ANA to Resume Nagoya – Shanghai Route
Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) has announced it will resume daily flights between Nagoya and Shanghai from March 25, 2012. The route will be operated by a Boeing 737-700 on a schedule arranged to support both business and leisure demand with a morning rotation from Nagoya and a mid-afternoon return from Shanghai. The international route is currently served by four other airlines with six daily flights. Air China, China Southern Airlines and Japan Airlines (JAL) all offer a daily rotation, while China Eastern Airlines has a three times daily schedule on the route. An estimated 413,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year. ANA accounted for around 8 per cent of the traffic for the 12 months ending September 2011, a figure that will decline when full year estimates are available after the flight was suspended for the Northern Winter 2011/2012 schedule after it was reportedly unable to get its preferred slots in Shanghai.
Thai AirAsia Brings Budget Model to Bangkok – Colombo Route
Thai AirAsia is to launch a flight between Bangkok and Colombo from March 1, 2012 introducing low-cost competition onto the link between the Thai and Sri Lankan capital cities. The airline, a joint venture between Malaysian carrier AirAsia and Thai company Asia Aviation, will offer a daily morning flight on the route. An estimated 198,000 O&D passengers travelled between Bangkok and Colombo in the past year, up 5.8 per cent on the previous 12 months. SriLankan Airlines currently dominates traffic on the route thanks to its twice daily offering, while Thai Airways International and Cathay Pacific Airways also provide direct flights between the cities. Thai AirAsia’s arrival is likely to result in a reduction in average fares as the budget carrier looks to stimulate market demand. The current average fare on the route is $166 each way. However, it is worth noting that the airline’s sister carrier AirAsia already provides a link to Colombo from Kuala Lumpur with estimated average fares actually 2.5 per cent higher than the market average.
Hong Kong Airlines Gets Rights into Taiwan
Hong Kong Airlines has revealed that it has been granted traffic rights to launch flights into Taiwan with immediate effect. The carrier says it will inaugurate four daily passenger flights and all-cargo services with 650 tonnes of freight per week to Taipei or Kaohsiung from a yet to be determined date in the first quarter of 2012. The announcement follows the signing of a revised Air Services Agreement between aviation authorities in Taiwan and Hong Kong which will further liberalise the market between the two countries. This will permit passenger flights to increase from 170 to 205 per week and cargo tonnage from 1,700 tonnes to 3,000 tonnes per week for each side and enable new entrants like Hong Kong Airlines to enter the market. There are currently five airlines offering flights between Taiwan and Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific Airways dominates the capacity in this market with a 37.6 per cent share of the available seats, followed by China Airlines (30.3 per cent), Dragonair (15.4 per cent), EVA Air (13.7 per cent) and Mandarin Airlines (3.0 per cent). “Taiwan is one of the fast-developing passenger and cargo markets in Asia, with continued strong and fast-growing demand in the tourism and freight industries,” a spokesman for Hong Kong Airlines confirmed. “The new allocation of traffic rights not only provides Hong Kong and mainland passengers with a wider choice and enhanced convenience.”
Lion Air Reveals ‘Premium’ Airline Brand
Fast-expanding Indonesian low-cost carrier Lion Air has confirmed that its new full-service ‘premium’ airline division will launch operations later this year or in early 2013 under the Space Jet brand. The budget carrier has made great strides in the country since it launched operations in June 2000 and is now the largest internal operator in the archipelago, with a 41.7 per cent share of the domestic market. The start-up venture will enable Lion Air to deviate away from its existing no-frills business model and will bring further competition into the local market. The new carrier is expected to initially operate six Boeing 737-900ERs which will be transferred from the orderbook of its sister carrier, but will grow to a fleet of 12 by the end of 2014. It will offer a two-class arrangement with a Business and traditional Economy offering. Lion Air will not be alone in enhancing its presence in the domestic and international markets. National carrier Garuda Indonesia has ambitious growth plans, while Sriwijaya Airlines is also upgrading its own product with a Business Class service from this year. This is being achieved through the replacement of its older 737-200 and -300 varaints with newer -500 and -800 models; four of the latter are due to be introduced from March or April 2012 on international routes. Meanwhile, a new entrant, Pacific Royale, is also planning to launch flights in February 2012. The carrier is majority controlled by Indonesian businesswoman Gunarni Gunawan – also majority shareholder of marketing company Travel Ventures International Express – with the remaining interest controlled by Indian investors, according to local media reports. It was awarded its operational licence in November 2011 and plans to launch flights from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport next month initially with two Airbus A320s and two Fokker 50 turboprops. To meet the Indonesian Transport Ministry’s revised operating requirements that every local scheduled carrier should have a fleet of at least ten aircraft otherwise it could face having its operating certificate revoked from the end of this year, Pacific Royale will add three more Fokker 50s and two further A320s to its fleet in the second quarter with another aircraft, possibly a widebodied A330 following later in the year. The growth of the aviation industry in Indonesia has been impressive and their remains a large untapped potential. The number of domestic air passengers in Indonesia jumped to 38.3 million in the first nine months of this year, while the number of international air travelers rose 15 per cent to 8.1 million, according to Indonesian Central Statistics Agency data.
International Expansion Helps Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Grow
Baiyun International Airport in the Chinese city of Guangzhou has maintained its position as one of the country’s mainland hubs as a result of a strong past year. The facility handled 45.04 million passengers during 2011 thanks in a big part to the growth of its international network – ten new routes were opened and movements increased to 61,000 up 15.5 per cent year-on-year and passenger volume reached seven million, up 20 per cent on the previous year. The last calendar year, 2011, was the first of the airport’s 12th five-year plan, and the success of its business model and hub status can be clearly seen in its end of year statistics. International transfer passengers for the 12 months were up 41 per cent compared with 2010, reaching 2.46 million. The airport expects to reach 60 million passengers by 2015, with international traffic accounting for around 11 million of this total. Baiyun International was ranked the 19th largest airport in the world by passenger traffic in 2010 and will likely move up a few positions once official statistics are confirmed for 2011.
