KOREAN AIR BOOSTS CONNECTIONS FROM HONOLULU
South Korea’s national carrier, Korean Air, is to modify the schedule of one of its two daily flights between Incheon International Airport, near the capital Seoul, and Hawaii’s primary airport Honolulu International. As from June 1, the carrier will bring forward the departure time of its KE053/054 service by 90 minutes to enable the return flight to better connect to eight Japanese cities – Chubu, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Niigata, Okayama, Osaka, Sapporo and Tokyo. An estimated 112,000 O&D passengers travelled on Korean Air’s flights between Honolulu and Incheon in the past year with around 22,000 more connecting on to destinations in Japan, although this only represents around a 1.6 per cent share of the total traffic between Japan and Honolulu.
VIETNAM AIRLINES TO OFFER DAILY FLIGHTS TO MOSCOW
Vietnam Airlines is to offer a daily schedule to the Russian capital Moscow this winter with a further weekly flight from Ho Chi Minh City. From October 30, the SkyTeam member will operate four flights a week on the Ho Chi Minh City – Moscow Domodedovo route, up from three currently, which will be complemented by three weekly flights from Hanoi. An estimated 170,748 O&D passengers travelled between Vietnam and the Russian Federation in the past year, up 11.0 per cent on the previous 12 months due to growth from both Aeroflot Russian Airlines and Vietnam Airlines. The Vietnamese carrier dominates both markets carrying approximately 41,000 O&D passengers (68 per cent) between Moscow Domodedovo and Ho Chi Minh City, a route also served by Transaero Airlines, and 46,000 (95 per cent) from/to Hanoi. Aeroflot also serves Hanoi from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
CHINA EASTERN SET TO BOOST PARIS CDG WINTER SCHEDULES
China Eastern Airlines is set to extend its capacity upgrade on the Shanghai Pu Dong – Paris CDG sector into its Winter Schedule for 2011/2012. The carrier increases frequency on the route from a daily schedule to ten flights per week during the summer. This year this happens from June 1 with the additional three flights being operated by an Airbus A340-300, rather than an A330-200 that currently serves the market. As per normal, this increase was originally believed to be solely for the summer schedule. However, its latest inventory in the GDS shows that the increased schedule will remain in place year-round. An estimated 278,000 O&D passengers travelled between Shanghai Pu Dong and Paris CDG in the past year, up 34.4 per cent on the previous 12 months. China Eastern Airlines has increased its own traffic from around 90,000 to 94,000 passengers although its share of the market has reduced from 44 to 34 per cent, due primarily to the rapid expansion of Air France on the route.
FIREFLY TO LAUNCH KUALA LUMPUR – SANDAKAN
Low-cost carrier Firefly is to launch flights between Kuala Lumpur and Sandakan, the second-largest city in Sabah, East Malaysia, on the north-eastern coast of Borneo. The route is already served eleven times per week by the budget carrier’s parent Malaysia Airlines which carried an estimated 97,000 O&D passengers during the past year, a 31 per cent share of the total market. Traffic is dominated by AirAsia which carried around 212,000 O&D passengers during the same period with average fares less than half those charged by the Malaysian national carrier. It is understood that Malaysia Airlines will continue to serve the route when Firefly launches its twice daily schedule on August 1. It has a relatively strong yield and the services of Firefly will enable it to take some price sensitive customers away from its rival and further stimulate demand.
CATHAY PACIFIC TO CONTINUE HONG KONG – SINGAPORE CAPACITY UPGRADE
Cathay Pacific Airways will continue to operate seven non-stop flights per day between Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as an eighth daily flight via Bangkok. When the Hong Kong carrier introduced its seventh daily rotation on April 29 it had originally planned for it to operate for just two months until June 30, but it will now remain in place for the entire summer schedule. However, instead of an evening departure from Hong Kong and red-eye return, the flight will now depart in the morning, returning from Changi Airport in the afternoon. An estimated 2,21 million O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year, up 30.5 per cent on the previous 12 months. Cathay Pacific is the largest operator with a 43 per cent share of the traffic, followed by Singapore Airlines (31 per cent) and then Jetstar Asia Airways and Tiger Airways with nine per cent each.
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