CHINA AIRLINES TO PROVIDE NANCHANG CONNECTION
Taiwanese carrier China Airlines is to significantly boost capacity on the Taipei – Nanchang route when it inaugurates a twice weekly service on November 1. The airline is planning to use a widebodied Airbus A330-300 on the international flight, a route currently served by China Eastern Airlines on a similar twice weekly schedule, albeit using smaller A320 equipment. In the last year an estimated 30,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two cities, around two thirds using the direct China Eastern service and the rest connecting via Hong Kong. China Airlines already holds a 17 per cent share of the total traffic with around 5,000 O&D passengers using its Taipei – Hong Kong flight and onward China Eastern flights to Nanchang. The Chinese city is the capital of Jiangxi Province in the southeast of the country and is located in the north-central portion of the province, surrounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east by Poyang Lake. It is famous for its scenery, rich history and cultural sites, while its location relative to the Yangtze and Pearl River Delta regions means it is developing as a logistical hub in Southern China. According to local sources, the GDP of Nanchang in 2008 was 166 billion Yuan ($24.3 billion), which converts as a GDP per capita of 36,105 Yuan ($5,285). The total value of imports and exports was an estimated $3.4 billion.
FUJI DREAM TO COMPETE WITH ANA ON FUKUOKA – NIIGATA
Japanese domestic regional operator Fuji Dream Airlines is to end the monopoly of All Nippon Airways (ANA) on the Fukuoka – Niigata route when it launches a new daily service between the two cities during the Northern Winter schedules. The airline plans to offer a daily flight from October 30 using one of its Embrear E-Jets, competing with the daily Boeing 737 rotation currently offered by ANA. Fuji Dream launched operations in July 2009 and has developed Fukuoka as one of its focus cities. It currently offers daily flights to Kumamoto and Matsumoto, a three times daily link to Shizuoka (although this will drop to twice daily from October) and up to five flights per day to Nagoya Komaki. Its only current head-to-head competition comes from Japan Airlines (JAL) on the Shizuoka route. In the past year an estimated 64,000 O&D passengers travelled between Fukuoka and Niigata, a decline of 36.9 per cent on the previous 12 month period when 7A also served the route. ANA’s own share of the traffic has grown from 48,000 and a 47 per cent share of the market to 49,000 and a 77 per cent share. Its yield has also significantly improved as average one-way fares have risen from $249 to $275 increasing the routes profitability.
KINGFISHER FLIES TO SRI LANKA FROM INDIA
Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines is to launch three additional flights to Sri Lanka from October 1, supplementing its existing daily link to Colombo from Chennai. The carrier will introduce daily flights to the Sri Lankan capital from Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Tiruchirapally; all will be operated using ATR 72 turboprops. There are currently more than 120 weekly return flights between the two countries offering more than 20,000 seats in each direction. An estimated 1.0 million O&D passengers travelled between the two neighbouring countries in the past year with the largest traffic flows between Colombo and Chennai, a route flown by Air India Express, Jet Airways, SpiceJet, SriLankan Airlines, as well as Kingfisher Airlines. All three of the new Kingfisher routes are already served by SriLankan Airlines with the national carrier’s fights to Tiruchirapally supplemented by sister carrier Mihin Lanka. An estimated 13,000 O&D passengers flew between Colombo and Kochi in the past year, 28,000 between Colombo and Thiruvananthapuram and 79,000 between Colombo and Tiruchirapally. Kingfisher is currently the sixth largest carrier flying between India and Sri Lanka with a 7.0 per cent share of the total traffic. The addition of these three additional routes will likely see it position itself in third place behind SriLankan Airlines (41.7 per cent) and Jet Airways (21.0 per cent).
AIR CHINA CARGO LANDS AT DFW
Air China Cargo has begun serving Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport after inaugurating a three times weekly freight link from Shanghai Pu Dong on August 26. The service is routing via Anchorage on its inbound flight and via Chicago O’Hare and Anchorage on its return to Asia. “We are extremely pleased to open new avenues of trade from Texas to China,” said Jeff Fegan, Chief Executive Officer, DFW International Airport. “China continues to be a tremendously important market for DFW, and this new Air China Cargo service certainly provides an excellent opportunity for regional businesses to ship goods quickly.” The new flights continue DFW’s impressive growth in its cargo business over the past decade, as Asian freighter business in particular, up eleven per cent since 2000, has driven growth. China is actually DFW’s largest air cargo trading partner, with over 133,000 metric tonnes of air cargo shipped last year. Almost half of DFW’s imports from China consist of communications equipment (cellular phones, televisions, radios and components), while the wider Dallas-Fort Worth region exports numerous commodity groups including high technology and oil and gas exploration equipment to China.
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