to flying DEL-IAD nonstop, the total operational cost savings per round trip flight is approximately US$ 80,000 so on an annual basis is almost US$ 12.5 million !

Oman Air reduces Guangzhou flights

Due to lower than anticipated demand for its recently launched Guangzhou-Muscat daily service (since Dec 2017), Oman Air has officially confirmed that in order to stem losses, it shall be reducing frequencies on this sector effective 10APR17.

Its current daily service using an A330 will be cut to 4 weekly nonstop using a combination of A332s and A333s. Flights will operate on MON/WED/FRI/SUN only out of MCT.

Demand between CAN and the Middle East region in 2016 (round trip) was as follows:

DXB - 150,000
JED - 44,000
RUH - 40,000
CAI - 112,000
AMM - 28,000
BEY - 20,000
IKA - 60,000
IST - 55,000

DOH - 11,000MCT - 8,000
BAH - 5,000
DMM - 6,000

British Airways increases Los Angeles and Johannesburg capacity

British Airways has officially announced that it shall be significantly increasing its capacity offering on two popular routes from the on set of the IATA W17 season as the carrier looks to compete more aggressively against its closest rivals.

JNB - capacity increased from daily B744 + daily A380 to double daily A380

LAX - frequencies increased from double to triple daily nonstop i.e. daily B789 + daily A380 + daily B744 each respectively

MSY (New Orleans, USA) - frequencies increased from 4 to 5 weekly using a B787

Lahore capacity increased by Oman Air

Due to rising demand from Lahore to the Middle East region, Oman Air has announced that it shall be significantly increasing capacity on its MCT-LHE service effective 08MAY17.

On 05FEB17, WY expanded initially MCT-LHE from daily to 10 weekly flights using a B738 offering 1,620 seats per week. However effective 08MAY, both pax + cargo capacity shall be boosted with the sector seeing 4 weekly A332s + 2 weekly A333s + 4 B738s. This in turn results in a 41% increase in capacity offered per week i.e from 1,620 to 2,290.  

Air France increases Cape Town

Air France has disclosed that due to higher demand during the IATA winter season for travel from both North America and Europe/UK especially to South Africa, it shall be significantly boosting its presence on both its Cape Town and Johannesburg flights.

With regards to CPT, frequencies are to be increased from 5 to daily nonstop using a B772ER. As far as JNB is concerned, capacity is to be boosted to daily A380.

Ethiopian reduces Guangzhou and Newark

Ethiopian Airlines has officially announced due to declining demand and over capacity deployed by its competitors, it shall be reducing its services to both Guangzhou (CAN) and Newark (EWR) from the on set of the IATA Summer 2017 season.

Guangzhou's current 10 weekly nonstop service operated by a B77W shall be reduced back to a daily nonstop service whilst the 5 weekly ADD-LFW-EWR flight will be cut back to 4 weekly only using a B788.

In addition, the airline confirmed launching a new 4 weekly B738 operated flight between JNB-LFW v.v. which will connect conveniently in both directions to its EWR flight as well as a majority of ASKY's West African services.

Lufthansa increases Bangkok capacity

Lufthansa has officially announced that due to high demand for Bangkok from both Germany and the EU during the IATA Winter season, it shall be boosting capacity on its FRA-BKK service effective 29OCT17.

Currently, LH operates a daily B744 on this sector offering 393 seats per direction. From the on set of the IATA W17 season, this shall be increased to a daily 509 seater Airbus A380.  

In 2016, the P2P demand between FRA and BKK round trip was 398,000 passengers.

Etihad increases Paris capacity

Etihad Airways has officially announced that due to rising demand for its CDG-Paris bound services, it shall be increasing capacity on the route effective 01JUL17.

Currently, EY operates a daily B77W + daily A346 on the AUH-CDG sector offering 656 seats per direction everyday. However effective 01JUL17, capacity is being increased by +27% as it will upgrade the daily B77W service to an A380 (496 seater).

In 2016, the total P2P demand between AUH and CDG round trip was 90,000 passengers.