Miyuru Sandaruwan: August 2011 Archives

 Thai Airways effective 31st October is upgrading the aircraft type on its routes to Bangalore (Bengaluru) and Colombo.

 Looking at Airbus A380-800's worldwide routes data provides for an interesting outlook. The mega aircraft now operates from routes as shorter as in 700s of st.mi. to 7900s of st.mi. The most number of seats are on offer in routes between 6700 and 6799st.mi, with 153,146 seat miles on offer per week. The smallest on offer is for routes between 700 and 799st.mi. per week with just 4929 seat miles on offer per week.

Kingfisher Airlines is to start three new routes to Colombo, Sri Lanka, effective 30th September. The airline will launch daily flights from Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Thiruchirapalli on board ATR72 aircraft. The airline originally planned to launch these flights in late 2010, which never materialized.

Kochi
IT079 COK CMB 2345 0115 D ATR
IT080 CMB COK 0245 0415 D ATR

Competition: Daily A320 flights by SriLankan. 900 weekly one way seats offered.

Thiruvananthapuram
IT077 TRV CMB 0030 0200 D ATR
IT078 CMB TRV 0600 0730 D ATR

Competition: Daily A320 flights by SriLankan. 900 weekly one way seats offered.

Tiruchirapally
IT075 TRZ CMB 0400 0515 D ATR
IT076 CMB TRZ 0200 0315 D ATR

Competition: Ten weekly A320 flights by SriLankan. 1650 weekly seats offered. Five weekly A320 flights by Mihin Lanka. 900 weekly seats offered. Total 2550 weekly one way seats offered by the competition.

Cathay Pacific has increased its Los Angeles flights from 17 to 21 weekly, with effect from 2nd March 2012. The route will now be flown exclusively by Boeing 777-300ERs.

Schedule:
CX884 HKG LAX 1305-0940 D 77W
CX882 HKG LAX 1625-1255 D 77W
CX880 HKG LAX 2345-2015 D 77W

CX885 LAX HKG 1125-1845+1 D 77W
CX883 LAX HKG 2220-0545+2 D 77W
CX881 LAX HKG 0005-0730+1 D 77W

It is however not yet known whether any of these routes will be flown by the new 77G seating configuration with Premium Economy class - although this remains a possibility given the date when the increase goes into effect.

The Boeing 787-8 has just been officially certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Where will it fly ? You might be wondering.

Photo by Flightblogger.
The first ever Boeing 787 to enter in commercial operation, JA801A will be handed over to launch operator All Nippon Airlines on 26th September. The aircraft will be configured with 12 seats in Premium class and 252 seats in Economy class (This particular version has assigned the unique airline identifier 78P). The future long haul international version of the aircraft will feature 46 Business class seats and 112 Economy class seats, while the short haul international version will feature 42 Business class seats and 180 Economy class seats.

The 787 will operate its inaugural scheduled flight on 26th October from Tokyo Narita to Hong Kong. The return flight will be on the following day. The aircraft then moves to its new home at the Tokyo Haneda airport.
This is where it will fly !

From 1st November,  enters in domestic operations.

Tokyo Haneda - Okoyama

NH651 HND OKJ 0730 0850 78P D

NH654 OKJ HND 1015 1130 78P D

Tokyo Haneda - Hiroshima

NH683 HND HIJ 1615 1745 78P D

NH686 HIJ HND 1920 2040 78P D

Photo courtesy Flightblogger

From December, the 787 enters international operations with its first scheduled international flight to Beijing from Tokyo Haneda.

From January 2012 onwards, the 787 will begin long haul operations with Frankfurt set to become its first long haul destination.

NH203 HND FRA 0100 0525 787 146

NH204 FRA HND 1115 0645+1 787 146

The Frankfurt route will be going daily from February onwards, and will likely feature the new long haul version which seats 158 passengers - for which the exact airline specific identifier is not yet known.

The Networker will bring you the latest information about the 787's routes as they are revealed. For a more descriptive look on the technical aspects of the 787, read the Flightblogger's piece here.

Continuing its impressive expansion this year, Gulf Air has just announced its new route to Southern Sudan - the world's youngest country.
The airline will operate three weekly services to Juba, the South Sudan capital, on board Embraer E190 aircraft. The new route comes into effect from 3rd February 2012.
GF721 BAH JUB 1120 1630 E90 257
GF722 JUB BAH 1715 2155 E90 257

China Southern Airlines has made available for reservation its first Airbus A380 routes.
As announced earlier, the A380 will first operate on the Beijing - Guangzhou sector with a daily roundtrip flight from 17th October. The aircraft will then switch to operating a daily Beijing - Shanghai roundtrip flight from 26th October.
The aircraft will depart PEK at 1000L daily with an evening return. The flights seem to be mainly for crew training and familiarization purposes. The airline has not yet revealed its A380 flight operation for the upcoming Winter season.

