News From Asia 亚洲新闻

Richard Maslen May 25, 2011

VIETNAM AIRLINES CONFIRMS GATWICK AS LONDON TERMINUS

Vietnam Airlines has confirmed that it will initially serve London’s Gatwick Airport in the UK capital after failing to secure the necessary slots to serve London Heathrow. However, in the longer-term, as its services become established, it is understood to be interested in transferring its flights across the city. The airline is planning to launch twice weekly flights from both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and has provisionally set December 8 as its launch date. It will use a Boeing 777-200ER on the routes and plans to increase capacity to a daily schedule by 2014. The UK is currently the largest O&D market from Vietnam that is not currently served by the airline. It already operates flights to Paris CDG, Frankfurt and Moscow Domodedovo from both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The number of people travelling between the UK and Vietnam is increasing, according to visitor statistics, with an estimated 90,000 making the journey in 2010, up 28 per cent on the previous year. Official data shows an O&D market of an estimated 83,000 passengers between the two countries with traffic mainly routing via Bangkok with Thai Airways International, Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific Airways and Singapore with Singapore Airlines. Alongside business and leisure travellers there are around 40,000 Vietnamese people living and working in Britain, and 7,000 students studying in the country, adding further VFR traffic.

STRATEGIC AIRLINES APPLIES FOR CHINESE ROUTE AUTHORITY

Australian carrier Strategic Airlines has made a formal application to secure an allocation of capacity to operate services between Australia and China. The company is seeking 1,911 seats per week of the overall capacity allocated to Australian operators between the two countries, and plans to begin flights from this September. It says it will “fully utilise” this capacity by August 31, 2012 and requests approval to operate for a five year period from the date of determination. The application follows just a month after the carrier secured approval to begin flights to the US, although it has yet to announce its operational plans. Although an estimated 1.42 million O&D passengers travelled between Australia and China in the past year, a massive 28.7 per cent growth over the previous 12 months, there is a lot of competition, with over 50 weekly flights, and there are more to come. China Southern Airlines has links to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney from Guangzhou; Air China has flights to Sydney from Beijing and Melbourne and Sydney from Shanghai; China Eastern also flies to Melbourne and Sydney from Shanghai; while Qantas has a Sydney – Shanghai service.

KALSTAR AVIATION INCREASES COMPETITION BETWEEN JAKARTA AND KUCHING

Indonesian carrier Kalstar Aviation has launched flights between the country’s capital city Jakarta and Kuching, the capital and most populous city of the East Malaysian state of Sarawak and the largest city on the island of Borneo. The new daily link was inaugurated on May 23 and is being operated using a recently acquired Boeing 737-300 via Pontianak, the capital of the province of West Kalimantan on the Indonesian side of the island. Kalstar is one of eight Asian carriers to provide service to Kuching, and will face direct competition from Batavia Air on the route. Its Indonesian rival carried an estimated 16,500 O&D passengers between Kuching and Pontianak in the past year, with around 110,000 flying between Pontianak and Jakarta, a route also flown by Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air, Srijiwaya Airlines and until its recent closure, Mandala Airlines. A total of approximately 350,000 point-to-point travellers have utilised the route in the last year, up 0.9 per cent on the previous 12 month period. “Malaysia Airports (MAB) welcomes Kalstar’s operations to KIA and wishes them all the best for this service. We are delighted with this as it offers connection to Jakarta, with stopover at Pontianak, which will benefit passengers from Sarawak in terms of choices,” said Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad, Managing Director, Malaysia Airports. The airport operator is reportedly providing a lot of marketing support to the new route, including heavily discounted landing fees for the first three years, as well as six months free rental of office space within the main terminal building at Kuching International Airport. “We started the route because there is demand to come here, especially for tourism, medical and education. Now people can travel between Jakarta and Kuching in a shorter time compared to other airlines. It will take about three hours, including transit time,” said Aditya Wardana, Vice President, Kalstar Aviation, adding that the carrier hopes to develop traffic on the Pontianak-Kuching route too.

WELLINGTON INTERNATIONAL REPORTS STRONG YEAR

Wellington International Airport in New Zealand has had a busy year that will be remembered by the successful completion of its new terminal development, The Rock, progress on initiatives to further improve the Airport’s services and facilities and good earnings growth despite a weak economy. For the financial year ending March 31, 2011, its before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and fair value adjustments (EBITDAF) and excluding subvention payments was$72.3 million, an increase of $4.1m from the previous 12 month period. Total revenue was $114.7 million, which was up 9.7 per cent on last year. Aeronautical revenue increased $2.5 million and retail, property and trading activities were up by $7.6 million. In October 2010, the final stage of the new terminal development was completed and is now capable of processing 1,000 international passengers per hour, with the flexibility to be used for both domestic and international services. Work has also commenced on a new corporate jet and maintenance hangar in the Western Apron area, which is expected to be open towards the end of 2011. International passenger numbers increased by 4.5 per cent compared to last year and it was the Airport’s busiest year ever for international traffic. Domestic passenger full year numbers were basically flat (-0.3 per cent), which was a positive result considering the departure of Pacific Blue on domestic routes in October. Both Air New Zealand and Jetstar have subsequently phased in additional flights to and from Wellington which has helped in replacing the reduced capacity. During the final three months of the year, the Airport was able to play a key role during the Christchurch earthquake by assisting the facilitation of commercial and military flights and the provision of space and services. Looking forward, it says, current forecasts indicate “improved conditions for the current financial year”, with a gradual economic recovery and the Rugby World Cup 2011 expected to bolster demand and airline service.