December 2010 Archives

Delta Air Lines has updated on the Global Distribution Systems a number of changes to its current flight inventory ( most data applying from Summer 2011 onwards ). The changes are given below. Please note that the aircraft type is not displayed. Only the routes with changes are shown, with frequencies against either current frequency or historical seasonal frequency.



From Atlanta, ATL



Birmingham, Alabama : Reduced from 13 to 10 daily flights effective April 2011 Columbia Metropolitan : Reduced from 11 to 9 daily flights effective April 2011 Akron : Reduced from 6 to 5 daily flights effective April 2011 Paris CDG : Reduced from 2 to 1 daily flights during March - May. Two daily flights operates from June onwards instead of the usual three. Reflects partner Air France's entry. Denver : Reduced from 9 to 8 daily flights during April - June
Evansville : Reduced from 3 to 4 daily flights effective April 2011
Glacier Park, Kalispell : New one weekly flight from June onwards
Fort Lauderdale : Reduced from 14 to 13 daily flights during April 2011 only
Gulfport : Reduced from 6 to 7 daily flights during April 2011 only
Huntsville : Reduced from 12 to 11 daily flights effective April 2011
Houston : Reduced from 8 to 7 daily flights during May - June
Jackson Hole : New weekly flight from June onwards Jackson-Evers, Mississippi : Reduced from 9 to 8 daily flights effective April 2011
Will Rogers, Oklahoma : Reduced from 6 to 5 daily flights during May - June
Louisville : Reduced from 11 to 8 daily flights effective April 2011
Tampa : Reduced from 13 to 12 daily flights effective April 2011
Vancouver : New weekly flight from June onwards

Austin - Cancun : Weekly flight ends early by April

Bradley - Southwest Florida : Weekly flight ends early by April

Boston - Washington, DCA : Reduced from 11 to 7 daily flights effective April 2011
Boston - Pittsburgh : New three daily flights effective April 2011

Cincinnati - Washington, DCA : Increased from 4 to 5 daily flights effective April 2011
Cincinnati - San Antonio : Seasonal flight cancelled

From Detroit, DTW



Akron : Increased from 3 to 4 daily flights effective April 2011
Charleston : Reduced from 3 to 2 daily flights effective April 2011
Duluth International : Increased from 2 to 3 daily flights effective April 2011
Erie : Increased from 4 to 5 daily flights effective May 2011
Ft. Lauderdale : Reduced from 6 to 5 daily flights in April 2011 only
La Crosse Municipal : Increased from 1 to 2 daily flights effective June
Sacramento : Reduced from daily to four weekly flights effective June 2011
Tulsa : Reduced from 3 to 2 daily flights effective June
Vancouver : New weekly flight effective June

Los Angeles - San Francisco : Increased to eight daily flights effective May, 2011

From Memphis, MEM



Golden Triangle : Reduced from 2 to 1 daily flights effective April 2011
Wichita, Mid-Continent : Increased from 2 to 3 daily flights effective June
Montego Bay : Not operating from April to June
Northwest Florida : Reduced from 3 to 2 daily flights from April.

From Minneapolis, MSP



Bozeman : Reduced from 3 to 2 daily flights during April - June
Colorado Springs : Increased from 1 to 2 daily flights effective June
Cancun : Reduced from 5 to 3 daily flights in April 2011 only
Denver : Increased to eight daily flights from June
Duluth International : Reduced from 8 to 6 daily flights effective May 2011
Montego Bay : Weekly flight not operating between April - June Oklahoma : Reduced from 3 to 2 daily flights effective May 2011
Toledo: Reduced from 2 to 1 daily flights effective immediately ( January 2011 )
Saskatchewan,YQR : Reduced from 3 to 2 daily flights effective June

New York, JFK - Rome, FCO : Reduced from two daily to 12 weekly flights effective June
New York, JFK - Richmond : Increased from four to five daily flights effective May 2011
New York, LGA - Chicago, ORD : Increased from 10 to 11 daily flights effective April 2011

Washington, DCA - Charleston : New daily flight from April 2011
From Salt Lake City, SLC



Casper, Wyoming : Reduced from 3 to 2 daily flights effective June 2011
Oakland : Reduced from 3 to 2 daily flights effective May
Pasco, Tri-Cities : Reduced from 5 to 4 daily flights between April - June
San Francisco : Reduced from 6 to 5 daily flights effective April 2011

Washington, DCA - Port Columbus : Reduced from 3 to 2 daily flights effective April 2011
Washington, DCA - T.F. Green, Providence : New three daily flights effective April 2011
Note that the above data is subject to change. Maps generated by the G reat Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

Did you use to believe that Singapore was South East Asia's busiest airport ? Or Bangkok ? It's time to change your belief now.

Indonesia's Jakarta Soekarano Hatta ( CGK ) airport has now surpassed both Singapore and Bangkok to become Southeast Asia's busiest airport by passenger traffic.

For the 12 months ending September 2010, CGK has recorded 42,528,882 passenger movements* to become World's 16th busiest airport.

* Total passengers enplaned and deplaned, transit passengers counted only once. Source : Airports Council International .

Photo by Gunawan Kartapranata

With 42.4m passengers, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi is now in Southeast Asia's second place, while Singapore is third with 41m passengers.

The Jakarta airport's amazing 21.2% growth must have a lot backed from AirAsia, Garuda, and Lion Air's expansion. All three carriers, as well as other smaller players, expanded in the last year both domestically, and internationally. The airport had recorded 37,143,719 passengers in 2009.

