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Miyuru Sandaruwan: December 2011 Archives

Turkish Announces 6 More Routes

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 26, 2011 3:42 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Continuing its astonishing growth phase, Turkish Airlines has announced plans to launch flights on 6 new routes. The routes are

  • Istanbul - Kinshasha
  • Istanbul - Bremen
  • Istanbul - Aalborg - Billund - Istanbul
  • Istanbul - Edinburgh
  • Istanbul - Leipzig
 These aircraft will be based on aircraft availability and do not have any published schedules yet. This brings the total announced new routes for Turkish in 2012, to 14.

The First Birthday

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 23, 2011 2:45 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Today celebrates the first birthday of this blog. And it's great to see the progress that The Networker has achieved. If The Network helped to fill your thirsty for airline route news and analysis, that is what makes me happy. Thank you, for sticking with The Networker - you are The Networker's biggest strength. Here's looking forward to an even better 2012!
 And, Merry Christmas to all of you!

New Spanish Operator Picks Up 717s

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 22, 2011 3:48 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Some time back, there was a lot of rumours about who is going to pick up bankrupt Mexicana Click's Boeing 717s. And at least one seems to have found a new life at Volotea, a start-up Spanish operator.

Photo by Airliners Gallery

 Oddly enough, there is not much information on the internet about this airline, but apparently they are going to be a charter airline.

THE The Odyssey's Odyssey - Another Attempt At All Biz Class Transatlantic Profits

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 20, 2011 4:36 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 News was revealed today about a new start-up airline that plans to launch transatlantic all Business Class operations with Bombardier CSeries aircraft. Could they become successful?

One of the unidentified customers for Bombardier's CSeries aircraft has been revealed by Reuters to be a new UK based start-up called Odyssey Airways. The airline's scope however is unique - provide all Business class transatlantic services out of London City airport. If we go along the orders record, this is the 'European buyer' which bought 10 CSeries CS100 aircraft back in June at the 2011 Paris Air Show.

 This puts the new airline in direct competition with British Airways' Airbus A318 all Business Class out of London City (LCY). How well can they compete?

1. AIRCRAFT COMPARISON
British Airways uses the Airbus A318 aircraft for its LCY - New York operation. For this analysis, we will assume that Odyssey will use the CS100ER variant for this mission, and also assume that the aircraft meets its performance targets. British Airways uses the A318 Weight Variant 004, the details of which has been used here.

CharacteristicA318CS100ER
Typical pax load107110
EnginePW6000 or CFM56*PW1000G
Thrust23,300lb23,300lb
Range3,200NM/ 5,950km2,950NM/ 5,463km
Takeoff Field Length4,446ft./ 1,355m^^4,905ft. / 1,509m
Landing Field Length4,446ft./ 1,355m^^4,430ft./ 1,350m
Fuselage Length103ft. 2in. / 31.44m114ft. 6in. / 34.9m
Cabin Width12ft. 1in. / 3.70m10ft. 1in. / 3.06m
MTOW145,505lb128,200lb
MLW126,766lb111,500lb
Max. Payload34,573lb32,100lb


Key: Maximum Landing Weight (MLW):
Maximum weight for landing as limited by aircraft strength and airworthiness requirements.

Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW):
Maximum weight for takeoff as limited by aircraft strength and airworthiness requirements.
* - BA uses CFM56 engines
^^ - Airbus does not make public available the runway values for this model. Figures are the best available.

One advantage that the A318 has is its Steep Approach capability. However, Bombardier is likely to work towards achieving this specification in order to satisfy, and to increase, its small customer base.
The CS100 is about 11ft. longer than the A318 and hence will be able to accommodate two more seat rows than the latter. This should mean that the CS100 will be able to seat 40 passengers in a 4 abreast seating configuration. This translates to a 25% extra passenger load at almost 14% lower MTOW. With this, the CS100 will have a considerable fuel burn advantage. The modern technologies and the PW1100 GTF engines used on the CSeries is expected to bring considerable cost savings, thus providing the CS100 with a lucrative operating cost advantage over the A318. Interestingly, Odyssey will still have an operating cost advantage even if it opts to a less dense seating configuration with even more comfort.

A challenge to the operation would be the limited runway length at London City airport. A solution to this would be a stop at Shannon, like British Airways does, thus also providing the passengers the ability to pre-clear their immigration into the United States. However, a unique selling point for Odyssey, as reported, would be to have to be able to operate nonstop. Unless on a day with significant headwinds, the CS100ER would likely be able to make the journey from LCY to NYC nonstop, although perhaps taking a slight payload hit.

