SINGAPORE AIRLINES TO INTRODUCE A380 ON SINGAPORE – FRANKFURT – NEW YORK
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has confirmed that it will use an Airbus A380 on its daily Singapore – Frankfurt – New York JFK route from January 15, 2012. This link is currently served by a Boeing 747-400 and the arrival of the Super Jumbo next year will increase daily seat capacity by a quarter. The two cities will be the ninth and tenth destinations to be served by SIA’s A380s, with the type already being used on routes to Hong Kong, London Heathrow, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Paris CDG, Sydney, Tokyo Narita and Zurich. The airline now has 13 aircraft in service and a further six on order and says more than 5.6 million customers have flown on its A380s since the inaugural flight in October 2007 to Sydney. “The introduction of the A380 to Frankfurt and New York is another milestone for Singapore Airlines,” explained Mak Swee Wah, Executive Vice President Commercial, Singapore Airlines. “For the United States, our customers will be able to enjoy the latest cabin products on all routes, in addition to having the A380 serving both east and west coasts. For Germany, it will also mean offering our customers the latest cabin products on both of our daily Frankfurt flights as well as our daily Munich flights.” The new flight will mean that there will be two daily A380 services between Frankfurt and New York as Lufthansa uses one of its own aircraft on one of its two daily flights on the route. However, this will be the first A380 scheduled to fly between Singapore and Germany.
BIMAN BANGLADESH ON-TRACK FOR MANCHESTER ROUTE RESUMPTION AND MILAN EXPANSION
Biman Bangladesh Airlines is expected to resume services to Manchester and inaugurate flights to Milan Malpensa following the arrival of the first of its Boeing 777-300ERs later this year. The carrier has four of the type on order and the first two examples are currently undergoing initial testing at the manufacturer’s facility at Seattle, USA. These are due to be configured in a two class, 419-seat arrangement (35 Business Class and 384 and Economy seats) and are scheduled for delivery in October and December this year. According to the latest amendments to its GDS inventory, Biman will introduce the type into service from the end of October, initially serving the Italian and UK markets. Although subject to change, the first scheduled revenue passenger flight with the 777-300ER is due to operate on October 31 between Dhaka and Rome Fiumicino on a twice weekly basis. This route is currently served with a Douglas DC-10-30 via Dubai, but the Middle Eastern stopover will be removed following the introduction of the 777-300ER and instead the aircraft will fly on to Milan Malpensa before returning directly to Bangladesh. This extension will initially operate on a weekly basis, but will be introduced on the second weekly rotation from November 28. The aircraft will also be used on flights to the UK, including the resumption of a link to Manchester. Biman had previous served the northwest UK city as an intermediate stop for its Dhaka – New York flights in April 2006, but these were suspended later the same month. The carrier will use the 777-300ER on two of its five weekly services from Dhaka to London Heathrow from November 2, again eliminating a stopover in Dubai. The aircraft will continue on to Manchester before returning to Dhaka and Sylhet.
AVIANCA USES A318 ON MEDELLIN – CARTAGENA
Colombian national carrier Avianca upgraded its three times daily Medellin – Cartagena domestic route this week replacing the Fokker 50 that it had previously used on the route with a larger Airbus A318. The airline has introduced ten former Mexicana A318s to its fleet on lease from GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) during the course of this year and has been using them to enhance its service on some of its key domestic and international routes, where demand does not justify the use of larger jets. According to the airline’s schedule the A318 was introduced into service on September 20. Avianca is currently the only airline operating direct flights between the two cities and carried an estimated 120,000 O&D passengers on the route in the past year- 94,000 on the direct flight and around 26,000 routing via Bogota. The airline holds an 81 per cent share of the total 147,000 O&D passenger market with the additional passengers flying with Aires and Copa Airlines via the Colombian capital. Medellin is the second largest city of Colombia and a developing hub for Avianca, where it operates domestic schedules and international flights to North America and Europe. Cartagena is a popular Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia. The city’s Rafael Núñez International Airport is due to welcome its first scheduled link from Europe this winter as Air Europa introduces a regular flight from Madrid.
NEW BRAND AND NEW AIRCRAFT FOR AIR SEYCHELLES?
Air Seychelles has unveiled its new corporate brand and revised logo and livery this week, as it emerged that it could introduce a single Boeing 737-800 into its fleet this December to serve some of its regional African routes. The new branding, which will be formally launched next week at the Top Resa tourism fair in Paris, has been under discussion for a number of years and was originally due to be introduced alongside the delivery of the first of the airline’s Boeing 787 Dreamliners. “The airline’s new livery and logo is based on the nature and the magnificent ecosystem that Seychelles boasts and is the muse behind the creation of the logo which is a fluid organic shape, like that of a leaf, has been adopted to signal our support for a greener Seychelles, and a greener Earth,” explained Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, Executive Chairman, Air Seychelles at its soft launch this week. Meanwhile, an update to Air Seychelles’ GDS inventory has suggested that it could be introducing a Boeing 737-800 into its fleet from the start of December. Earlier this week, the aircraft was displaying as a replacement for its 767 on three times weekly links to Mauritius (up from twice weekly) from December 1 and Johannesburg from December 2. This represented an increase in frequency as both routes are currently served on a twice weekly basis. However, as The HUB closed for press the aircraft change was removed from the GDS.
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