American Airlines has just announced its inaugural range of destinations to be served by its fleet of Boeing 777-300ERs.
Artist's impression of Business Class cabin on board AA's new Boeing 777-300ER
The aircraft will enter scheduled service on 13th December, with Dallas Ft. Worth - Sao Paulo to become the first destination for the new twin-engined wide body. It will operate the Sao Paulo service till 13th Feb. The aircraft will then launch flights to London from 31st January. Sao Paulo will again join the 777-300ER destinations from 2nd April, then from New York.
Schedules:
Dallas Ft. Worth - Sao Paulo
AA963 DFW GRU 1940 0935+1 x17 13DEC12-31DEC12
AA962 GRU DFW 2355 0620+1 x16 14DEC12-31DEC12
Service operates out of DFW on day x1 from 1JAN13-30JAN13, and x17 from 31JAN13 to 13FEB13.
Other routes
Slight discrepancy noticeable. The airline will be updating its schedules on the GDS in due term. Please bookmark this post and visit next week to find the latest updates.
Hawaiian Airlines is continuing its ambitious expansion into Japan, with the addition of Sapporo - its 4th Japanese destination.
Hawaiian will become the first intercontinental carrier to operate into Japan in a decade, when it launches service on 1st November. Flights will initially operate thrice weekly on board Boeing 767-300ER aircraft.
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?
SIA's low cost long haul subsidiary, Scoot, has announced that Gold Coast (IATA:OOL) in Australia will become its second destination. The airline earlier selected Sydney as its first destination.
Campbell Wilson, Scoot CEO, with the Premier of Queensland and the Queensland Tourism Minister
The airline plans to offer five weekly nonstop flights to Gold Coast from Singapore, beginning in 'mid-2012'. Full schedule for the flight was not announced, as is the case with its Sydney flight to date.
Gold Coast was also one of the first destinations for AirAsia X, Scoot's competitor from neighboring Malaysia.
Korean Air, from 21st June 2012, launches nonstop service on the Seoul Incheon - Nairobi route; making it the rapidly expanding airline's first Eastern African destination.
The route will operate thrice weekly on board Airbus A330-200 aircraft.
With a scheduled block time of nearly 14 hours on the Seoul - Nairobi leg, this route could become the presently longest scheduled nonstop flight to be operated on board an Airbus A330-200 aircraft.
Korean is already code-sharing on fellow SkyTeam carrier Kenya Airways' flights between Nairobi and Bangkok, providing a quick connection to Seoul on the other four days of the week.
Thai Smile plans to conduct its first flight on 1st July, said Thai Airways in its annual report. Thai Smile is a new fully owned Low Cost Carrier subsidiary of Thai Airways.
The new LCC is expected to utilize the TG code, but will have a lower cost base than its parent. The new airline will likely be based at the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport, and not at the Bangkok Don Mueang Airport as previously stated.
What happens to Nok Air?
Nok Air is a domestic only low cost airline in Thailand, of which a 49% stake (increased from the original 39%) is held by Thai Airways. Thai Smile will sit between the mission profiles of both Nok Air and Thai Airways.
While Nok Air is a complete no frills carrier, Thai Smile will offer a two class service with some frills - essentially making it a hybrid carrier - while Thai Airways will offer a premium full suite of service. When it comes to the route network, Nok Air will be limited to Don Mueang airport and domestic services only, and Thai Smile will serve trunk domestic routes, as well as regional international routes.
Fleet
Thai Smile will be operating a fleet of brand new Airbus A320 aircraft, while expanding into wide body aircraft too is not ruled out. The airline will acquire four aircraft within 2012, growing it to 6 in 2013, 8 in 2014, and stabilizing at 11 from 2015 - per the present plan.
Route Network
According to the presently available information, the airline will begin with domestic services, but has earmarked a number of destinations to be launched internationally. These include Da Nang in Vietnam, Shenzen in China, Amedabad, Hyderabad and Kochi in India, Seoul in South Korea, Macau, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and Penang in Malaysia. Expansion of Thai Smile into a base in Phuket cannot be ruled out either.
The trigger to change Thai's strategy has without a doubt been caused by the invasion of LCCs into Thai's market strongholds and in large part by Thai AirAsia. These latest changes see Thai Smile being positioned as a hybrid value carrier, rather than a pure LCC, and might even go head-to-head with Malaysia Airlines' new Sapphire operation at some point in the future.