The modern interior and the cabin comfort of CSeries is likely to attract more passengers to Odyssey too.
Odyseey wins here by a significant margin - if CSeries meets its performance targets.

2. COMMERCIAL COMPARISON

British Airways is entering the mission with a strong network which helps it feed the service. BA's advantage is further strengthened with its frequent flier base. The new start-up Odyssey will have neither, which could be quite challenging. However, if Odyssey drives a strong marketing campaign, with the right pricing strategy, building a loyal customer base will not be very hard. An added advantage would be the fact that the route is likely to have a very high share of O&D traffic due to LCY's convenient location in London's financial district.
Nevertheless, one of the best moves that the new start-up could make is to sign some interline agreements with select carriers which could provide it with sufficient feed to begin with.





CONCLUSION

Some analysts seem to argue that Odyssey too will end up being another Eos or Maxjet - both of which were all Business class carriers that eventually went bankrupt. However, Odyssey's case would be different given that it will operate narrow-body aircraft (all of the previous airlines used wide-body aircraft or at least the larger narrow-body Boeing 757s) and operate on a very lucrative business route that has already proven quite successful for BA. And Odyssey will only need to fill 40 seats, at maximum - while achieving a potentially high yield.
The best option for Odyssey would be not to be limited to a sole LCY - North America operation and to use some of its aircraft to serve key business points in Europe. This fleet could be configured with a more denser configuration, that would still be more comfortable than the average European Business Class - in order to attract a premium. By crafting a well connected and convenient schedule, the airline would be able to develop just the right kind of feed that it needs.
Having a premium suite of services that would still not increase the costs, the airline will be able to carve a successful niche for itself built on sustainable profitability.
This appears to be a good business case, if well executed and has a very high potential to become successful - if done in the right way. It however is no way to 'get-rich-quick' and the shareholder patience will be needed to ensure that the airline builds a sustainable future for itself. Specially in an age where short haul is more dominated by Low Cost Carriers day by day, this appears to be a very attractive and interesting idea to work upon. But the success of this operation could only be achieved IF Odyssey follows the correct path. And that is a big IF, given the impending European currency crisis and the fact that this airline might never take to the skies at all - as it is an airline that is not yet confirmed to exist. Nevertheless, if somebody decides to try this concept, it would be one very interesting project to watch and would have a very good chance of becoming a success.

Further reading : British Airways A318 Operation - http://airlineindustryreview.com/a-steep-approach-an-in-depth-look-at-british-airways-a318-new-york-service
/


This is also available for download as a PDF from here

Air New Zealand Unveils All Blacks 777

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 19, 2011 12:17 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Air New Zealand today unveiled its latest Boeing 777-300ER, wearing a special All Blacks (the New Zealand Rugby team which won the world cup this year) livery, on Friday. The aircraft was presented for the media by Kieran Read and Andy Ellis, two members of the All Blacks who flew in to Boeing's Paine Field for the ceremony.
 According to Boeing, painting of the 777 took over a week - two days longer than it takes for a usual 777 paint job - and used 700 litres of chrome-free paint. Contrary to popular belief, the black colour will not cause in any significant heating to the aircraft, said Air New Zealand.
 The new aircraft, ZK-OKQ will enter into service in mid-January. All images, unless stated are copyright of Air New Zealand.

Air New Zealand All Blacks Boeing 777-300ER ZK-OKQ

Air New Zealand All Blacks Boeing 777-300ER ZK-OKQ

Air New Zealand All Blacks Boeing 777-300ER ZK-OKQ
Photo by Matt Cawby, paineairport.com

Video, also copyright of Air New Zealand.

Emirates Adds Fourth Daily A380 to London Heathrow

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 16, 2011 9:36 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Emirates Airline effective 25th March 2012 will be upgrading another of its five daily London Heathrow flights to Airbus A380. The new upgrade would see Emirates operating four A380s and one Boeing 777-300 (non ER) to London Heathrow every day.

 The new A380 flight operates on EK005/6 and replaces the Boeing 777-300ER presently used. The airline at present operates only two Airbus A380 flights to London Heathrow with the third to be added from 24th January 2012.

The new flight:
EK005 DXB 1545 - 2015 LHR 388 D
EK006 LHR 2215 - 0805+1 DXB 388 D

KLM Cancels Liverpool Service

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 16, 2011 8:39 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 KLM effective 25th March 2012 will be cancelling its thrice daily service on the Amsterdam - Liverpool route. The airline stated on its Facebook page that the reason was that the route was not profitable.

