ANA (All Nippon Airways) of Japan has officially released its 2009-10 flight operational plan to the media this week which details where it will cut back and increase flights to currently served markets worldwide.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
SAS has revealed on the GDS system that it will be suspending its flights to Delhi, India from the on set of the Summer 09 IATA season. Currently, it flies 3 times a week to DEL nonstop from CPH using an A 343. However, the Indian media has reported that it will be replacing its DEL flights by launching new ones to Mumbai from April 2009. No further mention has been disclosed as to how many weekly flights will be flown on the CPH-BOM route.
Mahan Air of Iran has revealed that it will be increasing frequencies to Dubai from its Tehran (IKA) hub from double daily to triple daily effective Feb 8th. All 3 daily flights will be flown using a 2 class Airbus A 310-300. It also revealed that it will be lauching 2 new weekly nonstop flights to DPS-Bali, Indonesia from Tehran using a Boeing 747-400 from Februrary as well which will be increased to 3 times a week from June. These flights are timed to cater for onward connections to Dubai and Germany in particular.
Qantas of Australia will be launching a new long haul route to EZE-Buenos Aires, Argentina nonstop from its Sydney hub. QF will fly the route 3 times a week using a Boeing 747-400 on Mon/Wed/Sat. Besides this, the airline also revealed that it will definitely not be ordering the Boeing 747-800 nor the Boeing 777 range of aero planes in the long term as its requirements revolve around the A 350 and B 787 programs.
Air Asia X of Malaysia (the long haul low cost airline) has officially confirmed that it has placed an order for 10 additional Airbus A 330-300s with Airbus earlier on in the week. All of its A 333s will seat 392 passengers in an all economy class layout. This new order brings the total number of A 333s ordered by the airline to 25.
Royal Jordanian has announced major capacity and frequency changes across its international route network. The main highlights are as follows:
ORD - frequencies reduced from daily to 5 weekly A 342s flown nonstop.
JFK - frequencies reduced from 5 weekly to 4 weekly A 342s flown nonstop.
DXB - frequencies reduced from triple daily to double daily.
LHR - capacity reduced to daily A 321s.
JED - capacity increased to 8 weekly A 321s + weekly A 342.
FRA - capacity reduced to 3 weekly A 321s + 4 weekly A 319s.
KWI - reduced from 10 weekly to daily.
BAH - reduced from daily to 4 weekly.
TLV - maintains double daily nonstop service
Malaysia Airlines will be increasing its flights to India from the on set of the Winter 2008-09 timetable as this is the peak season for travel to India with diwali, eid, christmas and the wedding season beginning from early October lasting till end January. Its flights to Delhi will be increased from 9 to 10 weekly flights all operated by an A 333 where as flights to Mumbai will be increased from daily to 9 weekly all using a B 777-200.
Thai Airways has officially confirmed that it will be increasing its flights to Mumbai and Bangalore in India from October 2nd 2008. BLR will be increased from daily to 10 weekly flights using an A 333 four times a week + an A 300-600R six times a week. BOM on the other hand, will be increased from daily to 10 times a week with all flights being flown using a 2 class configured A 330-300.
EVA Air has announced a series of cutbacks for its international network as it looks to control costs during the upcoming autumn low season. The main highlights of its scaled down trans-pacific services are as follows:
LAX - reduced by 3 times a week to 14 times a week service. On certain days, its daily, others double daily, some triple daily.
SEA - reduced from 5 to 4 times a week with all flights being flown all using a B 773ER.
SFO - reduced from 10 to 8 weekly nonstop flights all using a B 773ER.
BKK - reduced from 13 to 11 times a week nonstop flights.
SIN - reduced from daily to 5 times a week.
AMS via BKK - frequencies reduced from 4 to 3 times a week but capacity increased from B 744 Combi to B 773ER.
PVG - capacity increased to 2 weekly nonstop B 773ERs instead of A 332s.
Jet Airways of India will be launching new daily flights nonstop to Dubai from Mumbai and Delhi each respectively from August 23rd 2008. Both flights will be operated using its 2 class configured Airbus A 330-200. Besides being given lucurative flying rights to DXB, 9W has also managed to secure flying rights for daily Mumbai-Riyadh and daily Delhi-Jeddah nonstop flights.
