OOL & CNS take a win

Gold Coast (OOL) & Cairns (CNS) airports have had a win with Hong Kong Airlines announcing that they will continue their service to the Queensland airports year round.

The news comes just one month into the three month temporary Chinese New Year charter flights HX are operating from January to March.

Hong Kong Airways a subsidiary of Hainan Airlines currently operates these services 3x weekly from Hong Kong to the glitter strip, then back to HKG via CNS, using an Airbus A330. 

The new permanent service will operate twice weekly on the circular HKG-OOL-CNS-HKG route, and will now be open to local travellers.  Honk Kong Airlines is limited to secondary ports like OOL & CNS, due to the bilateral between Australia and Hong Kong, which restricts the number of flights into major airports, that each country is allowed and national carrier Cathay Pacific utilises all the HK rights.

Read the Gold Coast Airport media release HERE or the story via the Gold Coast Bulletin HERE or Australian Aviation HERE

Asian carriers enter the Tasman battle

Singapore Airlines and Air Asia X set to join the locals, the LCC's, Emirates and some Chinese carriers in trans-taxman services.

For Malaysian LCC Air Asia X the announcement of the addition of an OOL-AKL-OOL tag to their existing KUL-OOL service, is a re-entry to the Tasman.  Previously they operated an OOL-CHC-OOL tag, however like many flights, this suffered and was ended as a result of low passenger numbers after the Christchurch earthquakes.

The new tag flight will operate daily with D70206 departing OOL at 08:40AEST (09:05) arriving in AKL at 16:00 NZDT (15:30NZST) and returning at 17:00 NZDT (17:30 NZST) arriving back into OOL at 17:25AEST (18:00) --> bracketed times are from the end of Daylight Saving in New Zealand OOL is in QLD which doesn't observe daylight savings.

Check out the announcement via Australian Aviation HERE

Singapore Airlines is set to launch a brand new service from SIN to WLG via CBR.  The new service will operate with the airlines A330 aircraft and will be their first service into the two capital cities. 

The new service will be 4x weekly with an announcement expected this week.

Check out the details (to date) on this service via the AFR HERE


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LAN commence 787 service

LAN have today commenced their dedicated 787 service to Auckland and Sydney.

LA801 operated by Boeing 787-8 CC-BBA departed Santiago 39 minutes late at 00:44CLST Friday 17-April-2015 bound for Auckland and onto Sydney.

The final A330 service on the route was operated by A330 CC-CQF as LA800 and departed Sydney at 10:17AEST Friday 17-April-2015 bound for Auckland and onto Santiago.

Later this year LAN will again upgrade the LA801/800 service moving from the Boeing 787-8 to the Boeing 787-9

CC-BBA the first LAN 787-8 on LA801 departing Santiago for Auckland and Sydney

Qantas set for return on PER-SIN

Qantas will return to the PER-SIN route, this time with a 737-800 service.

Flights will resume on Friday 26-June-2015 which will be just over a year since they axed their former PER-SIN A330 service.

QF71 will depart PER at 12:00AWST arriving into SIN at 17:20SGT then QF72 departs SIN at 18:25SGT landing back in PER at 23:40AWST

Flights will operate 5x Weekly We,Fr, Sa-Mo

Changes to Virgin Flights

With the reabsorption of Virgin Australia (NZ) into the Virgin Australia International arm there have been a number of schedule and flight number changes to the Virgin Australia International network, which came into effect this week, with the winter timetable.

Numerous Trans-Tasman, Pacific Island and Bali flights have seen either flight number or time changes or both, here are two changes of note.

Port Hedland - Denpasar Bali

This once weekly service used to operate PHE-DPS-PHE as VA2611/2613 utilising a Virgin Australia Regional Fokker F100, as of today Saturday 4-April-2015 it is now a DPS-PHE-DPS service using a Virgin Australia International B738 as VA74/73.

Sydney - Nadi Fiji

During Peak times Virgin Australia will up gauge their Saturday SYD-NAN-SYD service to an A330.  These peak times are mainly school holidays and selected dates over the Christmas/New Year holiday period.  The first up gauged service departed Sydney this morning Saturday 4-April-2015 operated by Airbus A330 VH-XFJ

What is Nyepi Day? And why are there no flights?

