Air Asia X announces Barcelona and Istanbul

Air Asia X, the long haul arm of the famous low cost carrier has officially announced its return to Europe with the launch of new flights to Barcelona and Istanbul each respectively.

It will operate the route on a daily basis using an A330-300 as KUL-IST-BCN v.v. effective 30OCT16 using the below mentioned schedule:

D7 001 Dep KUL1000 Arr IST 1500 // Dep IST1630 Arr BCN– 1920
D7 002 Dep BCN 2050 Arr IST 0120+1 // Dep IST 0250 Arr KUL 1930

Comments:

It is highly surprising to see a carrier launch a new daily service to IST this fall season considering the on going political unrest in Turkey. In addition, D7 is flying from the on set a daily service to 2 new long haul destinations by giving the market only 2 months advance awareness notice which is not enough. 

IST is a big market from KUL seeing 96,000 passengers in 2015 but that was when things were stable law and order wise in Turkey. As far as BCN is concerned, the demand from KUL in 2015 was 17,000 pax however the main aim for both these destinations is to feed on to other Air Asia flights via KUL to Austral-Asia. Demand from IST to SE Asia is very big however from BCN it isnt and considering its a two stop product on offer versus one stop on EK/QR/TK/LH/AF/KL/LX, BCN will be a tough nut to crack as these legacy carriers wont cede market share to D7 that easily !   

Emirates increases Guangzhou and Manchester capacity

Emirates has officially announced that it will be significantly increasing its capacity on both its Manchester and Guangzhou routes effective 01OCT16 onwards in the following manner:

CAN - capacity increased from daily B77W to daily A380 effective 01OCT16

MAN - capacity increased to an exclusive triple daily A380 service effective 01JAN17

Comments:

The capacity increase to CAN would enable EK to compete more effectively versus the low price tag of ET/KQ on the West/East Africa-CAN segment where demand is high but ultra price sensitive.

Air France announces Accra nonstop

Air France has officially announced that it will be launching new nonstop services into Accra, Ghana effective 28FEB17 onwards. Currently, this market is served by its sister carrier KLM nonstop from Amsterdam but having noticed the higher yields + more stable operating environment that Accra offers versus all other British West African states, AF has decided to expand its reach. 

It shall operate 3 weekly flights using a B777-200ER using the below mentioned schedule:

Days - 2/4/6

AF 780 Dep CDG 1530 Arr ACC 1950
AF 731 Dep ACC 2340 Arr CDG 0800+1

Thai Airways announces Tehran-Bangkok nonstop

Thai Airways has officially announced that it will be launching new nonstop flights to IKA-Tehran, Iran from its Bangkok hub airport effective 01OCT16. 

Flights will be flown using a 292 seater B777-200ER (30J + 262Y) with the below mentioned schedule:

Days: 2/4/6/7

TG 527 Dep BKK 1530 Arr IKA 1930
TG 528 Dep IKA 2100 Arr BKK 0655+1 

Jetblue orders 30 more A321s

Jetblue has officially announced that it has ordered 30 additional Airbus A321s as the airline is extremely happy with the current A321s in its fleet especially with its trademark MINT product service.

Under the terms of the new deal, B6 will take delivery of 15 additional A321CEOs between 2017-19 out of which 5 will be configured in the MINT premium layout. The remaining 15 are for the A321NEO of which B6 has the option of converting the order into the A321NEO LR version if market dynamics warrant it which would enable them to fly to UK and Ireland nonstop from BOS + JFK. 

In total once all aircraft are delivered, it will result in B6 having a fleet of 79 A321s. The MINT configuration is 16J (flat bed seats) + 143Y where as the normal A321 configuration is 190Y. 

Source: 

http://otp.investis.com/clients/us/jetblue_airways/usn/usnews-story.aspx?cid=981&newsid=37146

Malaysia Airlines orders 50 B737MAXs

Malaysia Airlines has officially announced that as part of its turn around strategy, it has decided to stick with Boeing aircraft for its narrow body fleet renewal process hence has gone ahead placing a US$5.5 billion order for 50 Boeing 737MAX aircraft. 

The order breakdown is for 25 firm + 25 options for both the B738MAX and B739MAX versions. Currently, MH operates 56 B738s in its fleet and these B738MAXs in particular will be used to replace the oldest B738s around once they get delivered. 