Peach Aviation, ANA's low cost airline subsidiary with a Japanese partner (ANA also has a soon to begin JV for an LCC with AirAsia), has announced it's initial flight schedule. The airline will begin operations with three daily flights between Osaka (KIX) and Sapporo(CTS), and four daily flights between KIX and Fukuoka. The airline plans to begin operations on 1st March 2012.
The airline will use Airbus A320 aircraft and appears to be using two of the type to launch operations.
It must be however noted that the flight schedule is yet to receive regulatory approval.

The preliminary daily rotation plans for the aircraft, according to the announced schedule are as follows.

Aircraft 1
101/2 KIX 0700 - 0850 CTS 0920 - 1135 KIX
105/6 KIX 1220 - 1410 CTST 1440 - 1655 KIX
157/8 KIX 1725 - 1840 FUK 1910 - 2010 KIX

Aircraft 2
151/2 KIX 0720 - 0835 FUK 0905 - 1005 KIX
153/4 KIX 1050 - 1205 FUK 1235 - 1335 KIX
107/8 KIX 1425 - 1615 CTS 1645 - 1900 KIX
159/160 KIX 1945 - 2100 FUK 2130 - 2230 KIX

It can be assumed that these rotations switch between the aircraft day by day.

As hinted a few weeks ago, Cathay Pacific this week made public its intention to have a Premium Economy product onboard. While the new product is yet to receive a formal launch, new flights to be operated with Premium Economy have already been loaded on the reservation systems. With the new product offering, Cathay becomes the latest airline to join the trend of offering a new class between Business and Economy. According to the presently available information, Cathay will initially start offering the new product on board its Airbus A330-300s and Boeing 777-300ERs. The first destinations to receive the new product on regular service would be Sydney and Toronto.

Avianca Airlines has requested approval from the Brazilian ANAC to operate flights on the Bogota - Rio De Janeiro route. The carrier presently has rights to operate three weekly flights on the route.
The proposed schedule, which is YET to receive approval, and is slated to begin on 18th October is as follows.

AV261 BOG 2235 GIG 0745+1 332 257
AV260 GIG 0930 BOG 1245 332 136

 United Airlines has announced that their first Boeing 787-8s will feature the following seating configuration.

Gulf Air has made public the following changes to its route network for the northern Winter season commencing on 30th October.

SriLankan Airlines has increased the frequencies on its planned Zurich route from 2 to 3 per week. The new flight operates on Wednesday and continues to London.

New flight's schedule
UL549 CMB 0645 - 1210 ZRH 1330 - 1430 LHR 343 3
UL550 LHR 1625 - 1855 ZRH 2010 - 1045+1 CMB 343 3

The schedule for previously planned flights on day 1 and 5 remain the same.

The new flight replaces UL511/2 to London. Total weekly frequencies to London remain the same.

Qantas Airlines today announced "New Spirit" its restructuring programme aimed at bringing back the airline to profitability.

Key points include
- Launch of a new full service carrier based in Asia, effectively to tap the Chinese market. The airline has also stated that it will be analysing the possibility of a closer relationship with Malaysia Airlines. Malaysia Airlines is now partly owned by AirAsia, the latter which is also a partner of jetStar, the Qantas' LCC arm. While this sounds like the new carrier will be based in Malaysia, it is a much bigger possibility that the carrier will actually be based in Hong Kong, which is home to oneworld member Cathay Pacific.
- Jetstar Japan will be launched in partnership with JAL and Mitsubishi Corporation. The carrier plans to launch with three A320 aircraft.
- Up to 110 Airbus A320 aircraft to be ordered to fund jetStar's expansion.
- Airbus A380 deliveries will be deferred with only two more aircraft to arrive by 2013.

Major route network changes
- Buenos Aires route to be cancelled.
- Australia-London services will be only flown via Singapore.

Keep an eye on Flightglobal for further coverage.

IndiGo, the Indian low cost carrier, will launch services to Muscat and Singapore from Mumbai effective 10th October 2011.

Mumbai - Muscat
Service operates four times per week.
6E081 BOM MCT 2125 2245 320 1345
6E082 MCT BOM 0005 0415 320 2456

Mumbai - Singapore
Service operates daily, with the return flight being operated with the aircraft arriving from Delhi.

