July 2011 Archives

Swiss International Air Lines from the Northern Winter season of 2011/12 is expanding its operation at Geneva (IATA:GVA). The airline will be adding the tenth based aircraft to the airport.

The airline will be increasing its Geneva - London City flights to five daily from the present four, effective 31st October 2011. From the same date, the Geneva - Budapest services will be discontinued. The carrier will still be offering connections to Budapest via Zurich on its thrice daily Zurich-Budapest flights.
From 16th December, SWISS will be adding its second daily flight on the Geneva - Moscow (DME) route.
From 10th February 2012, it will be launching a new twice daily service to Nice from Geneva. This service will be further increased to thrice daily from Summer season of 2012.
From the same date, the airline is also adding its third daily flight on the Geneva - Milan (MXP) route.

In addition to these changes, the airline also announced that effective 31st March, 2012 its Zurich - New York Newark service will return to the airline's own Airbus A340-300 aircraft from the present PrivatAir Boeing 737 fleet operation.

Swiss Airlines has announced that it will be launching flights to Beijing, China from 11th February 2012. The flights will operate daily, on board Airbus A340-300 aircraft.

Schedule:
LX196 ZRH1730 - 1020+1PEK 343 D Flying time: 9h50min
LX197 PEK1205 - 1600ZRH 343 D Flying time: 10h55min

The competition to this route comes from Hainan Airlines which operates thrice weekly service on the route on board Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

Virgin Australia (IATA:DJ) has announced the first routes for its new ATR72 turboprop aircraft, to be operated by Skywest Airlines. The new flights will begin on 31st October.
The aircraft will fly on

1. Brisbane - Gladstone : Twice daily
(No DJ service at present)

2. Brisbane - Port Macquarie : Daily
(No DJ service at present)

3. Sydney - Canberra
(Increases DJ service on route to 60 times weekly)

Emirates Airline from 1st December 2011 is launching daily A380 service to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The A380 will replace the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft presently used on the EK346/7 rotation.
New schedule:
EK346 DXB 0405 - 1455 KUL 388 D
EK346 KUL 1930 - 2230 DXB 388 D

The airline has also earmarked Rome, Auckland via Melbourne and Shanghai (increase) as possible new A380 routes, a source close to the airline stated to The Networker.

Eva Air (IATA:BR) of Taiwan from 31st October is switching its New York operation from Newark airport to the John F. Kennedy airport. The airline will be using Terminal 8 at the JFK.

Schedule
BR32 TPE 1930 - 2100 JFK 77W Mo, We, Th, Sa flying time: 14h30
BR31 JFK 2250 - 0730+2 TPE 77W Mo, We, Th, Sa (one-stop) flying time: 19h40

SriLankan Airlines has changed the flight schedule of its Milan and Rome service for the Winter season.

New schedule eff 2nd November
UL571 CMB 0500 - 1115 MXP 1245 - 1405 FCO 1520 - 0505+1 CMB We, Fr, Su 330

The Moscow service reverts to the originally planned departure time which was changed a few weeks ago.
UL531 CMB 0730 - 1045 DXB 1130 - 1640 DME Th, Sa 320
UL532 DME 1740 - 2225 DXB 2325 - 0525+1 CMB Th, Sa 320

Further changes to the network are expected following the recent appointment of a new CEO, Mr. Kapila Chandrasena, for the airline - replacing the previous CEO, Mr. Manoj Gunewardena, a thirty year industry veteran, after his retirement.

Etihad Airways from 16th December is launching service to Dusseldorf, it's 4th destination in Germany.

EY23 AUH 0205 - 0625 DUS 333 Mo, Fr
EY25 AUH 0900 - 1320 DUS 333 Tu, Th
EY24 DUS 1100 - 2025 AUH 333 Mo, Fr
EY26 DUS 2130 - 0655+1 AUH 333 Tu, Th

Dusseldorf will be the airline's 70th destination, with already announced Shanghai being the 71st destination.

 "So where did SureJet come from? Simply put, it came from our people; it's a symbol of the assurance, reliability and trustworthiness that our 10,000 aviation professionals told us they stand for and that our airline is committed to. The new identity also combines elements from each airline's existing brand, such as the red icon from the Atlantic Southeast brand and the forward moving text from the ExpressJet brand"

Etihad Airways has unveiled a logojet for Manchester City, the football team which it sponsors. The aircraft is A6-EYE , an Airbus A330-200.

SriLankan Airlines has temporarily increased its Dubai flights from 7 to 12 weekly, with effect from 4th July. The new flight, UL225, operates five times a week onboard an Airbus A320 till 14th July.

UL225 CMB DXB 1725 2025 320 1237
UL225 CMB DXB 1845 2145 320 5

UL226 DXB CMB 2125 0340+1 320 1237
UL226 DXB CMB 2245 0500+1 320 5

TAM has requested approval from ANAC to operate services from Sao Paulo to Mexico City. The airline plans to launch the flights from 30th October.
JJ8112 GRU MEX 0925 1600 332 D
JJ8113 MEX GRU 1925 0655 332 D

The route is presently flown by Aero Mexico with 9 weekly flights. As a result of launching this route, Paris flights will be temporarily reduced from twice to once daily.