Etihad Airways has officially confirmed that it will be launching new daily nonstop flights between Abu Dhabi and Melbourne, Australia from March 2009. EY will be using a 3 class configured 286 seater Airbus A 340-600 for this ultra-long haul route. The flight timings are as follows:
EY 460 Dep AUH 2235 Arr MEL 1815+1
EY 460 Dep AUH 2235 Arr MEL 1815+1
EY 461 Dep MEL 2200 Arr AUH 0620+1
Comments:
EY's main target market will be pax heading on to BEY, UK, Saudi Arabia and UAE and not ATH as the carrier has not as yet launched flights to the Greek capital which is surprising as it can provide huge amounts of feeder traffic to its MEL and SYD bound flights via AUH. Though to be frank, the ATH-Australia market is extremely low yielding!!!
Delta Airlines has officially confirmed that it will be launching new flights to Sydney, Australia and Sao Paulo, Brazil both flown nonstop from LAX from next year. SYD will be flown daily from ATL via LAX nonstop using a B 772LR effective July 1st 09. With regards to GRU, it will also be flown nonstop from LAX but only 3 times a week using a B 763ER. DL also revealed that as a result of its merger with NW, it will be adjusting capacity to NRT from June 09. Instead of A 332s being used for PDX, HNL and Guam to NRT, a B 763ER instead will be deployed. Lastly, a new daily nonstop flight from JFK to NRT will be launched using a B 772ER.
As far as its European schedules for summer 09 is concerned, DL will be launching new 6 weekly Detroit-Rome nonstop flights using an A 330-300 effective June 4th 09.
Air India has officially confirmed that it will be increasing capacity to ORD-Chicago from April from India via Frankfurt using a Boeing 747-400 on a daily basis. However, the ORD flight will originate and terminate from Delhi rather than Mumbai as AI is building a scissors hub at FRA which sees its EWR flight flown to from BOM via FRA.
Currently, ORD is flown to on a daily basis using a smaller Boeing 777-300ER which however has a superior in-flight product in all 3 cabin classes. In this way, EWR and ORD pax can fly on AI to BOM and DEL via FRA in both directions as connections are easily made available.
British Midland (BMI) has officially confirmed that it will be increasing frequencies to Beirut and Amman for the upcoming summer peak season. BEY will be increased from daily to 10 weekly nonstop terminator flights using an A 321-200 where as AMM too will get the exact same type frequency increase using an A 321 as well. Both desinations will be increased from June onwards.
Lufthansa will be increasing frequencies on the Munich-JFK sector from May onwards with a second daily flight operated by an all business class configured Boeing 737-700 that is wet leased from Private Air. This flight will be flown along side the daily schedule nonstop MUC-JFK flight which sees an A 333 being used.
Cathay Pacific has announced that it has placed an order with Airbus for 8 more Airbus A 330-300s. These new planes will thus result in CX having a total fleet of 40 A 333s by the time they are all delivered which would be in 2012. Dragonair too will get some of these A 333s to expand their regional and Australian network.
Iceland Air has announced that it will be shuffling its USA bound flights by suspending operations to BWI-Baltimore and instead increasing JFK from daily to 9 times a week for the summer 2008 season only. All JFK flights will be flown using a B 757-200ER and BWI gets suspended from January 13th 2008.
According to an article in the Vancouver Sun newspaper, Kingfisher Airlines of India has committed to launching the first ever nonstop flight linking YVR-Vancouver with DEL-Delhi, India. A nonstop YVR-DEL flight would take 15-16 hours to fly and KF hasnt indicated any timeframe to launch the route.
Source : http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=e2d1ac8b-2b5c-4c4f-a894-be2a331a1dbf&k=6689
Analysis :
The earliest time frame that KF could think of launching YVR-DEL nonstop would probably me Winter 2009 as the first 4 A 345s of theirs would be used on nonstop India-USA flights. KF should look at YVR-India nonstop before YYZ-India because there is less direct competition from YVR to India than there is from YYZ. Obviously from YVR, the main target market for KF would be the Sikh market bound for DEL & ATQ, hence it must ensure that its flights connect within 3-4 hours at DEL with its DEL-ATQ-DEL flights i.e. IT 4513 / 4514.