Today is Nyepi the Balinese 'Day of Silence' which is celebrated as part of Isakawarsa with tomorrow being Balinese New Years Day.  Although a Hindu festival, Nyepi is observed by all in Bali, a description of it follows

Observed from 6 a.m. until 6 a.m. the next morning, Nyepi is a day reserved for self-reflection, and as such, anything that might interfere with that purpose is restricted. The main restrictions are no lighting fires (and lights must be kept low); no working; no entertainment or pleasure; no traveling; and, for some, no talking or eating at all. The effect of these prohibitions is that Bali's usually bustling streets and roads are empty, there is little or no noise from TVs and radios, and few signs of activity are seen even inside homes. The only people to be seen outdoors are the Pecalang, traditional security men who patrol the streets to ensure the prohibitions are being followed.  Although Nyepi is primarily a Hindu holiday, non-Hindu residents of Bali observe the day of silence as well, out of respect for their fellow citizens. Even tourists are not exempt; although free to do as they wish inside their hotels, no one is allowed onto the beaches or streets, and the only airport in Bali remains closed for the entire day. The only exceptions granted are for emergency vehicles carrying those with life-threatening conditions and women about to give birth.

This effects the following flights to/from Australia today/tomorrow morning

KEY:

JQ - Jetstar

VA - Virgin Australia

GA - Garuda Indonesia

QZ - Indonesia AirAsia

320 - Airbus A320

73H - Boeing 737-8FE(W)

333 - Airbus A330-300

332 - Airbus A330-200

100 - Fokker F100

788 - Boeing 787-8

Pacific disruptions due to TC Pam

TC Pam seen covering New Caledonia and Vanuatu

There are disruptions to flights across the South Pacific today with tropical cyclone Pam effecting flights into New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

Air New Zealand has postponed flight NZ782 AKL-NOU for over 32hrs, the flight was scheduled to depart Auckland this morning Saturday 14-March-2015 at 10.05NZDT but will now depart tomorrow Sunday 15-March-2015 at 18:15NZDT.
It is not yet know if flight NZ788 AKL-VLI scheduled for 09:40NZDT tomorrow will be delayed or cancelled as the cyclone tracks south.

Virgin Australia have postponed flight VA171 BNE-VLI from 10:30AEST today to 10:40AEST tomorrow.

Qantas have postponed flight QF87 BNE-NOU from 10:00AEST today until 09:30AEST tomorrow, meanwhile QF91 SYD-NOU has been cancelled.

Air Vanuatu have cancelled both their flights today NF50/51 VLI-AKL-VLI and NF10/11 VLI-SYD-VLI

Meanwhile Aircalin have launched both their flights today with A320 F-OJSB departing NOU for MEL as SB110 and A330 F-OHSD departing NOU for NRT as SB800, it appears that both return flights will operate delayed.  SB111 MEL-NOU delayed from 14:20AEDT to 08:00AEDT while SB801 NRT-NOU will delay from 12:15JST to 19:15JST

Qantas route announcements

Qantas have made a few route announcements in the last coupe of weeks and look set to make at least one more - here is a round up.

BNE-NRT

As mentioned in my news round up vlog post in December last year, Qantas announced they would introduce a 4x weekly A330 service on the Brisbane to Tokyo Narita route and were looking to add another port to fill the remaining 3x weekly slots.  Qantas have now announced that the BNE-NRT flight will operate daily.

MEL-HTI

Qantas have announced that from Saturday 27-June-2015 they will take over the Melbourne to Hamilton Island service from Jetstar, offering passengers a premium service on this route. QF870/871 will operate on Saturdays and Sundays with a Boeing 737-800.

MEL-PPP

With Qantas taking over their Hamilton Island service, Jetstar have announced a new 3x weekly Melbourne - Proserpine (Whitsunday Coast)  The first flight will be on Thursday 25-June-2015 with JQ831/832 operating Th-Sa-Mo utilising Jetstar's Airbus A320 aircraft.

