Airline service updates

[reader]

The current issue of Aviation Week magazine has several articles (none available on line) about Asian and Gulf carriers that some may find of interest.

 

AIR ASIA -- Plans to resume flights to Europe have been put on hold. However, it has 10 Airbus A350's on order that would enable non-stop European service upon delivery expected  in 2020.  Late next year the LLC expects to take delivery of the first two A330-neos with five more due the following year.  Meanwhile, Air Asia may lease some older A330 models to ramp up service to Australia, China, Japan and S. Korea.

 

NARROW BODY BOOM -- LLC's are placing huge orders for new narrow body (single aisle) equipment with IndiGo (409), Lion Air (408) and Air Asia (395) leading the pack.

 

MALAYSIA AIRLINES -- This carrier is embarkd on one of the industry's most ambitious turn-around projects and hopes to become profitable in 2018. MAB has phased out its Boeing 777-200ER fleet as it cut nany European routes in favor of building up its Asia-Pacific network, particularly to China. It may lease used A330's to meet the goal. MAB is considering offering lie-flat beds in premium class and Wi-fi for service on China, Hong Kong and India routes. The carrier has six A350's on order to replace the A380 service to London. The 380's will be transferred to a new charter unit being established for religious pilgrimage flights. For its narrow body needs, it has 25 new Boeing 737MAX-8 and 10's on order, but delivery isn't expected until 2021 (the 10's will be used on secondary Chia destinations).

 

ETIHAD AIRWAYS -- In the competitive Gulf market, Etihad finds itself caught in a bind of its own making. Eithad is the largest shareholder of now bankrupt Air Berlin. The effect could have a very negative effect on its global plans. The trouble began when Etihad brought into numerous secondary or seriously troubled carriers to grow quicker than it could organically. This included Alitalia, Air Berlin, Air Serbia, Darwin Airlines, Air Seychelles, Jet Airways and Virgin Atlantic.  With Etihad's exit from the investor scene, the European airline landscape could see drastic changes in the near term.
 

[reader]

Excerpts from South China Morning Post

 

Cathay Pacific Airways has said it will save HK$2.2 billion (US$288 million) by delaying the delivery of long-haul aircraft and switching to smaller long-range planes as the company confirmed a HK$31.7 billion order for 32 short-haul aircraft.

 

The airline is cutting costs and restructuring in a bid to return to profit after producing the worst half-year results in almost 20 years last month.

 

The carrier said it will downsize six of its 26 Airbus A350-1000 planes for half a dozen smaller A350-900 planes, raising it from 22 to 28 aircraft. It will also delay the delivery of five more A350-1000 aircraft by one year to 2021.

 

Meanwhile the carrier is seeking to impose pay freezes and changes in pension benefits for its pilots to slash HK$1 billion in cockpit crew costs.

 

Expansion is still on the airline’s agenda though. Cathay Pacific on August 31 announced it woulld fly to Dublin, Brussels and Copenhagen. The airline will close its Dusseldorf route at the same time.

 

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/2111083/cathay-pacific-save-hk22-billion-changing-investment-new

[PeterRS]

Some strange decisions given several airlines history. Air Asia X returning to Europe? Its flights to London were axed after a couple of years because there simply werent the passenger numbers and constant flight delays meant many passengers missed connecting flights at KL.

 

Cathay Pacific also made some strange choices that didnt work out. It opened up Istanbul and then closed the route after about 18 months. It opened Gothenburg and closed that pretty quickly. Now Dusseldorf - another big mistake. Copenhagen seems a better bet although it will still have to compete for fares with the much lower biz class fares offered by Finnair which has very fast connections in Helsinki. Brussels seems weird to me. Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt are all pretty close by.  What is surprising is that the mandarins in the airline pay little attention to south east Europe. No flights to Munich or Vienna which are each served from HKG by just one airline. Still whod want to run an airline?

[1moRussian]

We are waiting AirAsia here in European part of Russia

It's rumored they could start flying to Don Muang from Saint Petersburg and Moscow