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Miyuru Sandaruwan: June 2011 Archives

EU and Indonesia boost bilateral air services deal

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The European Union today announced that it has signed a "horizontal agreement" on air services with Indonesia that will restore a sound legal basis for future aviation developments between Indonesia and the EU member states.
This new agreement, an update to the 2009's agreement, will
place several provisions in bilateral air services agreements between 19 EU Member States and Indonesia on a sound legal footing by ensuring compliance with EU legislation.
The new agreement removes the nationality restrictions that existed in the previous version. This means that all EU carriers will be legible to be designated by any of the 19 EU Member States with which Indonesia has bilateral agreements.
However they will only be able to operate flights if there are unused traffic rights in those agreements.

PHOTOS: Qatar Airways Arrives at Montreal

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Qatar Airways yesterday operated its inaugural scheduled flight into Canada. The thrice weekly service to Montreal, was inaugurated with A7-BBH, a Boeing 777-200LR, which was delivered fresh from the Paris Air Show.


Photo copyright Airliners.net member AABB777


Photo copyright Qatar Airways

SriLankan Reducing Mumbai Flights from Winter

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According to the present schedules display, SriLankan Airlines appears to be reducing its flights to Mumbai, BOM effective the start of the northern Winter season.
UPDATE: The airline has brought forward the reduction.
UL145/6 which is presently operating thrice weekly will be cut to twice weekly from July and will be cancelled from August. This was previously planned to be cancelled by November.
However note that the airline was in the process of increasing its Indian flights under a newly signed bilateral and it is possible that this flight might have been removed to pave way for loading a new flight.

Presently planned schedule, effective 1st of August.

UL141 CMB BOM 0001 0225 D 320
UL142 BOM CMB 0325 0545 D 320

Where Could Korean Air Fly With the CSeries?

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 At the 2011 Paris Air Show, Korean Air placed an order for 30 Bombardier CS300 aircraft. The aircraft has a planned range of 2,200nm and could significantly help Korean penetrate its regional markets with an aggressive frequency based operation. Here's an interesting map depicting to where could Korean Air fly with the CS300s.
 The range has been calculated as 2,000nm with freedom for real-life routing and fuel reserves. The circle depicts the area within the range of the aircraft. Major cities are marked.

map

Note: Agana refers to Guam.


Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

Hellenic Imperial to use 747-200 to USA

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Greek carrier Hellenic Imperial has pushed back the launch of their scheduled operations to London, and will be using Boeing 747-200 aircraft to New York due to an inability to source sufficient Airbus A340 aircraft.
It has been reported that the airline has a payments issue with regards to the ex Gulf Air Airbus A340, A9C-LG, that the airline has acquired. The Networker is inclined to believe that this, if true, could be a payment issue with the paintshop as the aircraft was already flown out of Bahrain for repainting a few weeks ago. However, if the aircraft is being leased, a non-payment to the lessor cannot be ruled out either.
The airline is now operating the New York, JFK flights on board the 747 Classic. This could prove to be a very rare opportunity for all the Boeing 747 lovers to see a -200 flight operating a 11hr flight.
The airline expects that it will take a few weeks for the Airbus A340 aircraft to enter in service.

Schedule:
HT411 ATH JFK 1730 2130 742 1357
HT412 JFK ATH 2330 1700+1 742 1357

Thai Returns to Brussels from November

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UPDATE: This route has now been confirmed by the airline.
Thai Airways from 17th November plans to resume flights to Brussels, Belgium, after a hiatus of multiple years.
The airline plans to operate three weekly flights between Bangkok and Brussels on board Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. Thai's 777s are fitted with 30 Business class seats and 262 Economy class seats.
The *tentative* schedule is below. Please note that the airline has not yet officially published these information and that the route is pending approval.

Schedule
TG934 BKK-BRU 0030-0700 246
TG935 BRU-BKK 1330-0620 246

The timing and route details are subject to change.

Why Royal Brunei's Route Cuts Make Sense

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 Royal Brunei Airlines (IATA:BI) yesterday announced plans for drastic cuts in its route network. The airline will be cancelling services to a majority of its long haul destinations, of which most are from the Australasian region.