However, one feels that the YVR-India market isnt high yielding enough to warrant sending a 3 class configured aircraft like KF's A 345s are going to be. The reason being is that the First class market segment between YVR and India is minimal hence it would be a waste if KF sent a 3 class A 345 with a F class cabin to YVR. If KF can dedicate 2 out of their 10 A 345s for a daily YVR-DEL-YVR nonstop operation seating approximately 280-310 pax in a 2 class configuration, then there is potential in making decent money on this route. To ensure, loads are good year round, KF needs to also look into a SPA agreement with either AC or WS for their respective YEG-YVR and YYC-YVR flights to help feed their YVR-DEL flight
South African Airways has announced that it will be increasing capacity on 2 of its highly profitable routes for the entire duration of the IATA Summer 09 season. The increases concern Lagos, Nigeria and Luanda, Angola in the following manner:
LOS - capacity increased to 4 weekly B 744s from 2 weekly A 346s + 2 weekly B 744s.
LAD - capacity increased from 5 weekly A 346s to 5 weekly B 744s.
Austrian Airlines has confirmed that it will be increasing flights to YYZ-Toronto during the summer 09 peak season. Usually, it flies 5 times a week nonstop using a B 763ER from its VIE hub however, daily flights will be flown this year from early May till late Sept using the same aircraft type to cater for increased demand during the period.
hilippine Airlines has revealed on the GDS that it will be increasing flights to YVR-Vancouver, Canada from March 23rd onwards with the addition of 2 weekly terminator flights to be flown along side its current 5 weekly ones which are extended onwards to Las Vegas. PAL will be using an A 343 for the additional 2 flights and will thus bring their MNL-YVR service to daily A 343 operations as a result of this move.
Turkish Airlines has made further adjustments to its Summer 2009 schedule which will see many frequency increases across its entire network as more planes get integrated into its fleet. The main highlights are as follows:
ORD - frequencies increased from 5 weekly to daily flights using an A 332.
SIN - frequencies increased from 4 to 5 times a week using a B 773ER 4 times + A 332 once a week.
BKK - frequencies reduced from 10 weekly to daily flights using a B 773ER twice a week + A 332 five times a week.
JNB/CPT - frequencies increased from 3 to 4 weekly flights using an A 343.
AMM - frequencies increased from daily to 11 times a week.
KWI - frequencies increased from 4 weekly to daily effective July using a B 738.
ADD - capacity increased from 4 weekly B 738s to 4 weekly A 310s.
ASB - frequencies increased from 10 to 11 times a week.
CDG - frequencies increased from 24 times a week to four times daily.
FCO - frequencies increased from 10 times a week to double daily.
ATH - frequencies increased from double daily to 16 times a week.
GYD - frequencies increased from double daily to triple daily.
TXL - frequencies increased from double daily to 17 times a week.
BRU - frequencies increased from 17 times a week to triple daily.
CPH - frequencies increased from 10 times a week to double daily.
DUS - frequencies increased from triple daily to 4 times daily.
GVA - frequencies increased from 9 weekly to double daily.
Singapore Airlines has announced that it will be reducing capacity on its SIN-Dubai-Moscow route from March 29th. Currently, this sector is flown 3 times a week using a Boeing 777-300A, however it will reduced to a smaller Boeing 777-200ER from end March due to the current economic turmoil plaguing Dubai and Russian markets.
Swiss has officially confirmed that it will be suspending all of its daily flights to Santiago, Chile effective March 29th. It currenly flies the route on a daily basis using an A 340-300 via GRU-Sao Paulo with 5th freedom traffic rights. No official reason has been cited by LX, but apart from wanting to concentrate on the higher yielding GRU market, it is being pushed by LH to suspend all loss making long haul routes as soon as possible due to the worldwide economic slump.
PIA of Pakistan has officially confirmed that it will be increasing capacity to CDG-Paris from the on set of the Summer 09 IATA season. Twice weekly flights will be flown using a B 777-300ER and B 777-200ER once a week each from Islamabad and Lahore respectively. The ISB-CDG flight is routed via MXP-Milan where as LHE-CDG is flown nonstop. With regards to BHX-Birmingham, capacity has been increased from 4 weekly B 772ERs to 4 weekly B 777-300ERs for the entire summer season.
