Vietnam Airlines

Vietnam Airlines has officially announced that it has placed a multi billion dollar order with Boeing and Airbus recently. The order comprises of 12 Boeing 787-800s + 10 Airbus A 350-900s + 20 Airbus A 320-200s.

The A 359s will be a direct replacement for VN's fleet of 10 B 772ERs and were primarily ordered to enable the airline to fly nonstop trans-pacific flights to USA and Canada with a full payload from its SGN hub.

British Airways

British Airways has officially confirmed that it has placed a huge order for 12 Airbus A 380s (plus 7 options) + 24 Boeing 787s (plus 18 options). It will decide next year on what aircraft is best suited to replace its large fleet of Boeing 747-400s as it confirms that the A 380s it has ordered is not a direct replacement for their B 744 fleet.

However, it has been confirmed that the 24 B 787s ordered are a direct replacement for its fleet of 21 Boeing 767-300ERs.

Analysis :

One can place a bet on a bunch load of Boeing 777-300ERs being ordered to replace most of BA's B 744s as it would provide fleet commanlity with its B 772ERs. The other main competitor for this future order is the A 350-1000X which doesnt stand a chance as it can be delivered only after 2014-15 which not only is too late for BA but also will not provide cost savings in terms of fleet maintainence.

EVA Air

EVA Air has announced more changes to its Winter 2007-08 long haul network. The main highlighs are as follows :

CDG - suspended indefinitely effective Nov 23rd due to high operational costs and losses.

EWR - to be flown nonstop 3 times a week from TPE using a B 773ER.

SEA - to be reduced from daily flights to 4 weekly terminator flights flown nonstop from TPE using a B 773ER.

LAX - to be increased from 17 to 20 flights a week effective December. The 3 extra flights will be flown by a B 773ER.

KLM

KLM has officially announced that it will be launching new flights from its AMS hub to Dallas, Texas using an Airbus A 330-200. Flights will begin on March 30th 08 and will be flown on a daily basis.

Delta Airlines

Delta Airlines has announced a major long haul expansion of its network from its JFK hub for 2008. In addition, the airline has been granted rights to fly to Shanghai, China nonstop from its Atlanta hub effective April 2008 on a daily basis using a Boeing 777-200ER. The main highlights of its JFK based expansion worldwide is as follows :

AMM - new 4 times a week service flown nonstop using a B 763ER effective June 5th 2008.

CAI - new 5 times a week service flown nonstop using a B 763ER effective June 4th 2008.

NBO - new 4 weekly service to be flown via DKR using a B 763ER effective 2nd June 2008.

CPT - new 3 weekly service to be flown via DKR using a B 763ER effective 3rd June 2008.

LOS - new daily service from JFK to be flown daily using a B 763ER effective 9nd June 2008. DL already flies daily ATL-LOS with the B 763ER.

BOM - to be served with a B 777-200LR instead of -200ER to avoid pay load restrictions.

EDI - new daily service to be flown using a B 752ER effective 1st May 08.

MAN/BRU/AMS/FRA - all 3 cities to be downgraded from a B 763ER to a B 752ER.

TLV - new daily flights to begin with a B 763ER effective 10th March 08.

NCE/DUB/BCN - all to be increased to daily flights for Summer 2008.

Analysis :

Not since the days of PAN AM, have we seen such a major expansion undertaken by an American carrier in Africa which is very pleasing to see. The only thing that one cannot comprehend here is why would DL send a B 757-200ER from JFK to FRA when LH flies triple daily on the route using more luxurious wide bodied aircraft with a superior premium cabin especially. This move is bound to back fire for DL on the JFK-FRA sector. It should just stick to its double daily ATL-FRA flights rather than fly another one from JFK just for prestige purposes.

Korean Air

Korean Air has announced that it will be increasing its flights to Kathmandu, Nepal from its Seoul hub between January and March 2008 only. Flights will be flown 3 times a week using a Boeing 777-200.

Asiana Airlines

Asiana Airlines has announced major changes to its long haul route network for the upcoming winter season. The main highlights are as follows :

SIN - frequencies increased from daily to 9 weekly all using an A 333.

