News From Asia 亚洲新闻

Richard Maslen March 24, 2011

AIR CHINA DROPS PLANNED TOKYO ROUTES

Air China has announced that it will postpone the launch of proposed flights from Chengdu and Wuhan to the Japanese capital Tokyo following the earthquake and tsunami earlier this month. The new routes were due to be inaugurated on March 27 on a twice weekly basis, but Air China said uncertainty over passenger demand for the coming Northern Summer season had led it to take the decision. There are currently no direct flights from either of these cities to destinations in Japan.

AIR KORYO STILL PLANNING KUALA LUMPUR LINK

North Korean flag carrier Air Koryo is still planning to launch its Pyongyang – Kuala Lumpur service from March 28 although company sources suggest the flight’s launch is “not set in concrete”. The airline plans to operate a Tupolev Tu-204 on the twice weekly link, which may be operated in conjunction with flights to Singapore. Air Koryo already offers connections to Bangkok, Beijing, Shenyang and Vladivostok, with approximately 46,000 O&D passengers using its flights in and out of Pyongyang Sunan International Airport in 2010. Air China is the only overseas airline to serve North Korea with a three times weekly link from Beijing, operated by a Boeing 737-300.

BIMAN OUTLINES AMBITIOUS NETWORK GROWTH PLANS

Biman Bangladesh Airlines has confirmed that it still plans to resume services on the Dhaka – Manchester – New York JFK route this summer and has requested permission from UK and US authorities to extend its licence to serve the two markets. It is currently in discussions to lease a Boeing 777-200 or -200ER to launch the route from May and then plans to introduce its own 777-300ERs from November or December when the first two of four aircraft it has on order are delivered. The national carrier has served New York since 1993, initially via Brussels and from April 2006 via Manchester, but suspended flights later the same month. Alongside this route, Biman is also planning new links to Guwahati, Male, Milan, Paro and Sydney over the coming year, resuming flights to Guangzhou and Colombo and serving the Saudi Arabian cities of Dammam and Riyadh directly from Dhaka rather than on a triangle route.

AIR INDIA RETURNS TO SRI LANKA

Air India has resumed flights to Sri Lanka with the launch of a six times weekly Chennai – Colombo service. The flight will be operated every day except Wednesdays by an Airbus A321 from March 27. The route was previously flown by Indian Airlines, which was finally fully incorporated into Air India earlier this year. Air India will face strong competition from SriLankan Airlines and local carrier Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and SpiceJet, as well as its budget offshoot Air India Express, which already offer 50 weekly frequencies and 8,380 seats between them. Around 560,000 O&D passengers flew to the Indian Ocean Island from Chennai in the year ending January 2011, with SriLankan the market leader with a 34 per cent share.

SINGAPORE AIRLINES TO DROP FREQUENCIES TO TOKYO HANEDA

Singapore Airlines is to cut capacity between Singapore and Tokyo with the cancellation of one of its two daily flights on the Singapore - Tokyo Haneda route. The frequency cut will come into effect from the beginning of the Northern Summer Schedules on March 27, and a further fall will see an Airbus A330-300 replace a Boeing 777-300ER from April 16. The airline handled around 55,000 O&D passengers on the route in the year ending January 2011, giving it a 54 per cent share of the traffic.

HONG KONG AIRLINES TO UPGRADE THAI LINKS

Hong Kong Airlines is to almost treble its capacity on the Hong Kong – Bangkok route this summer and will also inaugurate flights to Phuket, as it expands its presence in the Thai market. The carrier is to boost frequencies to Bangkok from four to eleven per week from March 27, using Airbus A330-200 widebodies on all the flights. It will compete with Cathay Pacific, Orient Thai Airlines, Thai AirAsia and Thai Airways International. Emirates Airline, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, Pakistan International Airlines, Royal Jordanian and SriLankan Airlines also serve the route as an extension of flights from their home markets. Together there are more than 110 weekly frequencies which provide 35,400 seats. The new flight to Phuket will begin on May 1 and will be operated twice weekly by Boeing 737-800. Dragonair, Thai AirAsia and Thai Airways International already serve the market with ten, seven and five weekly frequencies respectively. Elsewhere, however, a planned four times weekly link to Moscow Sheremetyevo has been cancelled, while its ten times weekly service to Taipei Taoyuan will now begin on June 28, rather than April 28 as originally planned. This revised start date is still subject to change depending upon the outcome of bilateral talks between Taiwan and Hong Kong.

AIRASIA X MODIFIES KUALA LUMPUR – TAIPEI SCHEDULE

Long-haul budget carrier AirAsia X is to make some schedule alterations to its Kuala Lumpur – Taipei Taoyuan service from August. With effect from August 12, three of its seven weekly flights will operate in the evening rather than during the day, meaning the return flights from Taiwan will then be overnight. It will also reduce frequency to six flights per week during the month of October. AirAsia X launched the route in July 2009 becoming the third low-fare operator to fly into Taiwan after JetStar Asia and Cebu Pacific Air. It competes directly with China Airlines, EVA Air and Malaysian Airlines but managed to secure a 42 per cent share of a 572,000 O&D passenger market in the year ending January 2011.

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