Korean Air has officially confirmed that it has purchased 6 new Airbus A 330-200s directly from Airbus as part of its fleet renewal program. These 6 A 332s will be used as a direct replacement for KE's remaining fleet of A 300-600Rs. Also KE confirmed that it will be upgrading its in-flight product on the ICN-JFK route to a daily B 773ER from Sept 1st which has the new seat product in all 3 cabin classes.
Emirates has officially confirmed that effective June 1st 2009, it will be increasing capacity to YYZ-Toronto by replacing the 3 weekly Boeing 777-300ER operated flights with the larger Airbus A 380. The super jumbo will come from the JFK route which is been downgraded due to low loads on the A 380 operated flights. As a result, DXB-JFK from June will become a double daily B 773ER service. On the other days of the week when YYZ wont see the A 380, it will be used on nonstop flights to Bangkok.
Emirates has officially confirmed that it will be increasing flights to DMM-Dammam, Saudi Arabia from May 2009 from 5 weekly flights to daily. On the DXB-DMM route, EK will be using a B 773A once a week + an A 332 six times a week. EK has also confirmed that its reduction of Beijing and Shanghai flights from double daily to 12 times per week each to both destinations is a permament fixture and not a temporary one as it is also reflecting in the GDS system for the Winter 09-10 season.
Qatar Airways has revealed ambitious expansion plans for its route network in 2009 with the launch of new nonstop flights to Australia, new destinations in India to be launched, 2 un-named European destinations and lastly a reconfiguration of its Airbus A 340-600 cabin capacity. With regards to Australia, QR's CEO has confirmed that new daily nonstop flights will be flown to Sydney and Melbourne respectively from its Doha hub effective October 2009. Both cities will be served using QR's 2 class configured Boeing 777-200LRs which seat 259 passengers.
As far as India is concerned, the states of Qatar and India have managed to successfully amend their air bilateral accord with the addition of Amritsar and Goa as the cities in India that QR can fly to nonstop from its Doha hub. No mention of how many flights per week QR has been allowed to fly into ATQ and GOI respectively but one imagines it is a daily frequency. To GOI, QR will be using an A 320 where as ATQ might get an A 321 or A 320.
With regards to its A 346 cabin, QR's CEO has officially confirmed that it will be removing its First Class lounge on board this aircraft and replacing its space with the addition of 44 economy class seats which will increase the capacity of its A 346 by 16% i.e. from 266 to 310 seats.
Lastly, with regards to its Doha-Moscow route, capacity on it will be reduced from 5 weekly A 332s to 5 weekly A 320s effective June 2nd 2009.
Analysis:
They say that "patience is a virtue that few possess" and its safe to say that QR's CEO and its management team exemplify this analogy. Since 2003, QR has been lobbying aggressively for adequate access to Australia enabling it to compete effectively against SQ/EK/TG/CX/BA on the "Kangaroo route". In 2007, a bilateral between Qatar and Australia was signed which allowed daily access to MEL and BNE only but QR was admamant that SYD be included in it and didn't want to launch its Aussie venture without having SYD on board. The flame was further fueled when it was revealed that EY got rights to fly into SYD before MEL in 2007 due to the close links that their CEO Mr Hogan has with the Aussie Govt. QR still stuck to their guns and did not want to launch Australia bound flights until their demands were met. In the end, the long wait and QR's perserverance sure did pay off for the airline's long term benefit.
Flight timings to SYD/MEL should be as follows:
Dep DOH 2350 Arr MEL 1750+1 /// Dep MEL 2230 Arr DOH 0630
Dep DOH 2330 Arr SYD 1900+1 /// Dep SYD 2210 Arr DOH 0545
**These flight timings mentioned above allow perfect connections via DOH in both directions to LHR, MAN, CDG, FRA, DXB, CAI, AMM, BEY, ATH, proposed BHX/DUB (mentioned below), IST, MXP, FCO, DME, TXL and VIE which should be enough to fill up the flight on a year round basis.
