Emirates to Fly A380 to Tokyo Narita and Melbourne
United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier Emirates Airline is to introduce the Airbus A380 on its flights from Dubai International to Tokyo Narita and Auckland via Melbourne as it takes delivery of additional aircraft during 2012. The carrier will use the A380 on a daily flight to the Japanese capital from July 1, 2012, while the type will be introduced on the daily Dubai – Melbourne – Auckland route from October 1, 2012. Auckland is already served by the airline’s A380s from Dubai via Sydney. In the last four weeks Emirates has introduced the A380 on its flights from Dubai to Munich and Rome Fiumicino and it now has 18 examples in service with a further 72 on order. Alongside these new deployments the type is used on services to London Heathrow, Manchester, New York, Paris, Sydney, Auckland, Toronto, Bangkok, Seoul, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, while Kuala Lumpur will join the A380 network from January 1, 2012. Since being brought into service in August 2008, Emirates’ A380s have carried more than seven million passengers and flown more than 100 million kilometers, according to the carrier.
Etihad Airways Lands in Chengdu and Düsseldorf
Over the past couple of days United Arab Emirates (UAE) national carrier Etihad Airways has inaugurated flights from its Abu Dhabi International Airport hub to the fast expanding southwest Chinese city of Chengdu and the German city of Düsseldorf. The airline has also formalised a codeshare arrangement with Hainan Airlines and increased its minority shareholding in German carrier airberlin further strengthening its activities in the Chinese and German markets. Etihad Airways launched the new four times weekly service to Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan province, on December 15, opening the first link to the city from the UAE. The airline is using a two-class Airbus A330-200 aircraft on the sector with 22 Pearl Business class and 240 Coral Economy class seats. “This is a day of celebration for the airline and the communities at both ends of the route,” said James Hogan, Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways. “The new services will open convenient new gateways for travel to and from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa and stimulate growth of trade between the UAE and China, already the Emirates’ third largest trading partner.” According to Etihad executives, advanced passenger and cargo sales have been strong and the airline has already begun to look at increasing the frequency of the route to a daily schedule as soon as that becomes commercially viable. Chengdu’s Shuangliu International Airport has seen rapid growth over the past few years as the city it serves has taken on a more prominent role in the Chinese economy. Last year it was the sixth largest passenger and cargo gateway in China and will be the host of next year’s Routes Asia forum, which will take place between April 15 and 17, 2012. Etihad Airways also launched flights between Abu Dhabi and Düsseldorf last week with the inaugural flight receiving a now customary water cannon salute from the Airport Fire Service on December 16, 2012. The airline will initially operate four weekly flights but has already confirmed it will increase to a daily operation from April 2012. The route is being served by an Airbus A330-300 aircraft, in a three-class configuration, offering eight Diamond First Class suites, 32 seats in Pearl Business class and 191 seats in Coral Economy class. According to Etihad’s Chief Commercial Officer, Peter Baumgartner, forward bookings for the route are strong, both outbound and inbound from Düsseldorf to Abu Dhabi and through to key destinations in Australasia and the Indian subcontinent. “Germany is a strategically important market for Etihad Airways. We have carried more than 1.7 million passengers to and from Germany since we started flights to Munich back in 2004, and now we operate 25 weekly services to Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich,” he said. “Düsseldorf was a logical step in growing our European passenger operations. By growing direct point to point traffic between the two cities, we also look forward to strengthening business and leisure ties between the capital of the UAE and Germany.”
S7 Airlines to Fly to Valencia
Russian carrier S7 Airlines has announced it will launch flights from the Russian capital to Valencia next year, its third destination in Spain. The company will offer a weekly service from Moscow Domodedovo from June 2, 2012 adding to its existing flights to Madrid and the popular tourist destination of Alicante. It will use a 128-seat Airbus A319 on the route, configured in a two-class layout. There is growing demand between Russia and Spain, mainly fuelled by Russians taking holidays although there is a stable business demand between the two countries that is also helping the market grow. In the past year an estimated 994,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two countries, up 48.8 per cent on the previous 12 months. S7 Airlines currently has just a 6.0 per cent share of the O&D traffic between Spain and Russia (the fifth largest operator in the market), but expects to grow about the 10 per cent figure as it enhances its schedules between the countries. Around 14,000 O&D passengers travelled between Valencia and Moscow’s three main air gateways – Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo. The point-to-point demand between Moscow Domodedovo and Valencia is estimated to be around 10,000 passengers per year with the majority travelling with Iberia via Madrid.
Air Austral Makes Schedule Adjustments
Air Austral has announced that it will suspend flights to Bangkok, Noumea and Sydney to allow it to concentrate on its core market of providing links between Reunion Island and France. The airline will also expand its network to France after opening reservations on a new direct service to Paris CDG from the Seychelles, filling the void after Air Seychelles withdraws from the European market early next year. In a statement Air Austral has confirmed it will suspend the weekly St Denis de la Reunion – Bangkok and up to twice weekly St Denis de la Reunion – Sydney – Noumea routes from March 2012. This will result in the suspension of all long-haul services between Reunion and East Asia. Air Austral has only been serving Bangkok since April this year having previously held a codeshare arrangement with Air Madagascar on its Antananarivo – St Denis de la Reunion – Bangkok – Guangzhou route. It has been flying to Sydney and Noumea since April 2009. The French market has been Air Austral’s focus for many years and the carrier plans to introduce the Airbus A380 into this market. It has two examples on order for delivery in 2014 and plans to configure them in an 840-seat all-Economy layout.
Etihad Signs Hainan Airlines Codeshare
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has signed a codeshare agreement with Hainan Airlines of China. It is the Abu Dhabi-based airline’s first codeshare with a Chinese carrier and its 35th with airlines across the world. The agreement will further strengthen the airline’s presence in the emerging Chinese market. Subject to regulatory approvals, Hainan Airlines will place its ‘HU’ code on Etihad Airways’ flights between Abu Dhabi and the Chinese cities of Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai. The arrangement will extend to Etihad Airways’ flights beyond Abu Dhabi to Khartoum International Airport in Sudan. The codeshare is expected to come into force from January 10, 2012 although the agreement on the Shanghai route will not go live until March 1, 2012. “Working with a major player like Hainan Airlines will increase Chinese passenger numbers on our China - Abu Dhabi services and beyond to popular destinations in Africa, Middle East and Europe,” said James Hogan, Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways. “We look forward to expanding the relationship to include more destinations over time.” “The codeshare cooperation with Etihad Airways will reinforce Hainan Airlines’ development in the Middle East and Africa region. We have great expectations of the partnership, and believe that through mutual creativity, we will be able to bring synergy and hopefully value to our customers,” added Tie Li, President, Hainan Airlines.
Aerosvit Inaugurates Ho Chi Minh Service
Ukrainian carrier Aerosvit Airlines has launched flights between Kiev and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. The carrier’s inaugural flight departed the Ukrainian capital on December 21 and the eleven hour flight will be operated on a twice weekly basis using a Boeing 767-300ER. Aerosvit expects passengers on the route to be dominated by tourist and ethnic traffic, but it also expects to pick up some business demand. The flight has been scheduled to maximise connections at its Kiev Borispol Airport base, particularly from the Baltic, Scandinavian and CIS markets, while onward flights around Asia are being offered by Vietnam Airlines, a codeshare partner on the new long-haul flight. An estimated 22,000 O&D passengers travelled between Ukraine and Vietnam in the past year with Aerosvit Airlines holding around a 49 per cent share of this traffic.
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