SYD-YVR

Qantas have announced a return to the Sydney - Vancouver route with a seasonal 3x weekly Boeing 747-400 service.  Services will operate during the northern summer in June-July and again in the northern winter December-January.  QF75/76 will operate on Mo-Th-Sa

PER-SIN

While not yet officially announced Qantas are set to return to the Perth - Singapore route with a daily Boeing 737-800 service.  Qantas last served this route in July 2104 with A330 equipment.  Timetables show the new flights, QF71/72, are set to depart from Saturday 13-June-2014


Read more about these services:

BNE-NRT/MEL-HTI/MEL-PPP via Qantas Media Release HERE
SYD-YVR via Qantas Media Release HERE
PER-SIN via airlineroute.net HERE

Speculation mounts on future VA International routes

Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti has started a speculation war announcing to a Travel & Tourism function that Virgin Australia will add two or possibly three new International routes int he next three years.

This appears to be on top of the recent announcement that now TigerAir Australia is 100% owned by Virgin Australia they will launch international services from Australia as well.

Speculation mounts as to where the routes will be and which aircraft will they use? B738? A330? B773? Asia? North America? Europe? Pacific?

Australian Aviation weighs in HERE and Australian Business Traveller HERE if you have a theory on routes or aircraft please add it in the comments

VA joins in with red ink

Virgin Australia rounds out the Australasian Aviation finical reporting week with a statutory after tax loss of $355.6m ($AUD) however their underlying loss before tax was $211.7m ($AUD)

Virgin attributes this loss across the group as follows;
- Virgin Australia International (including VA NZ) loss of $66.8m
- Virgin Australia Domestic (including Skywest) loss of $59.2m
- Virgin Samoa (49% holding) loss of $2.6m 
- TigerAir (60% holding) loss of $46.1m
With restructuring and balance sheet costs, fuel, taxes etc also heavily contributing.

Virgin Australia has now completed its "Game Change Program Strategy" and has introduced Virgin Vision 2017 as its new focus.

Virgin Vision 2017
We can expect to see some change with this new vision which has wide scope throughout the entirety of the Virgin group.

The first change has seen Affinity Equity Partners buy a 35% stake in the Velocity Frequent Flyer program, giving the program an enterprise value of $960m ($AUD)  This will see the program remain under the control of Virgin Australia but with a separate board of directors.  Virgin Australia will maintain 65% voting rights and will appoint the chairman to the board. 

There will be some change in the fleet with the retirement of the two ex Emirates Airbus A330s an increased utilisation of the Boeing 737-800 fleet and the introduction of the new Boeing 737MAX fleet being brought forward from 2018 to 2017.

Virgin's charter operation, which have been built on the base afforded by the acquisition of Skywest has had a successful first year and Virgin are looking to grow it into a $200m ($AUD) operation by 2017.

Virgin will launch a new freight business in FY15 to leverage off their current RPT and Charter operations.

Virgin are looking to make $1b ($AUD) in cumulative productivity gains, this will be achieved through 3 steps;
1. Enhancing procurement
2. Improved productivity (including the above mentioned fleet changes and utilisation)
3. Streamlining of operations (see below)

As part of the streamlining of operations Virgin will reduce its long-haul international bases to two (SYD & BNE - with the already announced end of MEL-LAX flights)  it will  also  integrate Virgin Australia (NZ) operations back into its international division.

Virgin have announced they will also introduce business class onto all flights across the Tasman and to Fiji, which will be seen through the standardisation of the on board offering through the integration of VA(NZ) back into VA.  Currently VA(NZ) aircraft which operate on these routes do not have  business class seating.  

The biggest list of change/improvement is with the TigerAir LCC brand. 
1. Further improve customer satisfaction - something that has plagued TigerAir
2. Drive incremental revenue growth - through new revenue management and initiatives
3. Deliver cost synergies - via network, operational and finical synergies as well as a new Brisbane base and cooperation with VA on procurement of fuel
4. Development of an efficient operating platform and network footprint - new enhancements to drive operational efficiency including the new Brisbane base, new maintenance provider in BAE Systems and reaching agreement with Sydney Airport about infrastructure constraints at SYD

Read the full whack of documents supplied to the ASX including final report, press release, presentation and Velocity announcement HERE

Half Year Interim Results The Winners and the Losers

The Winner

Air New Zealand are the big winners today announcing a half year interim normalised earnings of $180M NZD and an increase in passenger revenue, as well as a pre tax Statutory earnings of $197M NZD

The Loser

Qantas have today announced their underlying half year loss of $252M AUD before tax, with an action plan that will see job losses, fleet changes, and sale of terminal leases.

