Alitalia will be cancelling its four-times weekly Rome - Beijing service from 6th March 2013. The airline presently operates the route with an Airbus A330-200.
Schedule:
AZ790 FCO PEK 1335 0655+1 x246
AZ791 PEK FCO 0940 1415FCO x357
Recently in Route Cancellations Category
South African Airways just two days ago revealed that it would be cancelling its long serving Cape Town - London Heathrow service effective 14th August. And with the cancellation, it would be leaving a slot pair with some very lucrative timings at Heathrow.
SA220 CPT LHR 1850 0620+1 D 332
SA221 LHR CPT 2100 1005+1 D 332
And now it appears that the fellow Star Alliance member Singapore Airlines has been quick to grab the slots to be used for a fourth daily flight to Heathrow from its Singapore hub. SIA's new flight will be launched from 9th September onwards and will use a mix of Boeing 777-300ER and A380 aircraft for the operation.
SQ306 SIN LHR 2345 0620+1 D
SQ305 LHR SIN 2000 1550+1 D
If the slot which SIA uses is indeed that left vacant from SAA's cancellation - it is safe to assume that the two airlines, being alliance partners, probably had already come to terms regarding the lucrative slot pair prior to their respective announcements. How lucrative could this opportunity have been for SIA, is clear from the fact that it already has SQ322 departing SIN just 15 minutes earlier than SQ306, with the largest aircraft in its fleet - the Airbus A380.
Going ahead with its strict, yet well rewarding capacity discipline exercise, Delta Air Lines has requested the US Department of Transportation (DoT) approval to delay the launch of Tokyo - Guangzhou service, while returning the slots for its Atlanta - Shanghai service.
According to the recently filed dockets - Delta now seems to have given up all the hope that it had for the Atlanta - Shanghai service, which they tried twice albeit without much success.While requesting an additional one year time period prior to the launch of its Guangzhou service, it has also asked for the approval to use these seven frequencies to other Chinese points if the demand is there.
Delta's recent financial performance has been stellar - and while it is no secret that the airline's capacity discipline has contributed significantly, this 'giving up' shows another factor too. Long haul flights to China, particularly from a city without a significant Chinese population is still of quite low yield. Who is next in line for the challenge?
Qantas Airways has announced a number of additional route cuts from Summer, as part of its ongoing restructuring efforts. The affected routes include..
- Auckland - Los Angeles, Airbus A330 service
- Singapore - Mumbai, Airbus A330 service
This would cut Qantas' only link with India, although Los Angeles would continue to be served with other direct routings. All of the above changes take place effective 6th May.
The following change will also be in place from the same date..
-Los Angeles - New York route (continuuation of ex Australia route) will be upgraded from Airbus A330 to Boeing 747-400 equipment
The airline would also switch the aircraft on Bangkok and Tokyo Narita routes from June, with Narita being upgraded to a daily Boeing 747-400 while Bangkok will see a downgrade to Airbus A330 equipment.
Air France from 30th April will be cancelling its recently launched route into Cancun (CUN). The airline launched this route on 21 October and presently operates three times weekly with a Boeing 777-300. The last flight will operate on 29th April. This route at present is NOT expected to resume from Winter as previously planned.
Schedule as of present:
The airline is also cancelling flights to Orlando from 6th September.
Hong Kong Airlines from 16th January, appears to cancel its Moscow Domodedovo service. The flight presently operates thrice weekly on board Airbus A330-200 aircraft. The airline had originally planned to briefly suspend this route and to resume it from early March, however this no longer appears to be the case.
HX817 HKG 1215 - 1815 SVO 332 357
Schedule till 15th January
HX816 SVO 2025 - 1025+1 HKG 332 357
China Airlines effective 25th March will be cancelling its two weekly Taipei - London Heathrow route over poor performance of the route. The airline is presently operating this route with Airbus A340-300 aircraft.
Schedule till 25th March:
CI69 TPE 0925 - 1655 LHR 343 4
CI69 TPE 0925 - 1705 LHR 343 7
CI70 LHR 2115 - 1815+1 TPE 343 47
In addition to this, the airline will also be launching three new services into Japan
- Taipei (TPE) - Kagoshima; Thrice weekly from 25th March
- Taipei (TPE) - Shizouka; Thrice weekly from 25th March
- Taipei (TPE) - Toyama; Twice weekly from 15th April
Air Zimbabwe has suspended its Harare - London Gatwick flights effective immediately. One of the airline's Boeing 767-200s was impounded at Gatwick recently over unpaid debts.
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.
KL1035 AMS 0930 - 0955 LPL F70 D
Present schedule:
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
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.
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