American Airlines, on 31st May will be suspending its New York JFK - Tokyo Narita route in favor of resuming its JFK - Tokyo Haneda service which it deferred for one year with DoT approval. The Haneda service launches on 1st June with the first flight from Haneda departing on 3rd June. The new schedule appears to be mainly targeted towards business passengers originating in Japan, and allows a full day of business work in New York.
ExpoAir (IATA:8D) from 1st February, resumes operation on Colombo - Jaffna, Sri Lanka's prime domestic route. The airline will operate twice daily from the Ratmalana Airport (RML) in Colombo City.
Schedule:
EXV711 RML 0700 - 0815 JAF CNC D
EXV713 RML 1500 - 1615 JAF CNC D
EXV712 JAF 0845 - 1000 RML CNC D
EXV714 JAF 1645 - 1800 RML CNC D
ExpoAir primarily operates as a cargo airline and withdrew from the Sri Lankan domestic market some time ago. The airline last operated this route using Fokker 27-500 equipment. Sri Lanka's domestic air travel market has seen a rapid expansion as well as a number of new operators recently, following the end of a war against terrorism in 2009.
The two largest operators in the Sri Lankan domestic market at present are, SriLankan AirTaxi (IATA:UL) and Helitours. SriLankan AirTaxi is the domestic unit of SriLankan Airlines, which presently operates with DHC6 floatplanes, while Helitours is the commercial unit of Sri Lanka Air Force.
The following map depicts the present domestic route map of Sri Lanka. I have referred to Colombo Ratmalana Airport (RML) as Colombo Domestic to differentiate it from the main international airport. In red is the Ratmalana - Jaffna route, which is presently flown by Helitours with scheduled flights as well as by a number of other airlines on a charter basis. This is also the route which aforementioned ExpoAir will soon begin operation on.
In green are the routes presently operated by SriLankan AirTaxi (as of this writing). Shown in green 'crosshairs' are the floatplane-dromes that it is operating into. While the routes are shown as originating from Colombo, CMB - the floatplane routes in fact originate from a floatplane-drome nearby the city centre of Colombo - which puts it in equal distance between both Colombo, CMB and Colombo, RML airports.
In blue are the routes operated at the time of writing by Helitours.
The following map shows Tiruchirapally in southern India for reference.
Jaffna (JAF) in the Northern Peninsular was in fact an international airport till the early 1980s, when its operations were halted due to the terrorist activities in Northern Sri Lanka. Prior to this, then national carrier of Sri Lanka, Air Ceylon used to operate a number of routes into India from Jaffna, while Indian Airlines too is known to have operated into Jaffna. Until the opening of Colombo Bandaranaike Airport (CMB) in 1969, Colombo Ratmalana (RML) airport was the key international airport in Colombo. While Ratmalana operated some cargo flights in early 2000s, the shorter runway at the airport has made it unfavorable for jet aircraft, and at present the airport is being planned to be converted into a business airport with an extension of the runway.
Koggala (KCT) airport at one time catered to the world's longest nonstop flight, operated by Qantas Catalina Flying boats from Perth. Known popularly as "The Double Sunrise", this route formed the vital air link between Australia and England during the 1943-1945 era. The flight between Perth and Koggala could take anywhere between 27-33 hours at this time.
With the dawn of peace, major investments in aviation facilities, and a growing economy, Sri Lanka's domestic aviation sector sure looks to have a brighter future ahead.
Some additional information about the Sri Lankan domestic aviation scene can be found in this section from yours truly's Airline Industry Review website.
Making another prediction by The Networker true - Emirates Airline has just announced that it will be launching flights to Barcelona, as well as adding the second daily flight to Madrid. Flights to Barcelona will begin from 3rd July, while the second daily flight to Madrid will be in operation from 1st July. Both routes will be operated with 3 class Boeing 777-300ERs, which describes the great demand EK expects.
Schedules
Dubai - Barcelona
EK185 DXB 0655 - 1200 BCN 77W D
EK186 BCN 1640 - 0100+1 DXB 77W D
Dubai - Madrid
EK141 DXB 0750 - 1345 MAD 77W D
EK143 DXB 1425 - 2020 MAD 77W D NEW
EK142 MAD 1525 - 0040+1 DXB 77W D
EK144 MAD 2210 - 0715+1 DXB 77W D NEW
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