Despite making its retreat from the European market back in 2012 due to high fuel costs, airport taxes and weak demand, it has been AirAsia X’s ambition to return to the Continent with more fuel efficient twin engine equipment once market conditions improved.
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Lucky Air is among the members of the HNA Group’s U-FLY low-cost alliance and its rise into the intercontinental market could represent the arrival of a new breed of Chinese low-cost, long-haul operations. The airline has requested rights from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to introduce flights from its Yunnan province base to both Los Angeles and Moscow.
In a formal request to Airport Coordination Limited (ACL), the body responsible for slot allocation, schedules facilitation and schedule data collection at Manchester, Singapore Airlines has requested to double its operations at Manchester with two arriving and two departing flights each morning.
A new fifth daytime slot pair for scheduled service to and from Haneda International Airport in Tokyo has been preliminary awarded to Delta Air Lines for flights from Minneapolis-St Paul, ahead of another Delta proposition from Atlanta, American Airlines from Dallas and United Airlines from Newark.
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Within ten years China’s domestic air traffic will become the world’s largest, manufacturers Airbus and Boeing once again reinforced in the latest editions of their Global Market Forecast and Current Market Outlook released at the Farnborough International Airshow this week.
AirAsia has signed a firm order with Airbus for the purchase of 100 A321neo aircraft, its first order for the largest model of the A320 Family. Seating up to 236 passengers in a single class layout, the A321neo will enable the airline to increase capacity versus its current A320 fleet while benefitting from the lowest operating costs in the single aisle category.
Aviation is a catalyst for growth, a vital conduit for world trade, and a major global employer. Nearly 63 million jobs and $2.4 trillion in global GDP are supported by aviation. But with these benefits comes an impact on the environment. Whether that is climate change, aircraft noise, local air quality, environment advocacy actions and most recently illegal wildlife trafficking.
POP plans to establish regular links from London Stansted to two Indian cities: Amritsar (Punjab) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat). Subject to the successful completion of a 60 day rewards-based crowdfunding exercise in association with Trillion Fund Ltd to raise £5 million, the airline could take to the air as early as October this year.
Tianjin Airlines will become the latest of the country’s airlines to launch long-haul flights when it takes delivery of at least three Airbus A330-200s from the European manufacturer in the coming months. These aircraft will be used to debut flights into Europe and North America and alongside London will see the introduction of flights to Moscow, Russia and Vancouver, Canada.
The launch of flights to Chiang Mai comes at a time when Qatar Airways is rapidly expanding its network and will inaugurate 14 new destinations on its route map throughout 2016 and into early 2017, including a number of new markets in Africa.
The grouping brings together many of the smaller low-cost operators across the Asia Pacific region and the partnership will allow them to better compete with some of the largest budget carriers like IndiGo in India, AirAsia across multiple countries and Qantas subsidiary Jetstar Airways across both the Asia and Pacific markets.
There has been a steady increase year-on-year in the number of Hong Kong and China travellers visiting New Zealand. According to official figures from Statistics New Zealand, as of March 2016, the total number of visitors from Hong Kong and China were up 19.1 percent and 27.8 percent, respectively.
The link will be operated using a 180-seat Airbus A320 and is being launched to meet growing demand for holidays to the region. It marks the carrier’s return to a market it previously served between March 2006 and July 2008, according to schedules data from OAG.
Air New Zealand is continuing to use its expanding Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner fleet to grow its presence in long-haul markets. The airline confirmed this week that it will introduce the type on its new route between Auckland and Buenos Aires, Argentina as it also debuted the type on a scheduled exclusive basis in the North America market on its Auckland - Honolulu route.
Philippine visitors to Guam grew by 125 percent in March 2016, compared to the same month last year, latest data from the Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) showed. This led to the second best March in Guam's tourism history, with 133,335 visitor arrivals – just a few notches behind March 2013 with 136,728 visitors recorded. Total visitor arrivals for March 2016 rose 0.8 percent year-on-year.
The dramatic collapse in the price of oil is helping to boost the bottom line of airlines but, ominously, the old adage says that what goes down will, inevitably, go up again. Routes News investigates.
A strong local economy and increasing demand for air travel is proving an ideal foundation for a revamped Vietnam Airlines to reach out to the region and beyond, reports Routes News magazine.
The airline will offer the only non-stop flights between Vancouver and Delhi when it debuts the three times weekly route beginning October 20, 2016, in time for Diwali festivities. The service will be operated using Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner equipment and will offer the fastest elapsed flying time into the India from Calgary, Edmonton and the US West Coast cities of Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles.
The airline launched the route on April 18, 2016 and is operating three flights a week between the two capitals using a 138-seat Airbus A319 aircraft in a dual business and economy class configuration. This summer a fourth weekly flight will also operate between June 22, 2016 and August 10, 2016.
The Asian-Budapest market last year experienced an impressive 20 percent increase, with the number of Korean visitors alone increasing by ten percent, having tripled over the last five years.
Latest figures from VisitBritain state that tourist numbers to the UK from China were up 37 percent in the first nine months of 2015 as more than 200,000 Chinese holidaymakers visited the UK in the nine month period. VisitBritain is hoping to double spending from Chinese visitors to £1 billion by 2020, - they were already among the highest spenders ringing up £2,688 a head and already account for almost a quarter of tourist spending in the UK.
The Chinese city will become Iberia’s first Asian destination ahead of its previously announced launch of flights to Tokyo from October 18, 2016. This year the Spanish airline is also resuming services to Puerto Rico (from May 15, 2016) and to Johannesburg (from August 1, 2016), while its seasonal flights to Boston, previously offered from March to October, will operate through December this year.
