Gulf Air announces Dhaka

Gulf Air has officially announced that it will be reinstating services into DAC-Dhaka, Bangladesh, effective 30MAY16 after a 3 year hiatus that was initiated due to Bahrain Govt directive to curtail losses by any means necessary. 

Routes such as DAC, KTM and CMB were part of that drive in 2013 and now it is being relaunched with 5 weekly nonstop flights using a split schedule which is as follows:

Aircraft: A320 for all 5 weekly flights
Days: 1/3

GF 248 Dep BAH 0100 Arr DAC 0930
GF 249 Dep DAC 1030 Arr DAC 1325

Days: 2/4/6

GF 250 Dep BAH 2010 Arr DAC 0440+1
GF 251 Dep DAC 0540 Arr BAH 0835

Comments:

This is a good move by GF as it is relaunching DAC in a low risk manner by operating 5 times per week using an A320 which will provide good network support as well as decent O&D yield bound to BAH and DMM in particular. However, the above mentioned split schedule is ok for the summer season but cannot be operated in Winter due to the dense fog in DAC + the A320 will face major payload restrictions out of DAC to BAH between NOV-MAR.

For the IATA W16 season, it is best to operate it as follows:

Days: 1/2/3/4/6
GF 250 Dep BAH 1030 Arr DAC 1900
GF 251 Dep DAC 2000 Arr BAH 2255

In this way, the flight operations will not be effected one bit due to fog which will be beneficial to the overall OTP performance of the carrier + it enables GF to operate a standardized schedule which in itself is a sales generating tool and also more comforting for travel agents and passengers to comprehend. Another important aspect with the above proposal is that it helps connect with GF 006 LHR-BAH which has historically struggled due to the lack of Indian subcontinent destinations it has good connections with which provide volume traffic in turn. The above mentioned schedule proposal also connects all of the prime GCC markets conveniently in both directions thus providing more network benefit potential.

Thai Airways increases Delhi-Bangkok

Thai Airways has officially announced that due to high demand for its Delhi bound flights out of Bangkok from both a P2P + 6th freedom transfer traffic perspective, it shall be increasing frequencies on the route.

The current double daily frequencies are being increased to 19 weekly nonstop i.e. daily B788 + daily B773A + daily B772ER

In 2015, the point to point market demand between DEL & BKK was 422,000 passengers.

Garuda orders 14 A330NEOs (A330-900)

Garuda Indonesia has officially confirmed that it has placed an order with Airbus for 14 new Airbus A330-900s (aka NEOs) as part of a deal that saw the airline cancel its existing order for 7 A330-300s. 

GA ordered 7 incremental aircraft in order for this NEO version type to fully replace its existing A333 fleet which numbers 15 units of which many are nearing 20 years of service. 

The A339 has the capability of flying to Western Europe nonstop from Jakarta with a full payload.

Asiana increases Los Angeles capacity

Asiana Airlines, the second largest carrier out of South Korea has disclosed that it will be significantly increasing capacity on its popular Seoul-Los Angeles nonstop route that is currently being operated twice daily. 

The current flights are operated using a B777-200ER daily + a daily A380. However, effective 31OCT16, all double daily flights shall be exclusively operated by the A380. The ICN-LAX route is one of the biggest trans-pacific P2P market segments with 595,000 passengers flying it in 2015 versus 323,000 for ICN-SFO!

Alitalia announces Beijing nonstop

Alitalia has officially announced that it will be launching new nonstop services to PEK-Beijing, China effective 18JUL16. 

The flights will be operated nonstop from its primary hub base i.e. FCO-Rome airport using an Airbus A330-200 four times per week. The schedule is as follows:

Days: 1/3/5/6

AZ 790 Dep FCO 1420 Arr PEK 0620+1
AZ 791 Dep PEK 0915 Arr FCO 1425

It marks a return for AZ into PEK after a 4 year gap. The 2015 P2P demand between PEK and Italy was as follows:

FCO/PEK - 136,000 pax
MXP/PEK - 102,000 pax

Turkish increases Male

Turkish Airlines has officially announced that due to peak season demand to Male, Maldives that originates from Europe during the winter season, it shall in turn significantly boost its capacity in line with market demand. 

Currently, TK operates daily A332 operated service to MLE that extends onwards to Colombo. However from the on set of the IATA W16 season i.e. 29OCT, these shall be raised to 10 weekly IST-MLE with the new 3 weekly flights being nonstop terminators. All 10 weekly services will be exclusively flown using the A330-200.

Air France new A330 configuration revealed

Air France has officially disclosed a new cabin configuration for its entire Airbus A330-200 fleet as the carrier seeks to modernize the interior in line with passenger expectations on long + medium haul flights.

AF confirmed that the business class seats will all be full flat bed seats by 2018 summer where as the new layout is as follows:

30 business class - flat beds
21 premium economy
175 economy class

Total - 226 seats in a 3 class layout
Fleet size - 15 units AF has of the A332

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-05/air-france-to-upgrade-a330s-with-zodiac-lie-flat-business-seats

Etihad increases Johannesburg

Etihad Airways has officially announced that as a result of its failed partnership accord with South African Airways plus the need to boost its Johannesburg presence versus the increasing threat to its market share from Emirates, Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian and Qatar Airways in particular, it will be boosting its services into JNB effective 01JUL16.

Currently, EY operates a daily nonstop AUH-JNB-AUH service using an A330-200 however from 01JUL, this shall be raised to 10 weekly nonstop using the same aircraft type. The 3 new flights are scheduled as follows:

Days: 2/4/6

EY 602 Dep AUH 0145 Arr JNB 0825
EY 601 Dep JNB 0945 Arr LOS 2015

This new increased schedule allows key feeder markets such as PEK, PVG, ICN and NRT to be finally connected with JNB in both directions!

Thai increases Mumbai flights

Thai Airways has officially announced that due to surging demand for its Mumbai bound flights as well as the need to remain competitive versus Air India and Jet Airways on the BOM-BKK route, it will be boosting its services effective 02JUN16.

Currently, TG operates a daily B744 nonstop between BKK and BOM. However from June onwards, these shall be raised to 10 weekly nonstop with the 3 new weekly frequencies operated by the B777-200ER. 

Traffic demand in 2015 between BKK and BOM stood at 296,000 passengers P2P.

Austrian suspends Tokyo

Austrian Airlines has officially announced that due to declining yields and profitability, it shall be suspending all its services to NRT-Tokyo Narita airport effective 03SEP16.

OS currently operates a daily nonstop service using a B772ER from its Vienna hub into Tokyo but has felt the increasing pressure of EK, QR and TK into its market share on this route. 

In 2015, the P2P demand between VIE and Tokyo (HND + NRT) stood at 97,000 passengers hence a windfall for LH/LX/EK/QR/TK to tap into.