MNL - frequencies increased from 11 weekly to double daily using an A 321 daily + 3 weekly B 744 + 2 weekly B 772 + 2 weekly B 763.

BKK - increased from daily to 11 weekly i.e. 5 weekly A 333 + 4 weekly B 772 + 2 weekly B 763.

LAX - increased to 12 times a week nonstop from ICN.

Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways has announced changes to its Seoul & Shanghai routes for this winter. Currently the flight is flown via PVG, however from Oct 28th, the flight will be re-routed via KIX to ICN. This new flight will be flown using a 2 class Airbus A 330-200 five times a week. As far as PVG goes, it will get a 5 weekly terminator service.

Reports from within the airline's head office in Doha indicate that ICN will be increased to 9 weekly flights from Summer 2008 i.e. 4 weekly via PVG + 5 weekly via KIX.

Pakistan International

PIA-Pakistan International Airlines will be reducing its flights to JFK this winter season by flying to the airport only twice a week from October 28th 2007.

Both flights will be flown using a Boeing 777-300ER from KHI via Northern Pakistan and Manchester to JFK. Flights will be flown on Saturdays and Sundays only.

Analysis:

It's a well known fact that PIA has been losing money on its JFK route for many years now and the situation is bound to get even worse with the expansion of EK, EY and QR on the U.S. East Coast. The U.S. East Coast-PAK market is much bigger than the YYZ-PAK market and yet the latter has more weekly flights than the former!

Even if PIA needs to reduce JFK to twice a week services, it is unheard of to fly a route twice a week one day after another in the way PIA is doing at JFK from Oct i.e. SAT & SUN.

In order to control the financial bloodshed that its suffering, it might be wise for PIA to completely withdraw from USA altogether rather than continue to bleed $$$ flying this route for prestige purposes. PIA can do this by getting a good trans-atlantic SPA deal with AA, UA, VS, DL & CO out of LHR, MAN & BHX respectively for their North American passengers by flying them from PAK to UK and then feed them to these carriers via the UK to USA.

In this manner, they will be offering a convenient ONE STOP product from all major USA cities via UK to all 3 major Pakistani cities on a DAILY BASIS which is much better than flying twice a week KHI-LHE/ISB-MAN-JFK on Sat & Sun !!!

Oman Air

Oman Air has confirmed that it will start nonstop flights to Karachi from its Muscat hub effective October 1st using a Boeing 737-700. The flight will be flown 4 times a week. The flight schedule is as follows :

WY 801 Dep MCT 1120 Arr KHI 1355
WY 802 Dep KHI 1445 Arr MCT 1515

The carrier also announced that it will be launching flights to Riyadh, Bangkok and Jeddah very soon. Both Saudi cities will be served twice a week nonstop from MCT where as BKK would be served 5 times a week. RUH will receive a B 737-700, BKK will get the A 310-300 and JED will get a B 737-800.

Lastly, the airline has struck a deal with Kuwait's ALAFCO leasing company to lease 6 Boeing 787-800s for 12 years with the first model being delivered in 2012.

Analysis:

WY should tweak their schedules a little bit (depart MCT 10-15 minutes earlier) to allow KHI pax to connect via MCT to LGW in both directions. Under the planned schedule, the outbound KHI-MCT flight has a 45 minute transit in MCT if the passenger's final destination is London Gatwick which is too little as the minimum legal connecting time at MCT airport is 50 minutes. However, inbound from LGW, there is a convenient 90 minute transit at MCT en-route to KHI.

Malaysian Airlines

Malaysian Airlines has announced that it will be launching new flights to Lahore, Pakistan from Kuala Lumpur effective January 7th 2008. The flights will be flown 3 times a week and in a triangular manner i.e. KUL-KHI-LHE-KUL.

MH will use the Airbus A 330-300 for this service and as a result is expected to suspend its twice weekly KHI-Dubai service to accommodate the LHE bound flight.

The airline has also announced other major changes to its route network for the forthcoming winter season. The main highlights are as follows :

NGO - 4 weekly flights suspended from early January 2008.