Amongst latest airlines to CGK are Mihin Lanka from Colombo and ANA from Tokyo Narita . The competition has not been sweet for every airline though - Kartika Air has ceased operating, Mandala has seen its fleet shrink from eleven to five aircraft - but the rest has seen expansion, with Sriwijaya Air, Batavia, AirAsia, Lion Air and Garuda all expanding their fleets. And the growth, however has not been without its downsides - the airport, terminals and the parking lots are now crowded than ever before - with a new runway being mulled to handle the increase in air traffic.

Although CGK's dominant traffic source is still domestic traffic, the airport's growing criteria of international business - mainly fueled by Garuda's product revamp and expansion will have a bigger part to play in the airport's future.

Etihad Airways ( EY ), the Abu Dhabi flag carrier, will increase its European operations from June 2011 onwards.

Malaysia Airlines and KLM, codeshare partners for twelve years, signed an MoU for a wide-ranging JV, yesterday ( 22 Dec ) in Shanghai.
The joint venture, KLM's fifth of the kind, includes revenue sharing on the Kuala Lumpur - Amsterdam route.

The new JV aims to increase the carriers' share on the growing Australia - Europe market routing through South East Asia. The JV is yet to be finalized, and will be in effect from IATA Northern Summer season of 2011.
The two airlines currently codeshare on each others' flights to a range of destinations that includes Europe as well as South Fast Asia and Australia.
Both MAS and KLM fly daily between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur, with a Boeing 747-400 and a 777-300ER respectively. MAS MD & CEO, Tengku Azmil, stated to The Networker that the carrier is looking at adding more European codeshare destinations, in addition to the ones already codeshared, as part of the JV.
Perhaps, one striking signal of this JV, just like the recent developments at Jet Airways, is the alignment towards SkyTeam. While there has no concrete words on this from either parties, this fits in well with SkyTeam's goal of expanding its presence.
MAS currently codeshares with 31 airlines, of which four ( AZ, CZ, KL, KE ) are already SkyTeam alliance members ( with Garuda to join soon ). But one must not forget that MAS' codeshare partners also include ten Star Alliance carriers - although MAS is yet to sign any JVs with any of them.
Back in 2006, MAS explored the possibility of joining SkyTeam, but later decided on the Project MOSAIC ( MAS Overall Strategic Alliance Integration Concept ) with the intention of reaping the maximum benefit from its own network while staying non-aligned. Project MOSAIC is a part of the MAS' Business Turnaround Plan which should run till 2012.
When asked about a possible signalling of an entry to SkyTeam, by The Networker, Tengku stated that " The JV with KLM is standalone and can be part of an alliance or otherwise." .. "We are open to an alliance at the right time. More cooperation is good."
Times ahead for MAS, sure do look interesting !

Jet Airways has announced its plans to aggressively expand internationally, and launch new routes to Paris, Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo - while resuming its Mumbai - Shanghai service.  

Let's start The Networker with a tutorial about a question that many of newbie 'route network enthusiasts' may be curious on. You may have heard about Point to Point and Hub and Spoke models in airline networks. What do they exactly mean ? What are the use cases ? And how could they work for the success of an airline ? Let's find out. Point to Point A Point to Point network is a typical route network where an airline focuses mainly on its Origin and Destination ( O&D ) traffic. This means that the airline is more interested in transportation of passengers originating from one city ( A ) to another ( B ) and vice versa, but not in connecting passengers between C and B via A. Low Cost Carriers are considered to be pioneers of this paradigm with a classic example being Southwest Airlines of US. Hub and Spoke A Hub and Spoke network is a route network where an airline will not only plan on transporting passengers between two points, but also to connect passengers between two distant cities via its hub. An example of a Hub and Spoke network can be seen from the following diagram. ( Image by elwood64151 on Wikipedia ) Imagine that as a bicycle wheel, literally. The airline uses the routes from its hub to other cities as spokes to connect each of them via its hub. The Hub and Spoke model originated with American Airlines, but perhaps the airline that uses it the best in present day is Emirates Airline. A Hub and Spoke model essentially needs to have different banks of flight departues and arrivals - in order to connect an arrival from city C, with a departure to city B, at the hub A. This paves way for the airline to attract highly lucrative transit traffic, which at some airline contribute more to fill a flight than O&D traffic. However, this model is not without its downsides. Keeping flights tightly scheduled to fit this bank might be challenging, and actually operating them on time to provide the connections might be even more challenging. However, the advantage, as well as the increased use of Hub and Spoke models by competitors have forced not just many legacy full fare carriers but also Low Cost Carriers to embrace a Hub and Spoke model. Perhaps one LCC that does this best, is AirAsia with its three ( soon to be four ) affiliates and the long haul unit AirAsia X. AirAsia does not provide passengers with direct connection options ( although since their latest booking engine upgrade, you can do so ) and guarantees, and it is up to the passenger to self-connect. This saves the airline both time and money while the carrier's ever increasing network with naturally banked scheduling provides a good amount of connection opportunities. Another LCC that seems to be following this path is FlyDubai ( IATA: FZ ) which also provides connectivity to/from its big brother Emirates' flights on selected routes. I hope this clears out any doubts or questions you may have had about the two different main airline route network models. Feel free to ask any questions and to share your opinion, in the comments section.

Welcome to The Networker. Your prime source for airline route network news, developments and analysis . My name is Miyuru, and I am the blogger ( or, The Networker ) here. Some of you might already know me from Airline Industry Review, my other blog - or as @AirlineIndustry from Twitter. The Networker is the newest member of FlightGlobal Blogs family, and at here we will be discussing about newest airline route announcements, route analysis, concepts to improve airline networks and airline route marketing. So, join in with us - subscribe to the RSS feed or free email newsletter, and stay tuned !