With British Airways resuming long-haul Airbus A380 service and Qatar Airways ‘reluctantly’ preparing to welcome back the aircraft, Routes looks at the latest operations of the superjumbo.
Routes analyzes some of the services returning as well as new routes being launched. This week we look at the resumption of flights between Malaysia and Singapore, and Air Arabia Abu Dhabi’s latest network additions.
Malaysia Airports is continuing to engage with its airline partners and stakeholders in order to capture key markets and improve short to medium haul connectivity in high growth markets for mutual benefits of all parties and strengthen the airport’s role in the regional air transport system.
The Asian carrier has configured the A350-900 in a 253-seat arrangement across three classes – 42 in Business, 24 in Premium Economy and 187 in Economy. It currently has orders for 67 A350-900s having placed an additional order for four aircraft last year. Seven of these will now be delivered with an Ultra-Long Range capability for flights of up to 19 hours.
The new four times weekly link from Kuala Lumpur will add to the destination’s established links to Bangkok (China Southern, Shenzhen Airlines), Hong Kong (China Southern), Singapore (Jetstar Asia) and Taipei (China Southern) and will bring new connectivity across Asia and the Pacific through the AirAsia and AirAsia X networks from Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
AirAsia X is planning to add Auckland, the largest and most populous urban area in New Zealand, as a tag on its existing daily Kuala Lumpur – Gold Coast service and is expected to open reservations this week. It previously served Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand but closed the route after just 15 months of operation.
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 new link to New Chitose Airport, located to the southeast of Chitose and Tomakomai, and the largest facility on Hokkaido, Japan’s second largest island will be introduced from October 1, 2015 and is targeted to attract the mobile inbound Japanese tourist market and support their interest in exploring the wider Asian market via the airline’s own network and its short-haul AirAsia Group partners.
British Airways has announced it will introduce its first Boeing 787-9 into its fleet in September 2015 and will initially deploy the larger Dreamliner variant on its route between London Heathrow and Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, India from the start of the winter 2015/2016 schedule in late October.
The troubled Asian national carrier Malaysia Airlines will be completely revamped as a business through the remainder of the year as its new boss takes drastic action to return the loss-making operator to profitability. Christoph Mueller, who joined as chief executive officer earlier this year from Aer Lingus has played important roles in the restructuring the Irish carrier and other European flag carriers.