ZRH - 3 weekly flights to be suspended from January 22nd 2008.

BLR / CMB & MLE - each city gets an additional 4th weekly flight.

HYD - capacity upgraded to a weekly A 333 + 2 weekly A 332s.

MAA - will receive 2 extra flights per week.

ADL - frequencies increased to 5 times a week between Dec 4th and Feb 6th.

British Airways

British Airways has released tentative plans for its Summer 2008 schedule which sees interesting changes being made to its long haul route network. The main highlights are as follows :

HRE & DTW - both cities will be suspended.

IAH - will be served double daily with a B 772ER from Heathrow.

JFK - increased from 51 to 55 flights a week.

SEA - increased from 10 to 13 flights a week.

DFW - will be served daily by a B 772ER from Heathrow.

IAD - increased from 21 to 24 flights a week.

MCO - increased from daily to 10 flights a week; all from LGW with a B 772ER.

Etihad Airways

Etihad Airways will be increasing flights to Sydney, Australia effective March 2008 by adding 4 extra weekly flights to the popular AUH-SYD route. As a result, the route will be served 11 times a week but it is not yet clear if the additional 4 weekly flights will be flown nonstop from AUH or via the Far East.

According to the latest figures released by EY, the SYD route sees a 68% load factor in Economy, 85% in Business and 78% in First Class.

Emirates

Emirates is selling 3 Boeing 777-200As (non ERs) to interested buyers. All three aircraft feature a regional 2 class layout seating 346 passengers in business and economy. These aircraft were all manufactured by Boeing in 1996. Their registration numbers are as follows :

A6-EMD - 1996

A6-EME - 1996

A6-EMF - 1996

Engines are Trent 877-17.

MSN Registration # are 27247/48/49.

If anyone is interested in buying these 3 aircraft, please contact Mr Tim at BOC Aviation :

tim.pickston@bocaviation.com

Delta Airlines

Delta Airlines has announced that it will be launching new flights to Stockholm, Sweden nonstop from its Atlanta hub effective June 3rd 2008. All flights will be flown nonstop from ATL using a Boeing 767-300ER. These new flights will be flown 6 times a week i.e. no flight on Monday.

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic has officially revealed that due to strong customer demand for its Premium Economy cabin product, it will be increasing the number of seats in this cabin on board its Boeing 747-400s only from 32 to 64 per plane. It will do this by removing many regular economy class seats to make way for this expansion on board.

Kuwait Airways

Kuwait Airways has confirmed that it has canceled an order for 12 Boeing 787-800s + 7 A 320-200s from leasing company ALAFCO as it could not get the formal approval of the Kuwaiti Government which is the largest shareholder of the airline.

Instead, the Govt has now ordered KU to deal directly with Airbus & Boeing and not involve any third party as part of the process. As a result, the carrier is now in discussions with both airplane manufacturers for an order for 36 aircraft (combination of wide body and narrow body).

Jet Airways

According to Sabre, Jet Airways of India will be suspending flights from Ahmedabad, India to London Heathrow Airport effective January 13th 2008. Currently, the airline flies 3 times a week using an A 332 from AMD to LHR.

Instead, the airline will increase its Amritsar-Heathrow bound flights from 3 flights a week to daily from that same period. All daily flights from ATQ to LHR will be flown by an A 332.

In addition, 9W has won the Indian Government's approval to launch flights to the Middle East from January 1st 2008.

The allocation given to it by the Indian Government for particular routes is as follows :

DEL-KWI : daily A 332 permitted

COK-KWI : daily B 738 permitted

TRV-KWI : daily B 738 permitted

BOM-BAH : daily B 738 permitted

COK-BAH : daily B 738 permitted

BOM-DOH : daily B 738 permitted

CCJ-DOH : daily B 738 permitted

CCJ-MCT : daily B 738 permitted

COK-MCT : daily B 738 permitted

TRV-MCT : daily B 738 permitted

Flights to AUH & DXB have not been approved as yet by the Indian Government.