File:Royal.brunei.b767-300er.v8-rbk.arp.jpg

 The destinations to be cut from the network include

  • Auckland, New Zealand, effective 30th October
  • Brisbane, Australia, effective 28th October
  • Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, effective 30th October
  • Kuching, Malaysia, effective 1st August
  • Perth, effective 29th October

 The cuts surely are draconian. But they indeed make sense. Here's why..

 Royal Brunei is the national airline of the Sultanate of Brunei. Which, despite being richer than some of the other Asian countries, has a very small population of about 350,000. This limits the potential O&D/VFR traffic that the airline can have and it traditionally forces an airline of this kind to rely on transit traffic if it is to expand significantly. And the situation that Royal Brunei now finds in, in fact seems to be a classic case of overly ambitious expansion fuelled by political goals.
 
 To achieve its connecting traffic targets, the airline tried to enter the Kangaroo route, connecting Australia with the UK. But it's ambitions were not met with the expected returns because of a number of reasons. First, the airline did not have a product that was of high enough quality to compete with its more luxurious competitors on the route - Emirates, Qantas, Singapore Airlines and in the recent past, Etihad. To overcome this, the airline opted to lease six ex- Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-200ER aircraft under its recent CEO ex- SIA manager, Mr. Robert Yang. The aircraft remained in SIA's competitive regional configuration of 30J/255Y. However this move too did not help BI in achieving what it expected.

 Then, the airline continued to operate its London flights with a stopover at Dubai even after adding the 777s. Whether the airline could never uprate the de-rated SIA 777-200ERs or whether it willingly operated with a Dubai stopover is not known. But this meant that the BI option rendered to be an unattractive option to the Kangaroo route travellers because of the longer flying time. And to compete with its more powerful competitors, the only option which the airline had, was to undercut. This drove the airline's yields further down, and pushed the airline deeply into the red. The costs of keeping a high profile network without the appropriate demand for it, were enormous.

 Royal Brunei did many things right, for example flying to Kota Kinbalu so that it could have more demand for the Auckland route. But it was not even slightly successful in stimulating a high yield demand, and according to some sources to The Networker, most of the airline's Australasian routes averaged a load factor of about 20%. In The Networker's opinion, the decision to add the 777-200ERs was not wrong, but what was wrong was not having a proper strategy to stimulate the demand to match the increased capacity. Considering these facts, it certainly was a very sensible move by the present management, led by renowned ex Aer Lingus executive Dermot Mannion, to streamline the route network.

 The airline is yet to cancel the long haul routes to London and Melboune, and given the close ties, London will probably be the last long haul destination to go, if it ever will. Melbourne flights are expected to be cut in the phase two of the network restructuring.

 An ideal move for BI would be to give its brand a facelift to match the modern trends, and position itself as a high quality yet competitively priced short to medium range airline. The airline may need to return the 777s, and to build its fleet solely around the Airbus A320 family that it presently operates. But by following the business model previously stated, the airline will indeed be able to grow much significantly, have a larger fleet, to make Bandar Seri Begawan (the Brunei's international airport) a premier regional Asian hub and most importantly, to become profitable while competing with the low cost carriers. Royal Brunei is going through its second restructuring within less than ten years, and The Networker wishes them all the best.

bmi British Midland to start Amritsar flights

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bmi British Midland is launching flights to Amritsar, India from London, effective 13th October. The flights will operate thrice weekly, onboard Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

800px-Bmi.a330-200.g-wwbb.arp.jpg


The airline is routing the new flights via Almaty in Kazakhstan. Strangely, the airline at present does not have local traffic rights between Almaty and Amritsar, hindering the full revenue potential of the route. However this makes The Networker believe that the airline is aiming this flight largely to cater for the Almaty - London traffic and is trying to add some additional revenue by operating onwards to Amritsar.


BD-ATQ.gif


 The UK has a large Non Resident Indian population from the Amritsar region, based particularly in Birmingham,


This is bmi's second attempt at serving India, having ended its daily Mumbai flight in 2008. Bmi will be the only airline offering direct services between London and Amritsar.

Schedule:

Till 30 Oct

BD991 LHR 1110 - ALA - 0305+1 ATQ 146 332

BD992 ATQ 0430 - ALA - 1200 LHR 257 332


From 30 Oct

BD991 LHR 0955 - 2320 ALA 0010+1 - 0245+1 ATQ 146 332

BD992 ATQ 0405 - 0745 ALA 0845 - 1050 LHR 257 332

Analysis: Top 30 Airports 2010

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The Airports Council International recently released its provisional airport statistics for the year 2010. The 2010 statistics showed some revolutions, with some airports from emerging nations beating some of their more established counterparts. Let's have a look at the statistics in detail!