6E051 BOM SIN 0840 1650 320 D
6E052 SIN BOM 1650 1945 320 D

Air New Zealand, as a part of the fifth anniversary of its Grab-A-Seat website, operates two charter flights into Las Vegas this weekend. Both flights will operate with Boeing 747-400 aircraft and will remain at LAS till their departure on 11th August.

NZ1016 AKL LAS 1545 0905 744 7AUG
NZ1014 AKL LAS 1715 1035 744 7AUG

NZ1003 LAS AKL 2100 0515+2 744 11AUG
NZ1017 LAS AKL 2359 0815+2 744 11AUG

Welcome to the fifth chapter of The Networker lessons. CASM. I'm sure that you have heard this phrase once or twice. What does CASM stand for ? CASM stands for Cost per Available Seat Mile. It is an important measure about an airline's efficiency. What does it do? Let's learn.
CASM is the cost to fly one seat for one mile on an airline. It is calculated by diving a flight's direct operating cost by Available Seat Miles - the latter which is the equivalent of multiplying the number of seats that an airline offers with all of the nautical miles that the airline flies in the same time period.
For example, if an airline flies a 100 seater aircraft on a 150 nautical miles route, the available seat miles (ASM) for this route would be 15,000. If it cost the airline USD3000 to operate the route, the CASM would then be 20 cents.
CASM is often considered as a very accurate tool to compare the performance of two or more airlines - although it should be noted that the CASM may also vary between the nature of flights that an airline operates. An airline which operates a high number of short haul flights might have a slightly higher CASM owing to the higher number on landing and airport charges it may occur. However one could also argue that this is only fair given that it directly compares all the unit costs of the airlines. While a lower CASM may not guarantee that an airline is profitable, it still remains as one of the most important metrics in the airline industry.

MarketWatch, via The Apple Daily, reports that Qantas' jetStar is planning a subsidiary in Hong Kong. The article states that the carrier is in discussions with the Hong Kong SAR's government about obtaining an AOC, citing an unnamed source.
While neither Qantas nor jetStar have confirmed this, it appears as an interesting topic with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce's statement to shareholders about Qantas' future due on 24th August. While it is entirely possible that jetStar is simply exploring the options and nothing could come out of this, or if it is simply a rumour, such a move could seriously threaten some of Hong Kong's carriers such as Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Express as well as some of the China based Low Cost Carriers. And it will fit neatly with Mr. Joyce's recently stated idea of focusing on China. It must also be noted that while Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific (and its subsidiary Dragon Air) are part of the oneworld alliance, like Qantas is, jetStar is not.
Nevertheless, it would be an interesting development to watch - and I'm sure that Will Horton will keep you up to date about it at his Wings Down Under!

Given below is an overview of the SriLankan Airlines freighter network, at the time of the writing. It was almost not known to the public that SriLankan did operate freighter flights, following the returning of its dedicated freighter aircraft, as all of the following flights are operated on wet leased capacity. Only the ETA and ETD out of Colombo are listed as these flights apparently do not appear on global systems.

Bangalore
UL8171/2 1800 CMB-BLR-CMB 2300 72F 24
UL8171/2 1800 CMB-BLR-CMB 2230 72F 5

Chennai
UL8121/2 1000 CMB-MAA-CMB 1445 72F 6

Thiruvananthapuram
UL9163/4 0800 CMB-TRV-CMB 1300 IL8/ANF 13456
UL8161/2 0900 CMB-TRV-CMB 1300 72F 2

SriLankan Airlines has made minor changes to its Moscow and Zurich flight schedules.

Moscow - The day of operation has changed from Thursday and Saturday to Wednesday and Saturday. With this, the launch date moves forward to 14th September.

New flight schedule
UL531 CMB 0730 - 1030 DXB 1130 - 1640 DME 320 3
UL531 CMB 0725 - 1025 DXB 1130 - 1640 DME 320 6
UL532 DME 1740 - 2300 DXB 2355 - 0555+1 CMB 320 36

Zurich - The flight on Friday departs an hour earlier than originally planned. The days of operation and other details remain the same.
UL541 CMB ZRH 1200 1725 343 5
UL542 ZRH 1845 - 0850+1 MLE 0950+1 - 1145+1 CMB 343 5

Serbian government today invited bids from qualified investors, to form a new airline to replace loss making JAT Airways.
The tender calls for investors to already have a 5% stake in an airline to be eligible for bidding.
JAT Airways has been in discussions with Turkish Airlines for a possible stake sale for up to 51%, however none has come to fruition.
Serbia's main airport at Belgrade, has been experiencing a decrease in demand recently with many airlines pulling out of the once SFRY country.