Emirates

Emirates new Dubai-Sao Paulo route could go double daily by next year as advance load factors on the six times weekly service are already exceeding expectations. The route is not only proving popular with business travellers and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) traffic, but also with leisure passengers in Brazil. EK's Manager for South America i.e. Mr Ralph Aasmann said a double daily service could be introduced in July 2008.

In addition, EK has announced that effective, it will be increasing seating capacity on its 5 daily flights to London Heathrow by suspending A 332 operations to the airport and making all of its DXB-LHR flights being flown by the B 777-200s/300s.

Emirates are expected to announce a multi billion order for Airbus and Boeing wide bodied aircraft at next month's Dubai Air Show. According to insiders at the EK DXB HQ, EK is expected to announce an order for 50 firm Airbus A 350-800 / 900s + 50 options which will be used to entirely replace its large fleet of A 332s and B 772s by 2014-16.

In addition, EK will also order for the first time the passenger version of the Boeing 747 i.e. the B 747-800. Twenty orders are expected to be placed by EK for this variant in the form of 10 firm commitments + 10 options.

British Airways

British Airways has announced that it will be increasing its flights to Dubai, UAE for the upcoming winter season. Frequencies will rise from 14 to 20 times a week with all flights operated by the Boeing 777-200ER. Since 2004, BA has maintained this seasonal increase on its DXB route in the winter season.

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines took delivery of its first Airbus A 380 yesterday in a lavish ceremony at Airbus's Toulouse head quarters. SQ will fly its inaugural A 380 flight from SIN to SYD on Oct 25th and has confirmed that its second destination to get the A 380 will be Tokyo Narita from May 2008. During the festivities in TLS, SQ finally unveiled to the media what its new first and business class cabins on board the A 380 will look like.

For pictures of it, see below : Double beds in First Class: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/business_first_airbus_a380_delivered/html/2.stm

SQ A 380 First Class: http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/content/exp/new/suite/index.jsp

SQ A 380 Business Class: http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/content/exp/new/businessclass/index.jsp

SQ A 380 Economy Class: http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/content/exp/new/economyclass/index.jsp

Pictures from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/business_first_airbus_a380_delivered/html/4.stm

Air Canada

Air Canada has announced that it will be resuming year round flights to Madrid, Spain nonstop from Toronto effective June 15th 2008.

All flights will be flown using a Boeing 767-300ER on a daily basis during the summer season but will see a reduction in the lean winter period.

Analysis :

QR in Canada will be happy to hear of this as it gives them an additional EU gateway to send their pax from.

Iceland Air

Iceland Air has confirmed that it will be launching new scheduled flights to Toronto, Canada nonstop from its KEF hub 5 times a week using a B 757-200ER effective May 27th 2008.

However, to keep up with seasonal demand for this route, flights will be reduced to 4 weekly from 1st Sept 08.

Flight timings are as follows :

FI 603 KEF 1700 - 1855 YYZ

FI 602 YYZ 2110 - 0625 KEF

Uzbekistan Airways

Uzbekistan Airways has announced that due to mega losses, it will be suspending its twice weekly flights from its Tashkent hub to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia effective immediately.

EVA Air

EVA Air Cargo has announced that it will be launching twice weekly freighter flights to Houston, Texas from its Taipei hub effective November 1st 2007. Both flights will be flown using the Boeing 747-400 freighter.

The route structure would be TPE- ANC- ORD- IAH- ANC- TPE.

Gulf Air

Gulf Air has announced that it will make a big announcement at the upcoming Dubai Air show (Nov 11-15 2007) about its future plans as well as revealing a big order to lease wide bodied and narrow bodied Boeing and Airbus planes. Along with GF, EK, QR and possibly KU too are expected to order and firm up orders at this bi annual event.

Analysis:

Many people feel that the Boeing 787-800 & -900 series is the perfect replacement for GF's A 332/A 343 fleet. That may sound logical but to the naked eye, one reckons that the B 788 is too small to replace GF 's 3 class A 332s on medium haul flights as it has a very spacious J & F class cabin.

The perfect aircraft for GF to purchase is the B 789 because it can be used for all flights in its network i.e. as a 3 class 240 seater for Europe & UK + possible future nonstop long hauls to USA & as a 2 class 270 seater for its high density Indian subcontinent/ BKK MNL / & JED bound flights.