2010 Rank 2009 Rank Aiport 2010 Total Pax % Change
1 1 Atlanta, ATL 89,331,622 1.5
2 3 Beijing, PEK 73,891,801 13.0
3 4 Chicago, ORD 66,665,390 3.3
4 2 London Heathrow, LHR 65,884,143 -0.2
5 5 Tokyo Haneda, HND 64,069,098 3.4
6 7 Los Angeles, LAX 58,915,100 4.2
7 6 Paris, CDG 58,167,062 0.4
8 8 Dalllas, DFW 56,905,066 1.6
9 9 Frankfurt, FRA 53,009,221 4.1
10 10 Denver, DEN 52,211,242 4.1
11 13 Hong Kong, HKG 50,410,819 10.6
12 11 Madrid, MAD 49,786,202 2.8
13 15 Dubai, DXB 47,180,628 15.4
14 12 New York, JFK 46,495,876 1.4
15 14 Amsterdam, AMS 45,211,749 3.8
16 22 Jakarta, CGK 43,981,022 18.4
17 16 Bangkok, BKK 42,784,967 5.6
18 21 Singapore, SIN 42,038,777 13.0
19 23 Guangzhou, CAN 40,975,253 10.6
20 - Shanghai, PVG 40,582,356 27.2
21 18 Houston, IAH 40,475,058 1.2
22 17 Las Vegas, LAS 39,397,359 -2.6
23 20 San Francisco, SFO 39,254,634 5.1
24 19 Phoenix, PHX 38,552,409 1.9
25 24 Charlotte, CLT 38,143,078 10.4
26 26 Rome, FCO 36,228,490 7.4
27 28 Sydney, SYD 35,992,164 7.6
28 25 Miami, MIA 35,698,025 5.3
29 27 Orlando, MCO 34,877,507 3.5
30 30 Munich, MUC 34,721,065 6.2

 As usual, Atlanta retained its top spot as the world's number one airport by passenger traffic for 2010, with 89,331,622 passengers. However, making the first in a round of revolutions, Beijing pushed London Heathrow away to take the number two spot. The Beijing Capital airport recorded a 13% growth in passenger numbers to take a total of 73,891,801 passengers. Chicago too advanced by one place to take hold of the number three spot, pushing Heathrow further down to number four. London Heathrow, the only airport in the top ten to have a decline in traffic (0.2% YoY), was relegated from its number two position after a long time - however it should be noted that this is largely a reflection of the bad weather (volcanic ash crisis, unusually harsh winter) that prevailed the UK and does not necessarily show a trend of a traffic decline at Heathrow.
 Hong Kong reached the fifty million passengers mark to take hold of the eleventh spot, moving two places ahead.
 As The Networker reported in last December, Jakarta stole the South East Asia's top spot bypassing both Singapore and Bangkok. Jakarta made a big leap from number 22 to number 16. Bangkok and Singapore ranked number 17 and 18 respectively.
 The quantum leap however was from Shanghai, which landed into the 2010 Top 30 directly at number 20. The Pu Dong international airport in China's growing commercial centre, had recorded a 27.2% growth in traffic.
 In the cargo sector, Hong Kong finally surpassed Memphis to take the place of world's top cargo airport, growing 23.2% YoY. Atlanta continued to retain its top spot as the world's busiest airport, movements-wise.

SriLankan to increase Tiruchirapally service

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SriLankan Airlines (IATA:UL) will be increasing flights to Tiruchirapally(TRZ), India effective 6th July. The airline is increasing service from 10 to 13 weekly (twice daily except on Sunday). New service operates on day 3,5,6.

Schedule:
UL131 CMB TRZ 0730 0830 D 320
UL133 CMB TRZ 1200 1300 x37 320
UL133 CMB TRZ 1115 1215 3 320

UL132 TRZ CMB 0920 1020 D 320
UL134 TRZ CMB 1350 1450 x37 320
UL134 TRZ CMB 1305 1405 3 320

China Eastern to launch Shanghai - Honolulu

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The Hawaii Tourism Authority has announced that it is working with China Eastern Airlines (IATA:MU) to launch direct flights between Shanghai and Honolulu.
The flights are planned to operate as scheduled charters, commencing on 9th august, and will be flown twice weekly.
The airline has already applied to the US Department of Transportation for approval. The schedule for the new service is yet to be announced.
The airline operated charter flights between the two cities during 30Jan-10Feb,2011, which Hawaii Tourism Authority says, brought in $1.7m in tourist expenditures.