The Qantas changes
Qantas have announced that they have entered an agreement which will see the Brisbane Airport Corporation regain the lease of the Qantas Domestic terminal at Brisbane and related assets for $112M AUD.

Over the next three years Qantas will reduce their workforce by 5000 full-time positions which will include a reduction of 1500 management and non-operational roles, a restructure of line maintenance, as well as the already announced closure of the Avalon maintenance base and Adelaide catering base.  There will also be a reduction of operational roles relating to fleet and network changes, and the CNS flight crew base will close.

Qantas will make a change in timing to their MEL-DXB-LHR services from November 2014 to reduce on ground timing of the A380 in LHR.

Qantas will also end their PER-SIN services in first quarter FY15, while making all BNE-SIN and SYD-SIN services A330 replacing current B744 services.

Fleet Changes

Qantas will look to make savings up selling and differing up to 50 jets, this is broken up as follows;

• Boeing 767-300s - these will all be retired by Q3 FY15, following on from the retirement of the Boeing 737-400 fleet (see previous post)
• This will help Qantas standardise their domestic fleet to mostly 737-800 aircraft with Airbus A330 aircraft flying the East-West flights (SYD/MEL/BNE-PER) as well as peak services on the golden triangle (BNE/MEL/SYD) allowing the A332 fleet to operate International routes replacing B744s
• The 6 non-reconfigured Boeing 747-400 aircraft will be retired by the 2nd half of FY16 leaving just the 9 B744s with the A380 interior product.
• Deferral of the 8 remaining A380 orders (again)
• Deferral of the last 3 JQ B787-8 orders
• Restructring of the JQ A320 order book

Air New Zealand however will be adding aircraft;

• The A320 fleet will grow by 4 in FY14, 3 in FY15 and 2 in FY16 with the B733 retirements continuting with only 7 remaining in FY14, 2 in FY15 and all gone by FY16
• The B787-9s will arrive as follows FY15 3, FY16 3, FY17 2, FY18 2 this allows 3 of the B763 fleet to be retired by FY16 with the remaining 2 leaving in FY 17, while the last 2 744s will depart in FY15
• Two additional B773's will be delivered in FY15, 1 in 2014 and 1 in 2015
• 1 ATR76 will arrive in FY14, 3 in FY15 and the final one in FY16

The Releases

You can read the Qantas release to the ASX HERE and the Air New Zealand release to the NZX HERE, this story is also covered in almost every newspaper and website around.

Qantas hit all the 30's

Qantas have hit all the 30's with their announcement today of the A330 interior upgrade program to occur in Brisbane in the new $30 million dollar hangar while recruiting 30 new apprentice engineers. With each aircraft expected to be in the hangar for 30 days.

Qantas today announced its fleet of 30 Airbus A330 aircraft will have new cabin interiors installed at its Brisbane heavy maintenance and engineering facility.Qantas also announced it is recruiting 30 apprentice engineers, with the majority to be based in Brisbane.Qantas Group Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce, who was in Brisbane to officially open the $30 million upgrade to the hangar, said today’s announcements further cements Qantas' commitment to engineering and maintenance in Australia.

 This is good news for Brisbane and means spotters will get to see all 10 A333's and 20 A332's from late 2014 through to 2016

Read the full Qantas release HERE

QF fleet changes

Qantas have announced some changes in the layouts on their A330 fleet as well as the new B717s.

All 30 of Qantas’ A330s will be upgraded with Business Suites in a 1-2-1 layout with fully flat beds and direct aisle access from every seat. Ten A330-300s for Qantas International will feature new Economy seats and 20 A330-200s for Qantas Domestic will see their Economy seats refurbished.

The 5 "new" Boeing 717s being delivered to Qantas will operate as a dedicated sub-fleet on the Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane-Canberra routes and will feature a business class cabin and iPad entertainment in every seat.

