The return of the second weekly frequency, which was previously operated between April 2010 and August 2011, will be partly facilitated by funding support from the national government to the tune of K5 million ($1.7 million), which will go a long way to assist the airline in implementing the second Japan service, according to Air Niugini’s Chief Executive Officer, Simon Foo.
China is Sydney Airport’s fastest growing inbound visitor market and this new link will bring even more Chinese visitors to Sydney and NSW, with associated tourism and economic benefits. Hainan Airlines will be the sixth Chinese mainland airline serving destinations across mainland China, making Sydney Airport the world’s leading airport for long-haul Chinese airlines.
The new flight will be an eleven hour sector and will be operated using a Boeing 767-300ER. The Vietnamese market will initially be served on a seasonal schedule with flights planned between June and October 2016, but the carrier said there is the potential to expand the season in subsequent years.
The flight will be operated as part of American's joint business with Qantas, which remains subject to regulatory approvals. Through their enhanced relationship, American and Qantas intend to provide increased connectivity to markets beyond their key gateways.
The new flight will be the first direct offering between Singapore and the South Pacific Islands and will be operated using a 273-seat Airbus A330 configured with a two-class arrangement. The flight time of ten hours will save travellers at least three hours compared to current flight options which require a transfer stop in Australia or New Zealand.
Jet Airways currently offers a mini hub operation at Brussels Airport with daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai in India connecting in the Belgian capital to daily continuation flights to Newark, USA and Toronto, Canada, but changes to its business strategy after United Arab Emirates (UAE) national carrier, Etihad Airways became an equity partner mean this demand is not being more efficiently handled via Abu Dhabi International Airport.
The first new Pharma Express route commenced on November 10, 2015 and operates from Mumbai via Ahmedabad to Doha on Tuesdays and Fridays. The second new Pharma Express route commenced on November 11, 2015 and operates from Hyderabad to Doha on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Both flights will offer connectivity across Qatar Airways’ extensive global network.
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.