KLM's Facebook 777 Rolls Out

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 KLM in April launched its Tile & Inspire campaign - offering the opportunity for its Facebook fans to get their faces tiled on a Boeing 777 of KLM. And the aircraft has now rolled out! And now, instead of the B777, you may call it the FB777! ;-)

Click to view in high quality
KLM-FB-777.jpg
Photo credit: KLM/Poornith Ninan

KLM to Rio from November

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As reported by The Networker earlier, KLM has now officially announced that it will be resuming service to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The carrier will start flying the Amsterdam - Rio De Janeiro route from 1st of November, after a hiatus of almost 11 years.

KL705 AMS GIG 1040 1930 772 246 11h50min
KL706 GIG AMS 2140 1155+1 772 246 11h15min

KLM first operated service to Rio in 1946.

The Networker Lessons #4 : Overbooking

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 I am sure that you have heard the word overbooking at least once. What is overbooking? Why do airlines overbook?

 Overbooking is the process of an airline booking more passengers than the available capacity on a flight. For example, in an Airbus A320 aircraft with seating capacity for 180 passengers, an airline may opt to book 185 passengers on board.

 This need for overbooking arises from the need to minimise spoilage. (Spoilage is the term used for pre-departure cancellation of booked tickets and no-shows) Spoilage means that a flight will leave with empty seats that could have otherwise been sold to earn revenue. And in an industry as marginally profitable as ours, it has become critical to minimise this spoilage and earn the highest possible revenue. This created the need for overbooking and it has proven to be a valuable tool for the airlines.

 Overbooking in fact, is a very complex process. An airline must ensure that it is not overbooking too aggressively, which would result in rejected passengers and disappointed customers that will hurt the airline's image. To achieve this, the airline researches a flight's historical load and spoilage data, and sets an optimal overbooking rate for that flight.

 Naturally, if an airline has a high frequency of flights on a certain route, that means it gets the ability to overbook more aggressively. This is because that the rejected passengers could be easily booked in the next available flight without a heavy delay to the passengers' travel plans.

 It was the legacy carriers that began the process of overbooking, however, recently some low cost carriers too have adopted it.
 The strategy of overbooking has saved the airline industry billions of dollars to date, and will continue to play a critical part in any airline's revenue management.

IndiGo to go international from September

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Indian low cost carrier IndiGo (IATA:6E) will be launching international service from September 2011, becoming the sixth international airline of India. IndiGo (per April 2011 data) controls a 19.7% share of the Indian aviation market, holding the third spot - even higher than Air India.
IndiGo will be initially launching its international services out of Delhi and Mumbai, to Bangkok, Dubai and Singapore.


     


 India's airlines are required to complete a mandatory five years of operation in domestic routes before they can operate in international routes. The other Indian carriers that operate internationally are, Air India ( with Indian Airlines ), Air India Express, Jet Airways ( with jetLite), Kingfisher and SpiceJet.

 The airline will be launching Delhi - Dubai service on 1st September, followed by Delhi - Bangkok on 8th September and Delhi - Singapore on 15th September. The airline will be launching flights to Bangkok and Dubai out of Mumbai on 2nd October.
The airline will be using new Airbus A320 aircraft with a higher range for the international operations. IndiGo is promoting a special INR9999/= fare for all of the routes.


Dubai

IndiGo will be operating to Dubai's Terminal 2.