As far as its 2 un-named EU destinations are concerned, already the rumors are flying across the internet what they could be. Most people think that WAW-Warsaw, Poland with an A 320 is a sure bet along side one other city such as BCN-Barcelona. However, if these rumors are deemed to be creditable, then QR are making a huge mistake. QR's EU plan for 2009 should be as follows:
a) Suspend all flights to LGW-London Gatwick from Oct 1st 2009 as the route is a huge loss maker for the carrier. There is absolutely no financial logic what so ever to continue flying the route just for prestige purposes and to compete against EK. It should follow EY's decision in 2007 to suspend the route before the losses grow as it serves the LON market adequately with 4 times daily service into Heathrow which is more than adequate.
b) As its replacement, the daily A 332 (2 class configured) that is currently being used for DOH-LGW flights should be deployed on launching new Doha-Birmingham (BHX) flights on a daily basis. The reason for this is that BHX will prove to be a huge 'feeder' destination for its new ATQ bound flights as well as contribute decent volume of traffic bound for ISB, DEL, BOM, LHE, CMB, DAC, HKG, KHI, China, KUL and IKA via DOH. It can also contribute passenger on board QR's new SYD/MEL bound flights. From BHX, QR's primary competitor will be EK and to Pakistan its PIA. AI suspended BHX flights in 2008 and thus lost its monopoly on the BHX-ATQ/BHX-DEL route which saw good loads year round. The UK Midlands region needs a second 'quality airline' to serve the region with wide bodied aircraft heading eastwards to the ISC and Asia-Pacific region and QR fits that role perfectly. To/from BHX, the flight timings should be follows:
QR XXX Dep DOH 1300 Arr BHX 1745...aircraft should over night in BHX
QR XXX Dep BHX 1000 Arr DOH 1900
**These flight timings mentioned above allow perfect connections via DOH in both directions to India, Pakistan, Australia, HKG, SIN, DAC, CMB, DPS, KUL, PEK, PVG, KIX, CGK, CAN and GCC. This should be enough to fill up the flight on a year round basis.
The new DOH-ATQ-DOH flights should be timed as per the current timings of its DOH-DEL-DOH service.
c) The second EU destination that needs to be launched by QR with the A 332 taken off the Moscow route should be Dublin, Ireland on a 5 weekly basis using a 2 class A 330-200. The primary reason for this is to help fill its SYD, MEL and HKG bound flights as there is a lot of demand from Ireland to these 3 cities especially Australia. One just needs to look at the feeder traffic that EY/BA/QF/CX/SQ get from their LHR and direct DUB bound flights to Australia from Ireland which would justify this statement. To DUB, QR's flight schedule should be as follows:
Dep DOH 1100 Arr DUB 1535...aircraft should overnight in DUB
Dep DUB 1000 Arr DOH 2000
**These flight timings mentioned above allow perfect connections via DOH in both directions to India, SYD, MEL, Pakistan, Australia, HKG, SIN, DPS, KUL, PEK, PVG, KIX, CGK, CAN and GCC. This should be enough to fill up the flight on a year round basis.
Delta Airlines has confirmed that it is making further capacity and frequency changes to Europe for the Summer 09 peak season. The main highlights are as follows:
JFK / AMS - all flights suspended.
IAD / AMS - all flights suspended.
MEM / AMS - capacity reduced from daily A 333 to daily A 332.
BOS / AMS - frequencies reduced from double daily to 13 times a week.
CVG / AMS - capacity reduced to daily B 757 rather than daily B 763ER.
JFK / BUD - frequencies increased from 4 to 6 times per week using a B 763ER.
JFK / FCO - frequencies reduced from double daily to 11 times a week using an A 333 daily + 4 weekly B 763ER.
JFK / MAD - capacity increased from a daily B 763ER to a daily B 772ER.
JFK / VCE - capacity reduced from daily A 333 to daily B 763ER.
ATL / LHR - capacity increased from daily B 763ER to daily B 764ER.
Thai Airways is increasing its presence in KWI-Kuwait in a very bold manner by launching 5 weekly nonstop terminator flights using their premium aircraft i.e. a 3 class configured Airbus A 340-600 which seats 267 pax. No more will flights will be flown to KWI via DXB . This is in effect from April 2009.
The flight timings are as follows:
TG 519 Dep BKK 1300 Arr KWI 1635
TG 520 Dep KWI 1820 Arr BKK 0555+1
With regards to Dubai, effective April 2009, frequencies will be increased from 10 weekly to double daily flights. All will be operated with a 2 class A 333 and out of those 14 flights, 4 are flown via MAA -Chennai, India with full 5th freedom traffic rights.
