TRANSASIA TO OFFER MORE CROSS-STRAITS FLIGHTS
Taiwanese carrier TransAsia Airways is to launch five additional routes to China in November including new direct links from Kaohsiung in Southern Taiwan and Hualien in the East of the country. The expansion will occur during the first week of November, initially with the introduction of a three times weekly Taipei Taoyuan – Xuzhou link from November 1. This route is already served by Shanghai Airlines on a twice weekly basis and was a market of around 7,000 O&D passengers over the past year. Two new routes will be introduced from Kaohsiung over the following days. These comprise a daily service to Hefei from November 2 and a daily rotation to Nanning from November 5. Meanwhile, new daily links to Hangzhou and Wuhan from Hualien will commence on November 3 and November 7, respectively. There are currently no scheduled flights on these four routes. In the past year an estimated 621,000 O&D passengers flew between Taiwan and China, up 9.2 per cent on the previous 12 month period with increasing links between the two countries making international travel a lot easier. There are currently more than 530 weekly Cross-Straits flights offering around 101,000 weekly seats in each direction. TransAsia Airways already serves 13 routes with links from Taipei Taoyuan to Chnagsha and Shanghai Pu Dong; from Taipei’s downtown Songshan Airport to Chongqing, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Hefei, Shanghai Hongqiao, Shanghai Pu Dong, Tianjin and Wuhan, and from Kaohsiung to Changsha, Fuzhou and Xiamen. It accounts for 5.5 per cent of the weekly seat capacity between Taiwan and China and around 6.0 per cent of the demand, carrying an estimated 37,000 O&D passengers in the past year.
CHINA SOUTHERN LAUNCHES VANCOUVER CARGO LINK
China Southern Airlines inaugurated a new freighter service between Shanghai and Vancouver on Thursday (September 1), the only direct freighter service between China and Canada. The flight routes via Los Angeles on its inbound leg and is being operated four times weekly using a Boeing 777F. Although the flight terminates at Vancouver International Airport, China Southern Airlines has an interline agreement with local operator Cargojet to offer onward links to cities across Canada and the US, including Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Montreal, Moncton, Halifax, St John’s, Seattle and Portland. According to He Zongkai, Executive Vice President, China Southern Airlines, the launch of this route will give a big boost to the local economy, employment and the bilateral economic and trade relations between China and Canada.
BAHRAIN AIR TO RETURN TO KATHMANDU
Middle Eastern carrier Bahrain Air has confirmed that it will resume flights between Bahrain and the Nepalese capital Kathmandu later this month. The airline plans to offer a daily schedule from September 21 operated by an Airbus A320. The flight will depart Bahrain in the early hours of the morning, returning later the same morning and providing incoming passengers with potential connections to other destinations, including Doha, Jeddah and Riyadh. "Katmandu is and will remain a core part of Bahrain Air's network, and we look forward to boosting direct connections between Nepal and Bahrain,” said Richard Nuttall - Director Commercial Operations, Bahrain Air. “It is the start of a new period of growth for Bahrain Air that will include resumption of old routes, some new destinations and agreements with other carriers to boost our network further.” Bahrain Air first launched flights to Kathmandu in March 2009 on a three times weekly schedule, but suspended the route earlier this year. An estimated 66,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two destinations in the past year with Bahrain Air holding a 51 per cent share of the traffic. Gulf Air also offers service on the route with up to 12 weekly rotations.
STRATEGIC MOVES TO AIR AUSTRALIA BRAND
As anticipated, Strategic Airlines has announced that it will reposition its brand in the market as it prepares to launch long-haul flights before the end of this year. The carrier plans to re-invent itself as a low-fare carrier under the Air Australia brand and late last week unveiled a revised lime green and gold corporate livery that will adorn its fleet of Airbus A320 and A330 models. The revised look will be introduced from October 30 ahead of the inauguration of its new services to Honolulu from Brisbane and Melbourne on December 14. The same month the carrier will also start flying the competitive Melbourne – Brisbane trunk route as well as increasing its links to Bali and Phuket. Further network growth is expected in 2012 including flights to China. This expansion will be facilitated by a fleet growth, which will see three A330s in service by the end of the first quarter of 2012 and up to seven by 2014, as well as the delivery of one or two additional A320s for short-haul routes. The new look was developed by specialist branding company Cummins Ross. “We challenged CumminsRoss and our marketing team with the historic opportunity to create an iconic brand for a new Australian airline,” said Michael James, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the airline’s parent company Strategic Aviation Group. “The name Air Australia was already marked as our preferred choice.” “The task was as much about design as it was about communication,” “The challenge was to convey a modern Australian aviation product, for a company with its own heritage and an instant sense of familiarity and like-ability. Green is our key color, with a hint of gold and subtle silver-grey representing gum trees, koalas and grey kangaroos,” added Sean Cummins, Executive Director, CumminsRoss.
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