A dozen B739MAXs are expected to be part of the order and will be used on 6-7 hour routes that have medium density demand not requiring the use of a wide body aircraft.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-27/boeing-wins-malaysia-airlines-order-for-25-b737-max-aircraft

Etihad makes JFK double daily A380 from 01JUN17

Etihad Airways has officially announced that it will be significantly increasing capacity on its popular New York JFK service which is currently operated on a double daily nonstop basis. 

Presently, EY flies a daily B773ER + daily A380 on this route however effective 01JUN17, both flights will exclusively flown with the A380 only. 

Source: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/etihad-plans-increase-a380-services-new-york-s-jfk-640099.html

United increases Shanghai-San Francisco to double daily

United Airlines has officially announced that due to heavy demand forecasted in the near future for its popular San Francisco-Shanghai service, the airline will be increasing frequencies to a double daily basis effective 14OCT.

Currently, UA operates a daily B744 on SFO-PVG where as the new second daily service will be flown using the more efficient B789. In 2015, 299,000 passengers flew P2P PVG-SFO-PVG versus 445,000 for PVG-LAX-PVG.

Emirates increases Milan capacity

Emirates has officially announced that it will be increasing capacity to Milan from the on set of the IATA W16 season. Currently, EK operates a triple daily service with 2 B77Ws + an A380. 

Effective 30OCT16, capacity gets increased to double daily A380s (early morning + evening arrival into MXP) + the daily B77W.

On a daily basis, this means an additional 160 seats are added by EK on the DXB-MXP route per direction. 

Singapore Airlines long haul W16 capacity adjustments

Singapore Airlines has announced significant structural changes to its long haul services to Europe and Houston from the on set of the IATA W16 season, of which the main highlights are as follows:

IAH (Houston) - all 5 weekly flights to be re-routed via Manchester using a B773ER

DME (Moscow) - to be operated as a nonstop terminator service but 4 times per week using a B773ER

MAN - all 5 weekly flights to be operated as nonstop SIN-MAN-SIN rather than via MUC and shall be extended to Houston with 5th freedom traffic rights

MUC - all flights to be operated on a daily basis by B773ER

Source: http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/gb/media-centre/press-release/article/?q=en_UK/2016/July-September/ne2116-160721

EVA and China Southern suspend Istanbul

As a result of the recent political events in Turkey which include a failed coup plus a deadly bomb attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport, the first real fall out (airline wise) has finally taken place with two long haul route suspensions:

• Taiwan's Eva Air has confirmed that it will be suspending all TPE-IST 4 weekly nonstop flights effective 25JUL until April 2017
• China Southern (Guangzhou based) has also confirmed that it has indefinitely suspended all 3 weekly nonstop Urumqi-Istanbul services effective immediately

Emirates reduces long haul network operations

Due to primarily lower than anticipated revenue as a result of yield drop in many long haul market segments, Emirates has officially announced major network reductions across its network which are as follows:

BKK - frequencies reduced from 7 to 6 daily nonstop effective 01AUG

FCO - frequencies reduced from 3 to 2 daily nonstop effective 01OCT

OSL - frequencies reduced from daily to 5 weekly effective 01SEP

KHI - frequencies reduced from 7 to 5 daily effective 01AUG

SAW - all nonstop flights suspended effective 03AUG

LIS - frequencies reduced from double daily to daily nonstop effective 01SEP

LED -  frequencies reduced from daily to 5 weekly effective 02AUG

LAD - frequencies reduced from daily to 5 weekly effective 03AUG

CGK - frequencies reduced from 3 to 2 daily nonstop effective 01OCT

Farnoborough 2016 aircraft orders

The 2016 Farnborough Air Show which took place in the UK this week revealed 4 major aircraft orders worth mentioning as the industry is on the edge as a result of falling yields and revenues worldwide. 