Delhi - Dubai, daily  eff 1 Sep
6E 021 DEL DXB 1650 1855 4   3hrs 35mins

6E021  DEL DXB 1715 1925 x4   3 hrs 40 mins

6E 022 DXB - DEL 2215 0310+1 D 3hrs 25mins

Competition:

Emirates Airline(EK) - 28 weekly (14-777, 7-332, 7-77L)

Air India(AI) - 14 weekly (7-332, 7-321)

Jet Airways(9W) - daily (7-73H)

Kingfisher Airlines(IT) - daily (7-320)


Mumbai-Dubai. daily  eff 2 Oct

6E 061 BOM DXB 1815 2025 D  3hrs 40mins

6E 062 DXB BOM 1955 0110+1 4  3 hrs 45 mins

6E 062 DXB BOM 2025 0110+1 x4  3hrs 15mins


Competition:

Emirates Airline(EK) - 35 weekly (14-77W, 14-332, 7- 772)

Jet Airways(9W) - 21 weekly (21-738)

Air India(AI) - 14 weekly (14-321)

Kingfisher Airlines(IT) - daily (7-320)


Bangkok


Delhi - Bangkok, daily   eff 8 Sep

6E 041 DEL BKK 0535 1120 D 4hrs 15mins
6E 042 BKK DEL 1230 1540 D 4hrs 40mins

Competition :
Thai Airways(TG) - 14 weekly (7-744, 7-333)
Jet Airways(9W) - daily (7-738)
Air India(AI) - daily (7-321)
Cathay Pacific - daily roundtrip (7-EQV)
Thai Air Asia(FD) - daily (7-320)
Kingfisher Airlines(IT) - 6 weekly (6-319)
Philippine Airlines(PR) - 3 weekly (3-333)


Mumbai - Bangkok, daily, eff 2 Oct
6E 071 BOM BKK 0635 1235 D 4hrs 30mins
6E 072 BKK BOM 1345 1650 D 4hrs 35mins

Competition:
Thai Airways(TG) - 12 weekly (9-333, 3-AB6)
Jet Airways(9W) - 14 weekly (14-738)
Air India(AI) - daily (7-321)
Bangkok Airways(PG) - daily (7-319)
Kingfisher Airlines(IT) - 6 weekly (6-319)
Cathay Pacific(CX) - 3 weekly (3-333)


Singapore

IndiGo will be operating to Singapore Changi airport's Terminal 2.

Delhi - Singapore, daily  eff 15 Sep


6E 011 DEL SIN 0655 1520 D 5hrs 55mins
6E 012 SIN DEL 1750 2105 D 5hrs 45mins

Competition:
Singapore Airlines(SQ) - 14 weekly (7-773, 7-772)
Jet Airways(9W) - daily (7-332 eff 22 Oct, replacing 738)
Air India(AI) - daily (7-332)

The Networker has learnt from a trusted source, that the carrier has requested approval for and will be also launching, Mumbai - Singapore services.


IndiGo A320 photo by Aiel

Emirates to Launch Baghdad from November

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 Emirates Airline (IATA:EK) has announced that it will be launching flights to Baghdad, Iraq, from 13th November. The carrier will operate the Dubai (DXB) - Baghdad (BGW) route four times a week on board three-class Airbus A330-200 aircraft.
 
Schedule:

EK 941 DXB BGW 0755 0940 We, Fr, Sa, Su
EK 942 BGW DXB 1135 1455 We, Fr, Sa, Su

map

 Emirates also launched flights to Basra, Iraq, early this year and presently serves the route four times a week.
This is the Dubai based carrier's second attempt at launching flights to Baghdad. It was originally due to launch flights to Baghdad in July, 2010, but cancelled the plans owing to lower than expected demand. The three class Airbus A330-200, seating 237 passengers, is the smallest in Emirates'  fleet.

 Emirates' rival - Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways - already serves Baghdad daily.

Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

KLM North America Changes, Winter 2011/2012

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 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (IATA:KL) has made the following route adjustments for Winter 2011/2012 season (30 0ct 2011- 24 Mar 2012).

File:KLM MD 11 AMS.jpg

From Amsterdam, AMS

Chicago, ORD - Service reduction from daily to five times weekly. KL611/2 cancelled on day 2,4. Operating A/C Boeing 747-400 Combi.

Dallas, DFW - Service suspended for Winter. Planned for resumption from Summer 2012. Affected passengers will be re-booked on SkyTeam partner airlines' flights.

Los Angeles, LAX - KL601/2 perating aircraft changed from five-times weekly Boeing 747-400 Combi and twice weekly Boeing 747-400, to daily Boeing 747-400 Combi.

San Francisco, SFO - Service reduction from daily to five times weekly. KL605/6 cancelled on day 2,4. Operating aircraft McDonnel Douglas MD-11.

