Australian carrier, Qantas Airways has confirmed it will boost its schedules on flights to Hong Kong and Singapore from next month to meet growing demand from both business and leisure carriers into these key international markets. The new flights will be introduced on the Sydney - Hong Kong and Perth - Singapore routes and will be facilitated by furthering its strategy on fleet utilisation.
Subject to regulatory approval, the new ‘SQ338’ will depart Singapore on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 23:30 (local time), with the return sector, operated as flight ‘SQ337’, departing Düsseldorf on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 11:30 (local time). Although launching with a three times weekly schedule, the carrier says it intends to increase frequency at a later date.
Emirates said it was attracted to the split operation in Istanbul and the added investment required by the carrier as it offers customers “a fresher travel experience, with shorter processing times”, but also “easier access” to the city’s new financial centre as well as to popular outlet malls and thermal spas in the vicinity.
The additional 15 new aircraft will begin arriving from late 2016 with eleven directly replacing older ATR 72-500 variants, but four earmarked for further growth on regional New Zealand routes.
The growth brings Dragonair’s weekly schedule between Hong Kong and Shanghai Hongqiao to nine return flights and alongside its 13 times daily link between Hong Kong and Shanghai Pudong will mean it will offer 100 weekly flights between the two major Asian cities.
The daily service will commence from February 11, 2016 and will be flown using a 226-seat Boeing 787-8. American will compete directly with the existing flights of All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Delta in this market but will benefit from operating the route as part of its transpacific joint business with Japan Airlines (JAL).
The new arrangement will initially debut in the final quarter and will enter service from December 1, 2015 on both the Dubai – Bangkok and Dubai – Copenhagen routes, and will also serve Dubai – Kuala Lumpur and Dubai – Manchester from January 1, 2016.
The airline, part of the HNA Group, has requested rights to introduce weekly services from Beijing and the first direct link to the UK from the Hangzhou, the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China.
The arrival of additional Dreamliner aircraft has enabled Air Canada to grow its long-haul network directly with the modern generation airliner, while also redeploying older aircraft assets into its Air Canada rouge leisure division to bring further new routes. The airline will have a fleet of 21 aircraft by 2016 (it has 37 on order) and is accelerating the conversion of existing routes to Dreamliner service from Toronto to Asia, Europe and South America.
The A380 will operate flights EY460/461, one of the airline’s twice daily Abu Dhabi - Melbourne services from June 1, 2016, substituting one of the three-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft it currently deploys on the route. The move will increase the total number of two-way seats on the Melbourne-Abu Dhabi route by 26 per cent to more than 11,500 seats per week.
The Manchester-Beijing route is reported to be worth at least £250 million in economic benefits to the UK over the next decade, with two-thirds being felt directly in the Northern economy in terms of increased jobs, economic activity and tourism. By providing a non-stop service, the new route will also generate journey time savings worth £5 million every year for business passengers and avoid the inconvenience of changing planes at another airport.
The global network development forum makes its return to mainland China in September next year after a successful first outing in Beijing in 2009. It will be hosted by Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, which successfully delivered an exceptional Routes Asia forum in 2012.
Cuba is a strategically important destination for the Chinese government as it was the first Latin American country to recognise the People’s Republic of China and to establish trade relations and China is currently Cuba’s second largest trading partner after Venezuela with bilateral trade of bilateral of over $1.3 billion in 2014.
Although first formed as a charter business in 1990, Pegasus has taken-off in the scheduled market since it was acquired by ESAS Holding in 2005 and over recent years has been among the fastest-growing major scheduled airlines in Europe, even out-performing its local rival Turkish Airlines in terms of capacity growth.
Qatar Airways next year celebrates the tenth anniversary of its debut in the Hong Kong market having first launched flights from Doha in March 2006. The airline previously served the Doha – Hong Kong route on a twice daily basis introducing a second rotation in December 2011 and second daily service in September 2012, but scaled-back its own operations in 2014 at the time of Cathay Pacific’s entry to the market.
The introduction of a scheduled link from Manchester to China has been under discussion for a long time and there has been increased speculation over the past couple of years that an agreement is imminent. There was a suggestion that a route would have been launched this year, but issues with the crewing of its Airbus A330 fleet is understood to have delayed a final deal being agreed with Hainan Airlines.
Air India is one of three airlines to serve the Delhi – London market alongside British Airways, Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways and which together will offer a total of seven daily flights from this winter – Air India three, British Airways two and Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways with single daily rotations.
Alan Joyce, Chief Executive Officer, Qantas has highlighted in a article has written in the Business Section of the Herald Times this week that while there’s no doubt that the switch from construction to production in the resources sector, and the big drop in commodity prices, represents a major shift for Australia's economy, he believes it provides a great opportunity for its tourism industry.
United currently has 22 787s in its fleet and will receive three more before the end of this year. These include a mix of 787-8 and larger 787-9 variants which allow the carrier to fit the right-sized aircraft to its existing and new markets. The aircraft is being used at San Francisco International Airport to support the growth of United hub operation from where it provides nearly 280 daily flights to more than 90 destinations in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.
China Southern announced in August that it would commence a three times weekly link between Guangzhou and Christchurch from December 15, 2015 operated using a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. This was originally displaying just for the winter schedule, but last month reservations were opened for the route to continue through the summer 2016 schedule.
Optimised for non-stop flights to the US, the aircraft, designated A350-900ULR (Ultra-Long Range), will include a modified fuel system to increase the fuel carrying capacity, an increase in Maximum Take-Off Weight, plus aerodynamic improvements, enabling service to the US West Coast, as well as to New York.
The new Adelaide route will be flown using Qatar Airways’ new Airbus A350-900 and will boost its Australian capacity to 28 flights a week. The airline’s Gulf rival, Emirates Airline already serves Adelaide from Dubai International Airport with flights since November 2012; now operating daily using a Boeing 777-300ER.
The airline has confirmed it will add two further long-haul destinations to its network from spring 2016 with a three times weekly offering to Fukuoka in Japan and a four times weekly link to Guangzhou in China from its Helsinki Airport hub.
The Star Alliance member will launch a four times weekly link between Chengdu’s Shuangliu International Airport and Charles de Gaulle Airport in the French city from December 12, 2015. It had previously planned to introduce the route from January 28, 2016 and initially scheduled to operate just three weekly frequencies.
