China's Hainan Airlines is seeking approval from the US authorities to begin flights linking Chongqing with Los Angeles and New York from the first half of this year. The carrier says the relaxation of US-China visa requirements is already dramatically increasing travel between the two countries, resulting in more demand for air capacity.
For a consecutive year, more than a third of airline industry profits in 2016 are expected to come from the carriers of North America, says ICAO. Last year the
In the latest update of its 2017 flight inventory, Korean Air will introduce the 787-9 on its Seoul Gimpo – Jeju route between March 7, 2017 and March 25, 2017. The aircraft will serve the domestic link on a three times daily basis to ensure crew can secure required flight hours on the airframe ahead of its international debut.
In our regular Routes News series we take a look at the people that attend Routes events and find out more about them, their jobs and the current industry issues impacting them.
The new Singapore - Moscow - Stockholm flight will commence from May 30, 2017, subject to regulatory approval, and will be operated with a five times weekly frequency using Airbus A350-900 equipment.
Airbus launched the A380 a decade ago with high hopes for the rise of the super jumbo, but demand is dwindling. So what now for the future of the ultra-size market?
Melbourne was the original home for Qatar Airways in Australia, with the airline subsequently adding services to Perth, Sydney and Adelaide. With the growth from the original 777-200LR to the A380, the airline has actually doubled its daily capacity since the start of the route while retaining just the single flight rotation.
Around two million passengers a year fly between Australia and the UK (O&D demand for 12 months to October 2016) and the famous Kangaroo Route has been one of the most competitive air corridors in aviation history with tens of airlines competing for traffic via various points across Asia and more recently the Middle East.
Hainan Airlines' landmark Beijing - Las Vegas service has its roots in the US city hosting the World Routes air service development forum back in October 2013 and has been helped subsequently by regular meetings at Routes regional and world events. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) estimates the flights will account for $33.5 million in annual economic impact.
The connecting passenger flows at either end of the route will be key to the success of this route. The local demand between Santiago and Melbourne is around 16,000 bi-directional O&D passengers per year, but when you expand to Chile to Australia that grows five-fold to around 100,000 passengers and up to 585,000 passengers when you consider the whole of Central and South America and the Pacific region.
The landmark partnership continues a recent relaxation of rights between the two countries and is expected to lead to an immediate growth in flights between the two countries, including many new routes from China’s emerging second and third tier cities into Australia.
The new Belfast City route will commence from June 1, 2017 and will be operated using a 72-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprop. It will operate from Keflavik International Airport in Iceland, providing extensive connection options to the Transatlantic network of Icelandair from the mid-Atlantic island as well as support growing business and leisure flows into Iceland which is becoming an increasingly popular leisure destination.
The carrier, part of the HNA Group, will offer a daily flight between Hong Kong and Vancouver from June 30, 2017, initially using a 283-seat Airbus A330-200 but likely to be switched to the A350-900 once the first of its aircraft are delivered towards the end of next year.
The eight ‘new’ markets comprise Canberra, the airline’s fifth destination in Australia; Dublin, Ireland; Las Vegas, the airline’s eleventh destination in the United States; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Medan’s Kualanamu International Airport, the airline’s third destination in Indonesia; and Tabuk and Yanbu, its ninth and tenth destinations in Saudi Arabia.
Taiwanese carrier TransAsia Airways suspended all operations this week after what was originally expected to be just a one day shutdown turned into the permanent closure of the carrier, which has found it difficult to recover from two high-profile accidents in less than a year at a time of cooling relations with China and a reduction in Cross-Straits demand.
As Airbus celebrates the milestone inaugural test flight of the new A350-1000, the largest variant of the A350XWB family, Routesonline looks at approaching two years of commercial operations with the smaller A350-900.
The link into this year’s World Routes host city will commence from April 28, 2017 and will be operated using a Boeing 777-200ER configured with 248 seats. The airline has been a major target for Aeroports de Catalunya as it seeks to boost connectivity into Northeast Asia, one of the fastest growing regions of the world and a major outbound market.
Lufthansa has confirmed it will base its first ten A350-900s at Munich and will enter commercial operation on the Munich – Delhi route from February 10, 2017. Alongside the Delhi route the type will also initially be used on flights from the Bavarian hub to Boston, USA.
The Japanese airline will become the first low-cost carrier in Japan to operate A320neo aircraft. The order, worth $1.4 billion, was announced at a signing ceremony in Tokyo attended by the carrier’s managing director and CEO alongside the Airbus president and CEO.
Destinations around the world welcomed 956 million international tourists between January and September 2016, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. This is 34 million more than in the same period of 2015, a four percent increase.
Tianjin currently has limited connectivity outside of Asia from Binhai International Airport, but is increasingly being seen as an alternative access point into China’s capital city, Beijing, which is just 120km away and a journey of just 35 minutes by high-speed train.
The expanded network, which includes six Chinese cities that have never been served directly by a Malaysian airline, is just the first stage of an ambitious plan to more than triple Malaysia Airlines’ China business, adding more than ten additional cities to its network by the early 2020s.
The Nordic flag carrier will temporarily suspend its flights between Helsinki and Chongqing from January 11, 2017 to May 2, 2017, as part of the airline's measures to create adequate room for pilot training for its Airbus A350 operations.
Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) began operations of the Dreamliner on October 26, 2011. The airline currently has the largest 787 fleet with 52 aircraft, receiving their 50th in mid-August.