Etihad Airways effective 15th December is launching flights to Chengdu, China. The route, presently subject to government approval, will operate four times a week on board Airbus A330-200 aircraft. Etihad becomes the first Middle Eastern carrier to operate into Chengdu.

EY818 AUH CTU 0825 1845 332 x136
EY811 CTU AUH 2015 0040+1 332 x136

Finnair (IATA:AY ) today announced that it will be launching flights to Chongqing, China, from May 2012. Chongqing will become the carrier's third mainland, and fourth overall, Chinese destination after Beijing, Shanghai and the SAR of Hong Kong.
Finnair plans to fly to Chongqing four times a week, on board Airbus A340 aircraft. The flight time is expected to be about 8.5 hours. A flight schedule was not immediately announced.
Commenting on the route launch, Finnair President and CEO Mika Vehviläinen, said "China is a key part of our Europe- Asia strategy. Western China is an important growth area, and the new route will strengthen our market share in the growing Asian markets. In addition to Chongqing, Finnair flies to Beijing, Shanghai and to Hong Kong with a total of 26 weekly flight,".
The airline's choice of Chongqing as its next Chinese destination, over the more established Chengdu, Shenzhen or the larger Guangzhou is quite interesting. But it nevertheless seems to be a very logical move given that all of the aforementioned destinations are getting increasingly overcrowded.
It will be interesting to watch how this route works out for Finnair.

Oman Air, effective 30th October 2011, is launching service to Zurich, Switzerland. Flights will operate four times a week on board Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

Schedule:
WY151 MCT ZRH 0230 0650 332 37 7h20min
WY153 MCT ZRH 1310 1730 332 15 7h20min

WY152 ZRH MCT 0915 1900 332 37 6h45min
WY154 ZRH MCT 2100 0645+1 332 15 6h45min

SWISS already operates a daily one-stop direct service to Muscat, from Zurich, with Airbus A330-300 aircraft.

The airline is also increasing Bangkok flights from 8 to 12 weekly, and Frankfurt flights from 7 to 9 weekly, effective the same date.

An interesting article (in Dutch) found on a Belgian news website says that Brussels Airlines is planning a route into the United States. According to the article, the airline itself announced the details at a recent news conference.
The airline will launch the flights in 2012, once it takes delivery of its sixth Airbus A330 aircraft. A destination was not earmarked, however it is expected that - being a Star Alliance member - the airline will launch flights to a hub of a Star Alliance member.
Brussels hopes to tap a share of the USA - Africa transit market, which it says already accounts for 14% of its African traffic.
What could be Brussels' first US destination ? Share your guess with us, in the comments section below.

SriLankan Airlines (IATA:UL) has loaded a number of changes to its network effective from late 2011.

Moscow flights, due to begin on 15th September, will now be operated with a schedule aligned to its present evening hub flow.
The new schedule:
UL531 CMB 1200 - 1500 DXB 1600 - 2110 DME 320 46
UL532 DME 2230 - 0330+1 DXB 0430+1 - 1030+1 CMB 320 46

On select days, including 21 March 2012, the airline is operating a sixth weekly one way service to Frankfurt.
UL503 CMB 1215 - 1840 FRA 332 21MAR12

As reported by The Networker previously, the airline is reducing frequencies to Mumbai from ten to seven weekly.

Further changes are expected.

British carrier FlyBe and Finnish national career Finnair today announced their intention to jointly acquire Finnish Commuter Airlines (also known as Finncomm). The new joint venture will be called FlyBe Nordic and is to be split 60% - 40% between FlyBe and Finnair respectively.
The new holding company for the joint venture, Flybe Nordic AB, plans to acquire the airline for about €25m and the total cash at the company at the time of the agreement completion. FlyBe will pay €12m of the amount and Finnair plans to pay the remaining €13m.
Finncomm presently operates two Embraer E170s and 13 ATR 42s and 72s with more on order. It has about 400 employees.
In a deal for acquisition of a 20% stake in Finncomm, in September 2010, Finnair acquired some of the airline's aircraft. Under the new deal, Finnair will acquire all nine of Finncomm's ATR72s and lease them out to FlyBe Nordic, along with the two Finncomm Embraer E170s already owned by Finnair. Finnair will also acquire and lease to FlyBe Nordic, the three ATR72s which Finncomm presently has on order. The four ATR42 aircraft will be owned by Finncomm's present majority owner Finncomm Oyj, and be leased out to FlyBe Nordic.
The new airline will continue to operate its routes under the FlyBe brand. However FlyBe and Finnair expect to make FlyBe Nordic the leading regional carrier in the Nordic and Baltic countries in the coming years.
More info about the airline is not known immediately and is expected to be revealed at a press conference scheduled for later today.

JetBlue (IATA:B6) yesterday announced that it has signed an interline agreement with Qatar Airways(IATA:QR).
The two airlines will connect each other's networks via New York, JFK and Washington, IAD.
"Qatar Airways' hub in Doha is strategically placed to connect East and West, with a timetable so carefully orchestrated that transit times on popular routes are as little as 30 minutes, a connection time which we comfortably can meet," said Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker.
Qatar operates daily flights from Doha to Houston, New York and Washington in the USA.
The new agreement will provide jetBlue's customers the access to a range of destinations that were not possible previously.