Toronto, YYZ - KL695/6 suspended for Winter. Resumption planned for Summer 2012. KL691/2 has been re-timed to fill the void. Capacity increased to five times weekly 747-400 and twice weekly 747-400 Combi.
KL691 AMS YYZ 1330 1535
KL692 YYZ AMS 1835 0740+1

Vancouver, YVR - KL681/2 capacity reduced from five times weekly MD-11 to five times weekly Airbus A330-200. Service operates x47.

Photo of KLM MD-11 by Kristoferb.

SIA and Transaero apply for Russia - US codeshare

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Singapore Airlines (IATA:SQ) and Transaero (IATA:UN) have jointly filed an application to the US DoT for codesharing on the former's Moscow (DME) - Houston route.
As per the application, Transaero requests the authority to connect passengers from anywhere in Russia to the US, via the SQ service. The two airlines plan to make the codeshare effective as soon as the approval is received.
Singapore Airlines has been very successful on getting First class, Business class and cargo loads on its Singapore - Moscow - Houston flight, but has been struggling to find Economy class passengers. The carrier's average load factor into Houston averaged 57% inbound and 51% outbound for the month of April, 2011.

Seoul Gimpo - Beijing flights begin on 1 July

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 The governments of South Korea and China agreed in May 2011 to transfer some of Seoul Incheon Airport's Beijing flights to the Seoul Gimpo airport. These flights have now been loaded on the GDS by the respective carriers. Per the agreement, Air China, Asiana Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Korean Air each will transfer one of their existing daily Incheon - Beijing flights to Gimpo.
 Seoul Incheon (ICN) is Seoul's new international airport, however the old, now largely domestic, Seoul Gimpo (GMP) is the airport that is most easily accessible from the city of Seoul. With this, Beijing becomes Seoul Gimpo's fifth international destination, after Tokyo Haneda, Nagoya, Osaka and Shangahi Hongqiao. All Gimpo - Beijing flights will operate into Beijing Capital ( PEK ) airport.

Seoul - Beijing flights schedule effective 1st July 2011

map

Air China
GMP-PEK 0925-1040 738 D
ICN-PEK 1305-1410 330 D
ICN-PEK 1515-1620 738 D
ICN-PEK 1750-1900 738 D

PEK-ICN 0845-1130 330 D
PEK-ICN 1105-1415 738 D
PEK-ICN 1345-1650 738 D
PEK-GMP 1845-2150 738 D

Asiana Airlines
ICN-PEK 0840-0940 321 D
GMP-PEK 0950-1045 333 D
ICN-PEK 1320-1430 772 D
ICN-PEK 1510-1610 321 147

PEK-ICN 1040-1340 321 147
PEK-GMP 1155-1500 333 D
PEK-ICN 1530-1830 772 D
PEK-ICN 1710-2010 321 D

China Southern
ICN-PEK 0810-0910 321 D
GMP-PEK 1230-1320 321 D
PEK-GMP 0820-1030 321 D
PEK-ICN 1815-2110 321 D

Korean Air
GMP-PEK 0930-1035 333 D
ICN-PEK 1135-1240 773 1357
ICN-PEK 1900-2005 738/332 D

PEK-GMP 1150-1455 333 D
PEK-ICN 1350-1650 773 1357
PEK-ICN 2115-0010+1 738/332 D


Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

SriLankan Returns to Zurich From Winter

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 SriLankan Aitlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka, will be resuming service to Switzerland from 23rd December, after a six year hiatus.

Thumbnail image for 800px-Srilankan_a340-300_4r-adf_arp.jpg

 The carrier will serve Zurich, initially twice a week, via Malé in the Maldives.

Schedule:
Colombo - Zurich
UL541 CMB 1300 - 1925 ZRH 340 5
UL543 CMB 1000 - 1055 MLE 1155 - 1935 ZRH 340 1

Zurich - Colombo
UL544 ZRH 2045 - 1015+1 CMB 340 1
UL542 ZRH 2045 - 0950+1 MLE 1050+1 - 1245+1 340 5

 SriLankan has stated that it will be exclusively utilizing its new configuration wide-body aircraft with flat bed seats and AVOD entertainment, on this route.

 The competition to this route comes from Edelweiss, the SWISS' subsidiary, which will be mainly catering for charter traffic on its twice weekly service to Colombo and Malé.