Air France / KLM

Air France & KLM has revealed tentative details of its long haul Summer 2008 schedule of which the main highlights are as follows:

PVG - increased to double daily using a B 772ER by AF, where as KLM have increased their AMS-PVG flights to 12 weekly all using B 744 Combis.

ATL - 3 class service re-introduced by AF with daily B 772ER flights.

PEK - increased to double daily by AF using a B 773ER.

HKG - increased by AF to double daily B 772ERs.

BLR - capacity reduced by AF from daily B 772ERs in the winter to daily A 332s.

YYZ - will once again see daily B 744 service by AF.

DEL - capacity reduced by AF from daily B 744s in the winter to daily A 343s.

UKIA

A new airline financed by the expat Pakistani community residing in the UK has formed an airline called UKIA i.e. UK International Airlines has managed to get two Boeing 767-200ERs which will be based at the airline's main hub at East Midlands (EMA) Airport.

UKIA will use the aircraft to launch 3 weekly flights from EMA to Islamabad, Pakistan via Sharjah. According to its authorized agents in the Midlands region of the UK, the airline plans on obtaining 2-3 more B 762ERs to fly to Dhaka, Kathmandu, Gambia, Delhi and eventually increase ISB bound flights to 5 weekly.

The first flight departs on Oct 19th 2007 for ISB from EMA and the introductory fare on offer is GBP 390 all taxes inclusive for EMA-ISB-EMA.

UKIA's ISB schedule visit : http://www.ukinternationalairlines.com/shdl.pdf

Official website : http://www.ukinternationalairlines.com/default.asp

Airline profile : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_International_Airlines

US Airways

After signing a commitment with Airbus at the Paris Air Show in June 2007, US Airways has now firmed up the contract for the purchase of 92 Airbus aircraft, including 18 A 350-800s, 4 A 350-900s, 10 A 330-200s, and 60 A320 family aircraft. The airline is slated to receive its first A350 in 2014 with deliveries running through 2017.

Delivery dates for the newly ordered A330s run from 2009 through 2010. The A 320 Family order is comprised of 10 A321s, 40 A 320s and 10 A 319s with extensive conversion rights within the A320 Family.

Lufthansa

Lufthansa of Germany has officially confirmed that it will be increasing capacity to Houston, Texas from Frankfurt effective April 1st 2008.

During the winter season, it will fly a daily A 340-600 on the FRA-IAH route, however from the onset of the summer 2008 timetable, the route will be upgraded to a daily Boeing 747-400.

Egypt Air

Egypt Air has announced that it will be leasing 11 new wide bodied aircraft to fuel its long haul expansion. The airline will lease 3 Airbus A 330-200s + 8 new Boeing 777-300ERs.

The latter will replace the entire fleet of 5 leased Boeing 777-200ERs. The B 773ERs & A 332s will start arriving into MS's fleet from late 2010 onwards.

Analysis :

The main reason why MS chose the B 773ER was because it can fly nonstop from its CAI hub to IAH & Japan & the U.S. West Coast without a payload restriction which its B 772ERs could not. MS's B 772ERs are configured for 319 passengers in a 3 class layout however the B 773ERs are likely to have a 2 class configuration (by eliminating first class) seating approximately 370 passengers.

Northwest Airlines

Northwest Airlines will shortly be announcing that it will be launching a new long haul trans-atlantic service to Amsterdam, Holland from Portland, Oregon using an Airbus A 330-200. The new flight will begin next year and is expected to be flown on a daily basis.

Czech Airlines

Czech Airlines is rumored to announce that it will be suspending its long haul flights to both Montreal and Toronto from April 2008. This comes after serving Canada for over 35 years.

OK currently uses A 310-300s for its PRG-Canada bound flights and was the cheapest airline to fly to Eastern Europe from Canada via its Prague hub.

Maxjet

Maxjet, the all business class airline that flies out of London Stansted airport has revealed changes to its long haul network for 2007-08. The airline flies an all business class configured Boeing 767-200ER on trans-atlantic flights which seat 102 passengers.

The main highlights of its network changes are as follows :

LAX - increased to 5 weekly flights from December 2007.

LAS - increased from 4 to 6 weekly flights effective February 2008.

JFK - increased from daily to 10 weekly flights effective March 2008.

IAD - all flights suspended from November 2007.

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.