Analysis:
What TG will be targeting in KWI with their A 346s is varied. Obviously the top priority will be O&D business and leisure traffic that exists between the 2 states but most of all, it will aim to get the high yielding F & J class flying business and political traffic bound via BKK to Australia, China, TPE, Japan, HKG, ICN, SGN, MNL aggressively.They will pitch to the local agents how good their in-flight product is compared to KU's A 343s which fly KWI-BKK-MNL (6 times per week) + how superior their FFP program is versus KU's + all the excellent connections they have on offer eastwards via BKK.
One feels that TG has more to gain with a nonstop BKK-KWI-BKK 5 weekly service than SQ does with a 4 weekly B 772 flying SIN-AUH-KWI service. TG will be offering one stop flights via BKK to any where in Australia/Far East Asia where as SQ will be a more inconvenient 2 stop option using an older B 772 which will probably not have the new F and J class in-flight product. On this route as well, TG will get a lot of cargo to/from South Korea, China, HKG, TPE and Japan as KWI is the gateway to Iraq and has good trade links with these countries.
In September 1967, the British, French, and German governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to start development of the 300-seat Airbus A300. An earlier announcement had been made in July 1967, but at that time the announcement had been clouded by the British Government's support for the Airbus, which coincided with its refusal to back British Aircraft Corporation's (BAC) proposed competitor, a development of the BAC 1-11 — despite a preference for the latter expressed by British European Airways (BEA).
HistoryThe A310's range exceeds that of all the A300 models, except for the A300-600, which surpasses the A310-200. This feature has led to the aircraft being used extensively on transatlantic routes. The A300 and A310 introduced the concept of commonality: A300-600 and A310 pilots can qualify for the other aircraft with one day of training.
A330-200TAM Airlines (TAM Linhas Aéreas) A330-200 EVA Air's A330-203 Hello Kitty jet (B-16303)The A330-200 was developed to compete with the Boeing 767-300ER. The A330-200 is similar to the A340-200 or a shortened version of the A330-300. With poor sales of the A340-200 (of which only 28 were built), Airbus decided to use the fuselage of the A340-200 with the wings and engines of the A330-300. This significantly improved the economics of the plane and made the model more popular than the four-engined variant.
HistoryAirbus' new aircraft was launched in 1988, as a long-range complement to the short-range A320 and the medium-range A300. At the time the newest long-range widebody, the twinjet Boeing 767, was at a disadvantage against aircraft such as the 747 because of the ETOPS problem: two-engined aircraft have to stay within close range of emergency airfields in case one of their engines malfunctions. The four-engined A340 design was an attempt to make a new-generation competitor for ETOPS-immune aircraft like the Boeing 747.
A340-200 seriesThe A340-200, with 261 passengers in a three-class cabin layout has a range of 7,450 nautical miles (13,000 km) and in a 239 seat configuration has a range of up to 8,000 nautical miles (14,800 km). A shortened version of the A340-300, it is powered by four CFMI CFM56-5C engines. The A340-200 was launched in 1987, and first flew April 1, 1992. This variant sold in relatively small numbers and is no longer being offered to customers.
Moments after emerging from the cockpit of the A380 after its successful first flight, chief test pilot Jacques Rosay said flying the world’s biggest passenger jet had been “like handling a bicycle.” As captain for the take-off and the initial part of the test flight, he lavished praise on the aircraft for its performance: “This aircraft is very, very easy to fly. Any Airbus pilot will feel immediately at ease with this aircraft, a pure member of the Airbus family.”
Launched in February 2000, the new longer-range 777-200 and 777-300 airplanes bring the comfort and economic advantages of the Boeing 777 to non-stop routes that have never before been possible. The first 777-300ER rolled out of the Everett, Wash., factory on Nov. 14, 2002.The first 777-200LR (Longer Range) -- the world's longest range commercial airplane -- was unveiled February 15, 2005 and first flew on March 8 and has begun a six-month flight-test program.Boeing is offering its 777 customers new innovations that take advantage of the space in the overhead area of the airplane -- the area located between the top of the stow bins and the crown of the airplane. These innovations will allow operators to use the overhead space for crew rest stations and storage.
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