Present schedule:

KL1035 AMS 0930 - 0955 LPL F70 D
KL1041 AMS 1620 - 1645 LPL F70 D
KL1045 AMS 2025 - 2045 LPL F70 D

KL1034 LPL 0610 - 0835 AMS F70 D
KL1036 LPL 1035 - 1250 AMS F70 D
KL1042 LPL 1725 - 1945 AMS F70 D

Malaysia Airlines cuts routes as planned

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 14, 2011 10:18 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Malaysia Airlines has confirmed that it will be cancelling its flights to Buenos Aires, South Africa, Karachi and more, as planned.
 The affected services are

Kuala Lumpur-Karachi-Dubai
Kuala Lumpur-Dubai-Damman
Kuala Lumpur-Johannesburg
Kuala Lumpur-Cape Town-Bueno Aires
Kuala Lumpur-Rome
Kuala Lumpur-Surabaya
Langkawi-Penang-Singapore

 This article will soon be updated with capacity and schedule data.

Emirates Adds Second Daily Venice Flight, Ups Jeddah Capacity

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 13, 2011 2:59 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Emirates Airline has revealed on the GDS that it will be launching a second daily flight to Venice from 25th March 2012. Both daily flights will be operated by Airbus A340-300 aircraft.

EK135 DXB 0950 - 1405 VCE 343 D
EK137 DXB 1545 - 2000 VCE 343 D

EK136 VCE 1545 - 2335 DXB 343 D
EK138 VCE 2150 - 0535+1 DXB 343 D

 From the same date, the airline is also increasing the capacity to Jeddah from 12 weekly A380 + 2 weekly A340-300 to all Airbus A380.

JAL Announces New 787 Routes

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 8, 2011 3:05 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Japan Airlines today announced extra new routes for its soon to be delivered Boeing 787 fleet.

The new routes are
  • Tokyo Narita to New Delhi
  • Tokyo Narita to Moscow
  • Tokyo Haneda to Beijing
No specific dates were announced for the above routes.

 The airline has already announced Tokyo Narita - Boston as the first route for its new Dreamilners.

CSA Czech Airlines Closes Bratislava Base

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 8, 2011 7:05 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Waving good-bye to its Slovak part, CSA Czech Airlines has closed down its short-lived Bratislava base. Launched in June 2011, CSA operated the following services out of the Bratislava base at the time of closure. All flights are zeroed out effective immediately.

  • Bratislava - Paris Charles De Gaulle, 8 times weekly
  • Bratislava - Amsterdam, 6 times weekly
  • Bratislava - Larnaca, twice weekly

 CSA had a single Boeing 737-500 based at the airport and had planned to resume flights to Rome during the winter.

Emirates Announces Third Daily Paris Flight, Further Strengthens New Bank

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 7, 2011 3:35 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Emirates has just added another flight to its growing third departure bank of Europe bound flights - albeit not daily. The new four weekly flight to Paris, adds to the carrier's already twice daily services to Charles De Gaulle. Operating with a Boeing 777-300ER, it will increase to five times weekly from 28th Oct onwards.

Datei:Emirates b777-300er a6-ebm arp.jpg

The schedule is below
EK071 DXB 0355 - 0905 CDG 77W 1357 (NEW)
EK073 DXB 0820 - 1330 CDG 388 D
EK075 DXB 1500 - 2010 CDG 77W D

EK072 CDG 1110 - 1910 DXB 77W 1357
EK074 CDG 1535 - 0015+1 DXB 388 D
EK076 CDG 2150 - 0620+1 DXB 77W D

 Emirates' emerging third daily European bank already features four flights to key European cities. These are
EK007 to London Heathrow, departing DXB at 0230
EK011 to London Gatwick, departing DXB at 0250
EK021 to Manchester, departing DXB at 0300
EK043 to Frankfurt, departing DXB at 0320

 It is only a matter of time when Emirates will add new flights to this bank, operating to possibly Birmingham, Milan, Rome, Zurich and more cities. These flights will be well fed from the traffic arriving from the rest of Emirates network, mainly originating out of South Asia.
 Connections for the return flights, which form the third daily European arrivals bank for the airline - between 1900 and 2000 local time in Dubai, are also taken care of with plenty of departures in the following departure bank.
 
Emirates now operates almost 50 daily flights to Europe, with the largest share still belonging to the 0700-0900 departure bank out of Dubai.

