SINGAPORE AIRLINES TO BRING ADDITIONAL A380 TO LONDON
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has chosen the 40th anniversary celebrations of its flights between Singapore and London Heathrow, to confirm plans to introduce an Airbus A380 on the third of its daily flights before the end of this year. The carrier, then known as Malaysia-Singapore Airlines, launched flights between the two cities in June 1971 initially operating three flights per week with a Boeing 707, which made intermediate stops in Bombay and Bahrain due to range issues. It has subsequently seen rapid growth and now operates three daily flights, carrying more than 370,000 O&D passengers in the past 12 months, with many more connecting on to other Asian destinations from Changi International Airport. SIA has a 55 per cent share of this annual 672,000 O&D passenger market and utilises its Airbus A380s on two of its daily flights. The remaining flight is currently operated by a 777-300ER but its newly appointed General Manager for the UK and Ireland, PheeTeik Yeoh, has confirmed that this service will also be upgraded to the A380. “With the arrival of our twelfth A380 expected by the end of the year, we will soon see all our London Heathrow services operating this state of the art aircraft,” he said.
QANTASLINK UPGRADES BRISBANE – MORANBAH CAPACITY
Australian regional air service provider QantasLink is to introduce a new 74-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 on its flights between Brisbane and Moranbah, increasing capacity on the route by 61.9 per cent. The introduction larger aircraft, as well as the addition of four additional rotations per week, has been made possible following the completion of development work "This major expansion of services linking Brisbane with one of Queensland's key mining centres is in direct response to increasing demand from the local coal and resources industries. We'll continue to grow capacity on this route as more projects come online," said Narendra Kumar, Executive Manager, QantasLink. The airline will operate a total of 24 flights per week on the route, with the new flights being introduced on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. According to the airline, Q400s will operate 15 of these weekly flights with the remainder still served by smaller Q300s. An estimated 35,000 O&D passengers travelled between Birsbane and Moranbah in the last year, up more than 213 per cent on the previous 12 month period. This expansion follows a recent increase in capacity across a range of regional routes in Queensland, including links to Brisbane from Barcaldine, Blackall, Bundaberg, Emerald, Gladstone, Hervey Bay, Longreach, Mackay, Rockhampton and Roma.
AIR ASTANA USES E190S TO BUILD REGIONAL LINKS
Kazakhstan carrier Air Astana has utilised its recently delivered Embraer E190 regional jets to inaugurate flights from Almaty to the Georgian capital Tbilisi and the southern Russian city of Samara earlier this month. The three times weekly schedules are part of the operator’s strategic plan to expand its Central Asian network. Already this year it has added seven additional international routes including services from Almaty to Baku, Bishkek, Dushanbe, St Petersburg, Tashkent and Urumqi in western China. “Air Astana is delighted to launch new services to Tbilisi and Samara, which will help to boost business, economic and cultural relations between these cities and Kazakhstan,” said Peter Foster, President, Air Astana. “Passengers on the expanding regional network out of Almaty can now start to enjoy the airline’s award winning service service aboard the new fleet of Embraer 190s.” Air Astana took delivery of its first E190 in late April and has subsequently added a second example to its fleet. It will eventually operate six examples by the end of next year and will use the jets to replace its smaller Fokker 50 turboprops. They are configured in a two-class layout seating 97 passengers.
KOREAN AIR CONFIRMS JUNE 17 DEBUT FOR A380
South Korea’s national carrier Korean Air has confirmed that it will launch scheduled passenger flights with the Airbus A380 between Seoul Incheon and both Tokyo Narita and Hong Kong from June 17 after taking delivery of its first aircraft late last month. The airline had originally planned June 1 as the entry into service date but subsequently delayed this after the aircraft only made its journey to Asia last week after successfully completing final flight and ground tests at the Airbus facility in Toulouse. According to Korean Air, the inaugural A380 commercial fight, with the special code ‘KE380’ will take off from Incheon International Airport at 09:10 on June 17, arriving in Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Japan at 11:30 on the same day. The same flight will then return to Seoul, departing at 20:00 to Hong Kong International Airport and arriving at 22:30 (all local times) on the same day. Korean Air has ordered ten A380 aircraft with the first five to be delivered by the end of 2011 and the remaining five by 2014. The airline will gradually expand its A380 service to popular short-haul routes in Asia, such as Bangkok in July, followed by long-haul routes to destinations in Europe and North America, such as New York in August, Paris in September and Los Angeles in October 2011. The confirmation of Paris as a destination is an addition to the carrier’s earlier plan. The A380 will be introduced on the flight to the French capital on a three times weekly basis from September 26, with the additional rotations to be served by a Boeing 747-400. The airline has configured its aircraft in a three-class 407-seat arrangement, the most spacious of all the A380 customers to date, and is the first airline in the industry to have a ‘Duty Free Showcase’ on its new aircraft, featuring a great variety of duty-free products, such as cosmetics, perfumes, liquor and accessories, with a dedicated cabin crew member on hand to assist and advise passengers with all their shopping needs.
ALBANIAN AIRLINES ACQUIRES THIRD BAE 146
Albanian Airlines has acquired a third BAe 146 to enable it to boost frequencies on its existing routes, introduce a new service to Verona and to further develop its charter programme to destinations in Egypt, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey. The BAe 146-300, configured in a six-abreast, 98-seat all-economy class layout, joins two other BAe 146s (one Series 200 and one Series 300) that are used by the airline. The Tirana-based carrier currently offers flights to a variety of destinations with a strong focus on serving northern Italian cities such as Bergamo, Bologna, Milan, Pisa and Turin where there is a sizeable ethnic Albanian population. The new flight to Verona is due to launch in July. The airline has carried an estimated 273,000 O&D passengers in and out of Albania over the past year, accounting for a 15.5 per cent share of the total traffic.
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