 The airline has been serving Zurich since 1980 ( the airline began operations in 1979 ) and stopped flying in 2005. The decision to terminate Zurich services was quite controversial at the time and was met with heavy opposition from various parties. The airline was being managed by Emirates Airline at the time and immediately following the closure, Emirates Airline added its second daily flight to Zurich. The airline has since changed hands from Emirates to a state owned one following a government buyout in 2010.

 Within the last twelve months, SriLankan has started operations to Shanghai, Guangzhou and Kochi, and will be flying to Moscow at the end of the Summer.

Monarch to Increase Scheduled Flying With New Routes

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Monarch Airlines, the leisure carrier, has increased its scheduled flying activities in 2012 with a focus on the Mediterranean.
800px-Monarch.a321-200.g-ozbi.arp.jpg

 The new routes so far announced by the airline are as follows
• Gatwick to Antalya - 2 flights per week
• Gatwick - Dalaman - up to 11 flights per week
• Gatwick - Sharm el Sheikh - 3 flights per week
• Manchester - Dalaman - up to 7 flights per week
• Manchester - Sharm el Sheikh - 2 flights per week

 Most of these routes are charter flights switching into scheduled flights and not essentially new routes.

Flights between Gatwick and Antalya launch on 03 May, 2012 and operate on Thursday and Sunday
Flights between Gatwick and Dalaman launch on 26 April, 2012 with daily services
Flights between Gatwick and Sharm el Sheikh launch on 03 May, 2012 and operate on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday
Flights between Manchester and Dalaman launch on 01 May, 2012 with daily services
Flights between Manchester and Sharm el Sheikh launch on 03 May, 2012 and operate on Thursday and Sunday

Commenting on the launch of Summer 2012 flights and the new routes, Managing Director of Monarch Airlines, Kevin George said, "The addition of new scheduled services to Turkey and Egypt also supports Monarch's shift to focusing on scheduled flying and enables more customers to take advantage of our innovative 'build your own class' service, which gives them the ability to tailor their flight package to their exact requirements, providing a greater sense of freedom and personalisation. As well as benefiting from a fantastic value fare, customers can also select from a range of optional extras such as extra legroom seating and pre-ordered meals, all of which are perfectly suited for longer flight durations such as Turkey and Egypt".

EgyptAir Returns to Iraq After 21 Years

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 EgyptAir will be resuming flights to Iraq, on 16th July, after a 21 year hiatus.

800px-Egypt_air_A321.jpg

 The airline will be serving Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, and Erbil, four times and three times per week respectively. The Baghdad flights will start on 16th July, while Erbil flights are slated to begin on 18th July.

Schedule:
Cairo - Baghdad
MS625 CAI BGW 0815 1145 320 1346
MS626 BGW CAI 1245 1430 320 1346

Cairo - Erbil
MS635 CAI EBL 2315 0245+1 320 145
MS636 EBL CAI 0345 0545 320 256

 The airline initially announced the plans to serve Iraq in late 2010.

Emirates to Launch St. Petersburg from Winter 2011

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 Emirates Airline will be launching daily flights to St. Petersburg from November 2011, making the former 'Leningrad' its second Russian destination.
 
Thumbnail image for 800px-Emirates.a330-200.a6-eks.arp.jpgThumbnail image for 800px-Emirates.a330-200.a6-eks.arp.jpg

 The airline will be initially flying Airbus A330-200 ( 3 class ) aircraft once a week and Airbus A340-300 ( 3 class ) six times a week initially. The operating equipment switches to Airbus A340-500 ( 3 class with Private Suites ) from 2nd Jan 2012.

Schedule:
EK137 DXB LED 1035 1615 343 x1, 332 1 6h40m
EK138 LED DXB 1745 0035+1 343 x1, 332 1 5h50m

 The competition for this route comes from Rossiya irlines thrice weekly A320 service between LED and DXB.

 Emirates already serves the Russian capital Moscow twice daily.

Emirates Likely to Launch Bali Flights Soon

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A trusted source has revealed to The Networker that the Emirates Airline is in the final stages of adding Denpasar, Bali in Indonesia to its network.
The new addition has reportedly been revealed by one of the airline's local directors during a recent luncheon.
The airline, which already serves Indonesian capital Jakarta twice daily, will most likely extend its fourth daily Singapore terminator flight to Denpasar.
The Singapore flight presently has the following schedule.
EK354 DXB SIN 0325 1445 daily 77W
EK355 SIN DXB 0200 0510 daily 77W

With the eleven hour long layover at Singapore, the airline can easily fit in a Denpasar sector to this flight. The new flight will likely operate along a schedule similar to the following estimate by The Networker.
EK354 SIN DPS 1605 1840 daily 77W
EK355 DPS SIN 2210 0045 daily 77W

The airline is likely to launch the new flights in late 2011.

