News From Asia 亚洲新闻

Richard Maslen February 03, 2011

AEROFLOT PLANS SEOUL UPGRADES

Aeroflot Russian Airlines is to add a fifth weekly rotation on its Moscow Sheremetyevo – Seoul Incheon service between May 20 and September 16. The additional flight will be operated by a Boeing 767-300ER departing the Russian capital on Friday evenings, returning from South Korea the following day. Aeroflot competes directly with Korean Air on the route, with the latter holding a 70 per cent share of a 66,000 O&D passenger market.

JAPANESE CARRIER DREAMS OF MARKET GROWTH

Following the recent expansion of its Embraer E-Jet fleet, Japanese regional carrier Fuji Dream Airlines is to boost its network with the introduction of a twice-daily Nagoya Komaki – Kumamoto service from March 27. This route is currently served twice-daily by a regional partner of Japan Airlines using a Bombardier CRJ200. Fuji Dream will also launch direct services between Shizuoka and Sapporo Chitose – the latter was previously served via Kumamoto – as well as upping frequencies on the Shizuoka – Fukuoka route, subject to the operational hours at Shizuoka Airport being extended.

JUNEYAO UPS FREQUENCIES TO HONG KONG

China’s low-cost carrier Juneyao Airlines is to add a second daily rotation on its Shanghai Pu Dong – Hong Kong service, a route that was only launched in December last year. The morning flight will complement its existing afternoon/evening service and will help boost Juneyao’s presence on an already busy route. For the week January 14-20, there were more than 200 weekly flights, with Dragonair holding a 40 per cent share of the weekly seat capacity, China Eastern Airlines a 25 per cent stake and Juneyao just two per cent.

AIRDO EXPANDS AT TOKYO HANEDA

Japanese carrier AirDo (Hokkaido International Airlines) is to introduce a three-times daily Tokyo Haneda – Tokachi Obihiro service from March 27. It will boost weekly seat capacity by a third, competing with Japan Airlines’ four-times daily service operated by an Airbus A300-600. AirDo plans to use a Boeing 737-500 on the route, painted in a special promotional 'Bear-Do' livery. Further growth at Haneda will come from an increase in frequencies from ten to 12 a day on AirDo’s flights to Sapporo Chitose. This busy route is already served with 413 weekly frequencies with AirDo the third largest operator (by weekly seat capacity) behind All Nippon Airways (ANA) (49 per cent share) and Japan Airlines (31 per cent).

DRAGONAIR INCREASES ITS SCHEDULE TO NINGBO

Hong Kong-based Dragonair is to offer ten weekly services to the seaport city of Ningbo this summer boosting its capacity between the two markets by more than a third. It currently offers a daily schedule with five flights operated using Airbus A320s and two with larger A321s. However, from March 27 it will utilise A320s on all flights, with additional departures from Hong Kong on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Dragonair competes with China Eastern Airlines on the route with the latter the market leader with 55 per cent of a 128,000 O&D passenger market.

AIR CHINA BOOSTS TOKYO NARITA FREQUENCIES TO 49 A WEEK

Star Alliance member Air China is to start a twice-weekly Wuhan – Tokyo Narita service from March 30, increasing its weekly schedules to the Japanese airport to 49. It currently has 19 weekly flights from Beijing (including seven originating from Chengdu); 21 from Shanghai Pu Dong (including seven weekly each originating from Chongqing and Shenzhen); four weekly rotations from Dalian and three from Chengdu (reducing to just two between March 27 and July 1). It also operates 14 weekly flights on the Beijing – Tokyo Haneda route. The new flight will be operated by an Airbus 320 and Air China will be the sole airline serving the route.

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