Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Air Canada announces more long haul expansion

Air Canada has officially announced another round of long haul expansion for its route network from the on set of the IATA S17 season. The main highlights are as follows:

YVR/FRA - new daily nonstop flights to be operated using a B788

YVR/LGW - new 3 weekly nonstop flights to be operated using a B763ER

YUL/GVA - capacity increased to daily A333

YUL/CDG - capacity reduced from double daily B77W to daily A333 + daily B77W

YYZ/MAD - capacity reduced from daily B789 to daily B788

YYZ/MXP - capacity reduced from daily A333 to daily B763ER

YYZ/GRU - capacity increased from daily B763ER to daily B789


Turkish announces Phuket

Turkish Airlines has officially announced that it shall be launching new nonstop services to HKT-Phuket, Thailand effective 17JUL17 as the carrier looks to increase its foothold on high demand leisure markets in Asia gaining feed from Europe. 

TK will operate 4 times per week nonstop from IST using an A333 with the below mentioned schedule:

Days - 1/4/6/7

TK 172 Dep IST 1430 Arr HKT 0400+1
TK 173 Dep HKT 0530 Arr IST 1200

Above schedule connects with all the major EU cities conveniently via IST in both directions

Monday, November 28, 2016

Qatar Airways announces 8 new destinations

Qatar Airways has officially announced mega expansion plans to its route network for 2017-18 as the carrier revealed today 8 new destinations that it intends to launch. They are as follows for 2017 and 2018:
Dublin, Las Vegas, Medan, Rio De Janerio, Santiago, Yanbu, Canberra and Tabuk
http://www.qatarairways.com/ca/en/press-release.page?pr_id=pressrelease_2017destinations
Comments:
Out of the above mentioned destinations on the long haul side of things, the only ones that have a remote chance of succeeding from a seat factor point of view are Medan and Dublin.
Canberra market demand is extremely small to Europe/GCC and it will really struggle. The only way to get decent loads from here is to ensure that it’s a one stop service operated via KUL or BKK. Preferably, KUL should be chosen so that MH can code share on the route being a fellow OW carrier thus providing it with useful feed via KUL to other key Asian cities.
Few EU carriers have already announced pulling out of GIG and with the Brazilian economy still in tatters it is surprising to see QR take this initiative. The most promising new destination in Latin America in 2016 has been Bogota (BOG) and that is a route that needs to be looked at as demand is there from China, SE Asia, DXB and Europe. BOG’s altitude would not enable a nonstop flight to be operated from GCC hence it is better to fly via Europe (preferably Rome or Spain) and take advantage of 5th freedom traffic potential. The below demand has been witnessed for the past 12 months on key trans-atlantic cities to/from BOG:
FCO – 24,000 (nobody flies nonstop)
BCN – 72,000
MAD – 153,000

PIA announces Jeddah expansion plan


Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has officially announced that it will be increasing frequencies on its popular Jeddah bound service from the province of Punjab as the airline looks to regain lost market share from the Gulf carriers in particular who rely heavily on Jeddah feed out of this area in Pakistan. Effective 01DEC16, the increases are as follows:

Lahore increased from 4 to 5 weekly B777s
Islamabad increased from 3 to 4 weekly B777s
Multan increased from 3 to 4 weekly using a mix of B772s and A320s
Faisalabad increased from 2 to 3 weekly using A320s

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Ethiopian announces USA and EU expansion plans

Ethiopian Airlines has officially announced major expansion plans for its long haul route network for which shall commence from the on set of the IATA Summer 2017 season. The main highlights are as follows:

DUB/LAX - frequencies increased from 3 to 4 weekly

LFW/EWR - frequencies increased from 4 to 5 weekly

OSL - new 4 weekly flights to be operated via ARN

CDG/BRU - frequencies increased from 5 weekly to daily

LFW/GRU - frequencies increased from 3 to 4 weekly

All of the above services are to be operated using the B788 exclusively.