NOTICE: This post discusses about a future event that is NOT confirmed. The information might be correct or incorrect. The author shall not be held liable for any damage occurred to any corporation or person from this article. The Networker posted this article as it had been revealed by an airline official at a public function. The Networker is willing to remove this post if the airline contacts and requests so. Thank you.

Strategic Applies to the DoT for Flights to USA

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Australian charter and scheduled passenger airline Strategic Airlines has applied to the US Department of Transportation (DoT) for permission to operate flights between Australia, the USA and a third country.
The airline has stated that it plans to launch a route connecting Brisbane with Honolulu in Hawaii. The airline will be leasing an Airbus A330-200 from a Switzerland based company for the operation.
Strategic has also applied for the right to operate charter flights between Australia and the US. It has already received the approval from the Australian authorities for the proposed operations.
Strategic has been an ACMI, charter operator for the most part but has recently begun operating some scheduled routes. This will make Strategic the third Australian airline to enter the Australia - US market.

Korean Air to operate A380 to Paris

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Korean Air has uploaded to GDS, the schedule for its planned Airbus A380 service to Paris.
This will make Paris the airline's first European destination to receive A380 service.
The airline begins A380 service to Paris on 26th September, initially operating thrice weekly. The rest of the days of the week will be operated with Boeing 747-400 aircraft.

KE901 ICN 1320 - 1820 CDG 388 Mo, We, Fr
KE901 ICN 1320 - 1820 CDG 744 Tu, Th, Sa, Su
KE902 CDG 2100 - 1450+1 ICN 388 Mo, We, Fr
KE902 CDG 2100 - 1450+1 ICN 744 Tu, Th, Sa, Su

The airline is also planning to launch A380 service to London.

Qatar Airways has received fifth freedom rights between Bucharest and Sofia for its new four weekly flights to Sofia via Bucharest. The route will operate four times a week on DOH-OTP-SOF effective 14th September.

The airline will be increasing flights to Rome, FCO from 1st July. The airline will be adding four extra weekly frequencies that would be flown on board an Airbus A319LR aircraft.
QR 079 DOH 1315 - 1815 FCO Mo, We, Fr, Su
QR 080 FCO 2335 - 0555+1 DOH Mo, We, Fr, Su

From 1st July, the airline will also be adding two extra weekly frequencies to Cairo. These flights will be operated on board Airbus A320 aircraft.
QR 508 DOH 0900 - 1125 CAI Th, Sa
QR 509 CAI 1355 - 1810 DOH Th, Sa

Hellenic Imperial outlines scheduled network plans

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Greek carrier Hellenic Imperial will be launching scheduled passenger flights from 24th June when it begins service to New York and London.

The airline will be operating four times weekly service to New York JFK and six times weekly service to London Gatwick at the beginning. This will make it the only Greek carrier to serve the US directly. The airline will be operating Airbus A340-300 aircraft on both routes.

Athens - New York
HT411 ATH 1730 - 2130 JFK 343 Mo, We, Fr, Sa
HT412 JFK 2330 - 1700+1 ATH 343 Mo, We, Fr, Sa

Athens - London
HT211 ATH 0800 - 1010 LGW 343 Mo, Tu, We, Th, Su
HT211 ATH 0725 - 0925 LGW 343 Fr
HT212 LGW 1100 - 1630 ATH 343 Mo, Tu, We, Th, Su
HT212 LGW 1050 - 1650 ATH 343 Fr

The airline has stated that it plans to expand to more destinations, including Dubai, in the near future.

Royal Air Maroc to Launch Six New Routes in Winter

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In an interview with the Travel Quotidiano magazine, Royal Air Maroc's General Manager for Europe has revealed that the carrier expects to launch six new routes in the Winter 2011/12 season.

The routes include
Casablanca - Dubai
Casablanca - Sao Paulo
Casablanca - Copenhagen
Casablanca - Vienna
Agadir - Rome
Marrakech - Rome

The schedules for these proposed routes have not been published yet.

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