 Nevertheless, Emirates growth story is unlikely to take a rest any time soon and it is believed that Barcelona and Stockholm might be among the airline's next new stops in Europe. And with the addition of Qatar Airways' fifth daily flight to London Heathrow, it would not be surprising to see Emirates upgrade another of its daily Heathrow flights to an Airbus A380.

Garuda Indonesia to begin Tokyo Haneda service

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 6, 2011 8:55 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Garuda Indonesia from 27th April 2012 begins service to Tokyo Haneda from Denpasar. Service operates five times weekly on board Airbus A330-300 aircraft. The flight is subject to government approval.

Planned schedule:
GA886 DPS 1530 - 2330 HND 333 x13
GA887 HND 0100 - 0700 DPS 333 x24

Etihad to Cancel Capetown Flights

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 4, 2011 7:43 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Etihad Airways from 23rd January 2012, will be cancelling flights to Cape Town, South Africa. It presently operates daily to Cape Town via Johannesburg. The last flight to Cape Town operates out of Abu Dhabi on 23rd January.

Johannesburg schedule from 24th January

EY604 AUH 1035 - 1720 JNB 332 1246
EY602 AUH 2210 - 0445+1 JNB 332 246

EY601 JNB 0915 - 1930 AUH 332 357
EY603 JNB 2030 - 0645+1 AUH 332 1246

VietJetAir Launches Operations on 25th December

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 2, 2011 8:19 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 Vietnam's first privately founded airline - low cost carrier VietJetAir - launches operations from 25th December. The airline will initially fly twice daily on the Ho-Chi-Minh City - Hanoi route, increasing to thrice daily from 10th January 2012. It also plans to launch flights on the Ho-Chi-Minh-City - Da Nang route. The airline founded in 2007, went through many regulatory hurdles, and at one point planned to launch services as VietJet AirAsia - in cooperation with AirAsia - which was later cancelled when AirAsia pulled out.

Schedules below:

Ho Chi Minh City - Ha Noi

From 25th Dec to 9th Jan

VD8668 SGN 0930 - 1130 HAN D 320
VD8669 HAN 1210 - 1410 SGN D 320

VD8670 SGN 1450 - 1650 HAN D 320
VD8671 HAN 1730 - 1930 SGN D 320

From 10th Jan -

VD8660 SGN 0615 - 0815 HAN D 320
VD8661 HAN 0845 - 1045 SGN D 320

VD8668 SGN 1115 - 1315 HAN D 320
VD8669 HAN 1345 - 1545 SGN D 320

VD8672 SGN 1615 - 1815 HAN D 320
VD8673 HAN 1845 - 2045 SGN D 320

Scoot to Sydney and its impact on others

By
Miyuru Sandaruwan
 on December 1, 2011 5:00 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

SIA's new low cost unit Scoot today announced Sydney as its first destination. The airline will launch daily services to Sydney in mid 2012, and obviously with Boeing 777-200 aircraft. It could work well for Scoot if they build up the right network, and Scoot already has begun a promotion to give away two tickets on Premium Class of its first flight to Sydney.
What implications could this have on others ?

 By the first week of May 2012, scheduled capacity on the Singapore - Sydney route will be as below.

Airline Daily Flights A/C Mix
British Airways 1 (from/to LHR) 1x747-400
Qantas Airways 3 1x747-400, 1xA330-300, 1xA380-800
Singapore Airlines 4 1x777-200, 1x777-300, 2xA380-800

 With this set of traffic, Qantas Airways seems to be the airline that is set to lose the most. However, Scoot's own parent Singapore Airlines will clearly get hurt in their yields if they continue the same aircraft mix after Scoot's entry.
 While Scoot might have chosen Sydney as their first destination owing to the fact that AirAsia X does not fly there, this move is very unlikely to have a significant impact on AirAsia X for the foreseeable future. AirAsia X's (and AirAsia's) larger network gives it the edge to profitably face this challenge by focusing on the areas where it already has a strong foothold. Sydney is still very much a premium market compared to elsewhere in Australia and the low fares catchment could be smaller.
 Even if SIA might have hoped for it, the effect on Emirates from this move would be close to zero, unless Scoot launches flights to UK, Italy or Lebanon any time soon.
 One has to wonder whether this means SIA has shoot on its own foot. But it really is not, as Scoot will achieve SIA's target on scaring away the competitors. On a strategical level, it's a mixed move. But they could have done a lot better.

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