Cebu Pacific Goes Overseas from Kalibo
Filipino budget carrier Cebu Pacific will commence a new flight from Kalibo to Hong Kong during the first quarter of this year, its first international route from the regional city, capital of the province of Aklan, in the northwest of Panay Island, Philippines. The three times weekly flight will commence in March and will provide additional capacity for tourists travelling to the popular beaches of Boracay – Kalibo is one of two main gateways to the area alongside Caticlan Airport, or Godofredo P Ramos Airport to give it its full name. “Cebu Pacific continues to provide Hong Kong nationals and foreign tourists the most convenient travel options in the Philippines with its newest fastest flights to Boracay. One of the Philippines’ top tourist destinations, Boracay is a popular beach, diving and wedding destination in Asia,” said Candice Iyog, VP Marketing and Distribution, Cebu Pacific. An estimated 1.67 million O&D passengers travelled between Hong Kong and the Philippines in the past year. There are currently over 140 scheduled flights per week between the two countries with Cebu Pacific already offering daily links from Cebu and Diosdado Macapagal International (Clark International) and a four times daily service from the Filipino capital Manila. The airline holds around a 33.3 per cent share of the traffic between the two countries.
Mihin Lanka Revises its Network
Sri Lankan carrier Mihin Lanka is to make some amendments to its schedule from February 1, 2012, boosting capacity to some markets, relaunching a couple of seasonal services into India and cancelling its daily link between Colombo and Male in the Maldives. The low-cost venture, formed in April 2007, is controlled by the Sri Lankan Government and specialises in serving cities in the Indian subcontinent, the Gulf States and Southeast Asia using a fleet of Airbus A320 and A321 equipment. The airline will offer twice weekly seasonal services from Colombo to Gaya, the second largest city in India’s state of Bihar, located around 100 kilometres south of the provincial capital Patna (until April 1, 2012) and a twice weekly connection to Varanasi, a city situated on the banks of the River Ganges in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (until March 30, 2012). Elsewhere, its flights to the Indonesian capital Jakarta will be increased from three to four a week, links to Sharjah will grow from two to three a week, although flights on the combined Dubai and Kuwait route will reduce from five to four a week.
Religare Aviation Set to Open New Kangra Links.
Indian company Religare Aviation is hoping to launch domestic flights from Dharamsala -Kangra Airport in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh before the end of the first quarter of 2012, according to local media reports. The company has been looking to expand further into the scheduled passenger market in north-eastern India for the past couple of years after applying for the necessary licences from the civil aviation ministry and the air safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) through its Religare Voyages subsidiary. The small regional facility, also known as Gaggal Airport, is currently served by Kingfisher Airlines from New Delhi, but despite the lack of air connectivity in the area, demand is growing, particularly in the leisure sector as more international tourists visit the region, home to the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, and the exiled Tibetan government. Religare Aviation is understood to be planning links to Chandigarh and Amritsar using small turboprop equipment. An estimated 16,000 O&D passengers travelled on Kingfisher’s daily ATR turboprop link to New Delhi in the past year, with average one way fares of $58. This represents a 36.1 per cent increase in traffic when compared with the previous 12 month period.
Jetstar Develops Asian Links from Darwin
Australian low-fare carrier Jetstar Airways is to launch a four times weekly service from Darwin to Tokyo via Manila, from March 25, 2012, subject to regulatory approval. The airline will also boost frequencies between Darwin and Singapore from seven to ten a week from the same date, although flights from Darwin to Ho Chi Minh City will be terminated to facilitate the network growth: services to Vietnam will be maintained via Singapore through sister carrier Jetstar Asia’s four times weekly service between Singapore and Hanoi which launched on December 15, 2011. The new flight to Tokyo has been added to stimulate stronger tourism and business links between Northern Territory and Asia. The airline will be the first to serve the Japanese capital from Darwin, although the Manila – Tokyo sector is already served on a daily basis by All Nippon Airways (ANA), Delta Air Lines (as extension of its US originating flights) and Philippine Airlines, while Japan Airlines (JAL ) has a double daily offering. With the use of widebodied equipment on all flights these provide more than 10,000 seats per week in each direction. Jetstar already serves the Darwin – Manila route on a three times weekly basis, carrying an estimated 19,000 O&D passengers in the past year, so this sector will also see an increase in capacity through the network changes. “We know that the more sustainably low fares we put in the market, the more people are inclined to travel. When we combine low fares with a growing footprint across Asia, the potential for increased tourism and trade really takes off,” explained Bruce Buchanan, Chief Executive Officer, Jetstar Group. The increased frequency of the Darwin – Singapore route will enhance connectivity options across Asia from Darwin to such destinations as Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, while the new Tokyo service will link to the new Jetstar Japan network. Japan is the fourth largest international inbound tourism market for the Territory, with 28,000 visitors contributing around $27 million annually, according to official data. Meanwhile, Jetstar Asia, the group’s Singapore-based venture, is to expand its offering in Japan and Taiwan by introducing a second daily rotation on the Singapore – Taipei Taoyuan – Osaka Kansai route from March 25, 2012. The flights will be operated using an Airbus A320 and will provide better flight options for passengers between the three cities.
Related Content