The 4 main orders placed at the show were as follows:

1. Virgin Atlantic announced a deal to purchase 12 Airbus A350-1000s which have been ear marked to replace their B747-400 / A340-600 fleet at both LHR + LGW. 
2. Air Asia (the main Malaysia franchise) announced a mega deal to purchase 100 Airbus A321NEOs to be configured with 236 seats
3. Egypt Air placed an order for 9 new Boeing 737-800NGs 
4. Norwegian exchanged a previous order of 100 A320NEOs to include 31 A321NEOs part of the deal. It stated that it shall use these aircraft on Europe-U.S. East Coast trans-atlantic flights

Emirates reduces Lagos frequencies

Emirates has officially announced that due to issues related to getting foreign exchange out of Nigeria, as well as the depreciation of the naira + downfall of the local economy, it will be reducing its flights into Lagos airport effective 01JUL16.

Currently, EK operates double daily services using a B777-300ER, however from 01JUL onwards this is going to be reduced to a daily flight only with the afternoon departure out of DXB along with the night time from LOS each respectively suspended until further notice. This flight will not return in IATA W16 season.

Qatar Airways increases Saudi Arabia and Najaf flights

Qatar Airways has been officially awarded 35 additional frequencies into the Saudi Arabian market by the latter's CAA of which the carrier has revealed the following:

JED - frequencies increased from current double daily to 4 daily nonstop effective 01AUG

RUH - same as above but no launch date provided as yet for additional flights

MED - an extra daily frequency awarded which has yet to be uploaded

In addition, QR also confirmed that it will be increasing its flights to NJF-Najaf, Iraq effective 01SEP16 with the launch of a new 3rd daily nonstop service. All 3 daily flights will be exclusively operated with the A320.

Sri Lankan Airlines suspends Frankfurt and Paris

Sri Lankan Airlines has revealed via filing on sabre gds system that it shall be suspending its loss making services to both Frankfurt and Paris from the on set of the IATA W16 season.

FRA-CMB is currently operated 5 times per week nonstop where as CDG-CMB is flown 4 times per week. Both routes are operated using a mixture of A332s and A333s. 

The closure is not unexpected as it was clearly hinted by the present UL CEO in Nov 2015 where he outlined that yields from EU to CMB + SE Asia were at an all time low along with it being pointless competing with TK + ME3. 

Emirates increases Auckland nonstop to A380

Emirates has officially announced that it will be significantly increasing capacity on its recently launched Dubai-Auckland nonstop service from the on set of the IATA W16 season.

Currently, EK uses a 266 seater Boeing 777-200LR on the nonstop DXB-AKL route however effective 30OCT16 onwards, capacity will be upgraded by deploying the 3 class 489 seater Airbus A380 over here. In turn this shall make AKL served 4 times daily with all flights exclusively operated by the A380 aircraft.

United increases Tel Aviv from San Francisco

United Airlines has officially announced that due to high demand on its recently launched nonstop San Francisco-Tel Aviv service, it shall be increasing its offering on the route from the on set of the IATA W16 season.

Currently, UA flies SFO-TLV nonstop 3 times per week using a B788. These will be in turn increased to daily nonstop using the same aircraft type.

Vietjet orders 100 B737MAXs

In a major blow to Airbus, Vietnam's largest privately owned airline i.e. Viejet has placed an order for 100 Boeing 737-800MAX planes in the high density configuration that would seat 200 passengers. 

VJ's current fleet comprises of 5 A321s + 30 A320s + it already had a pending order with Airbus for 30 A321NEOs and 50 A320NEOs. With the placement of this new order, the carrier will not maintain its one family fleet type but rather will fly both side by side plus lease out units to franchises set up in other Asian countries.

United suspends Lagos-Houston

United Airlines has officially announced that it will be suspending all of its current 6 weekly Lagos-Houston nonstop flights effective 29JUN16. UA has been voicing strong concerns over repatriating forex out of Nigeria for the past 6 months and now has pulled the plug as they dont want to risk another 'Venezuela' on their cash flow balance sheet.

A statement from UA is mentioned below:

"The IAH-LOS route has been underperforming financially for several years. Because of its importance to key Houston-based customers, we continued to invest in it; however, the recent downturn in the energy sector has caused these customers to spend less on travel. Additionally, various U.S. companies, including United, have not been able to collect revenue from tickets and cargo sold locally in Nigerian currency. As about half of the revenue generated by the route comes from Nigeria point-of-sale, this has made the route unsustainable.

We will be redeploying the aircraft to our popular SFO-TLV (Tel Aviv, Israel) route, which will expand from three-times-weekly to daily in October. Demand is high to TLV from both SFO and EWR, so adding capacity here makes sense."