Analysis :

Since 9W has now been given the green light to expand flights to the Gulf region, they should focus more on this sector and curtail their fast paced North America expansion as the yield / profit margin of flying A 332s from India to the Middle East is much higher than flying India - BRU - North America.

The B 738s are too small to use on certain Kerala/ BOM / /DEL-Gulf routes when EK / EY / KU / SV / QR / GF use wide bodies (on some routes at least) which not only have more passenger capacity but also the capability of carrying 12 tonnes of cargo which is a handy extra revenue generator in this market segment.

Iberia

Iberia's in-flight magazine i.e. IBPLUS has announced that the Spanish national airline is going to be embarking on a major Asian expansion from 2009 onwards by launching flights to many cities in that region. The magazine mentions that studies have carried out and short listed cities that would warrant nonstop flights from the airline's Madrid hub are Tokyo, Shanghai, Delhi, Beijing and Hong Kong only.

The article also mentions that IB acknowledges that for all of these routes the O&D traffic from Spain would be minimal thus making airline heavily reliant on 6th freedom traffic generated from its USA, UK, Portugal, Northwest Africa and Latin America operations to feed its Asia bound flights.

Analysis :

This is a bold move undertaken by IB which has its pros and cons attached to it. Out of all the cities mentioned by Iberia's magazine, only HKG and PVG warrant nonstop flights where as PEK, DEL & NRT do not.

DEL is well served by numerous EU carriers and there is nothing special for IB in the Spain-India market to necessitate it flying there. Most of the passengers on board IB's MAD-DEL flights would be low yielding economy class ones from USA & UK and not high yielding business class ones.

As for NRT, it is next to impossible for a new airline to get decent slot timings at the airport and therefore, it would be best if IB code shares with BA via LHR or CX via HKG to NRT.

By being a key member of One World, having flights to Hong Kong is warranted as IB can code share with partner Cathay Pacific via HKG to many regional destinations where traffic potential exists. To HKG, it can also attract a lot of passengers & cargo from Morocco, Brazil and Argentina via its MAD hub. Similarly, CX can code share with IB via MAD to Portugal, North Africa and Latin America.

One reckons PVG would be a better market for IB than PEK because not only is it the financial capital of China but also Air China already offers flights twice a week nonstop from PEK to MAD thus by flying to PVG nonstop from MAD, IB can have a nice niche market all for itself. To PVG, cargo loads would do very well year round and by having an extensive Latin American network, it can feed a lot of pax from GIG, GRU & EZE to PVG; both the high yielding businessmen and the leisure/tourist types.

Concluding, only PVG & HKG should be seriously looked into by IB by having both routes receive 4 weekly flights flown nonstop from MAD using an A 343 to initially test the respective markets before upgrading to daily flights. But IB must ensure that its PVG & HKG bound flights connect conveniently in both directions to its Brazil & Argentina bound flights via MAD as these 2 markets will provide the major lifeline for the routes.

Royal Jordanian

Royal Jordanian has announced that it will be expanding its presence in the Far East markets this winter by flying 3 additional flights to Bangkok and extending them to Hong Kong, a new city in its network. These 3 additional flights will be flown using an A 310-300 and will make its BKK operation become daily.

RJ is part of the One World alliance group hence the desire to connect HKG; a major OW hub of fellow member Cathay Pacific with its own.

Analysis :

Even though HKG airport is a key One World hub, that does not warrant the need for RJ to fly there, that too via BKK using a small A 310-300. Besides the fact that O&D traffic between HKG & AMM is minimal, by using such a small plane on this type of a route, RJ is guaranteed to lose money as the aircraft is too small to be effectively here. RJ needs to deploy their A 342 to HKG via BKK if there is to be any serious chance of making decent revenue on this route. This is because of the extra passenger and cargo carrying capacity the A 342 provides compared to the A 313.

Also why would anyone from AMM want to fly on an old aging RJ A 313 to HKG via BKK when they can do so on a daily basis via DXB/DOH on EK & QR respectively who offer superior in-flight product on board their A 332s/A 346s respectively.