“These dedicated B717 aircraft will offer excellent levels of comfort, entertainment, food and wine, delivering on our commitment to continually improve our service,” said Mr Joyce.
The five new QantasLink B717s, announced in January this year, will be introduced to the domestic fleet during FY14.  Qantas Domestic’s 13 other B717s are also being upgraded with new interiors in an all-economy configuration.

Other fleet announcements include the major announcement that as the Jetstar A330s return to Qantas Domestic coupled with further Boeing 737-800s the entire Qantas Boeing 767 fleet will be retired by mid 2015.

• Bombardier Q400 - 3 more to arrive in 1st half of FY14
• Boeing 717 - sub-fleet to be delivered during FY14 with business class
• Boeing 737-400 - all to be retired in FY14
• Boeing 737-800 - four to be delivered in FY14, 5 to be delivered in FY15
• Boeing 767-300 - all to be retired by mid 2015
• Boeing 787-8 - 1st to be delivered in Sept & in service in Nov, 2 further to be delivered by December
• Boeing 747-400 - 2 to be retired in FY14 as underperforming Frankfurt route is cut
• Airbus A330 - all will be upgraded with new seats, JQ's A330s will transfer to QF domestic as 787-8s arrive

Read more on the fleet changes at the Qantas News Room HERE

- Download the Qantas B717 pdf fact sheet HERE

- Download the Qantas A330 pdf fact sheet HERE

BAC & VA reach agreement

Brisbane Airport and Virgin Australia have reached agreement to "enhance customer experience at Brisbane Airport"  I picked up the news when BAC tweeted out the announcement this morning.

The agreement includes:

• A series of major upgrades to the Virgin Australia-leased area at the Domestic Terminal including an expanded Virgin Australia lounge, new gate lounges to support the growing ATR Turboprop operations, expanded terminal seating areas and additional aerobridge gates for wide-bodied Airbus A330 aircraft;
• Ongoing runway access for the next 10 years and support for the development of the new parallel runway;
• The sale and lease-back of the Virgin Australia hangar at Brisbane Airport.

 Towards the bottom of the BAC announcement you see that the 10 year runway system agreement "provides certainty to the ongoing development of infrastructure at Brisbane Airport" which to me suggests Virgin have accepted the user pre-pay option for the second runway which has been a big sticking point with airlines until now.  I also suspect that this will add some additional cost to tickets as Virgin pass on this cost to travelers.

The end of the BAC announcement also says the sale and lease back of the Virgin hangar will occur this financial year - i.e. before June 30th.

I cannot yet find a press release on the Virgin Australia site

YBBN spotting pt2

Some more of the pics I like from my spotting trip on tuesday

I'm kicking off today with an international flavour

Etihad Airways Airbus A330-243 A6-EYF departing YBBN for Abu Dhabi via Singapore

Air Niugini Boeing 767-336 P2-ANA as ANG4 departing YBBN for Port Moresby

Thai Airways Boeing 777-3D7ER HS-TKC departing YBBN as TK474 to Bangkok

Now moving back to an Australian focus

Tiger Airways (Australia) Airbus A320 VH-VNB departing YBBN as TT435 to Melbourne

 I'm not sure what it is about the TT birds, but I find them amazingly photogenic

Jetstar Airbus A321 looking gorgeously golden int he late afternoon sun, while also looking equally patchy is seen departing YBBN as JQ817 to Sydney

Alliance Airlines Fokker F100 VH-XWM is seen departing YBBN as UTY2366 to Rockhampton

And finally Qantas Boeing 767-336 VH-ZXF is seen departing YBBN as QF537 to Sydney

A few BNE movements from 23.02.13

Following on from my last post, aircraft pics are back baby!

My friend Tim was out at BNE on Saturday 23-February-2013 and captured some of the departures from runway 01.

You can find Tim on twitter @timstewartnz

Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-342 B-LAH operating CX146 BNE-CNS-HKG

Qantas Boeing 767-338ER VH-OGH operating QF525 BNE-SYD

 Qantas Boeing 747-438ER VH-OEJ operating QF15 BNE-LAX

Air New Zealand Boeing 777-319ER  ZK-OKN operating NZ136 BNE-AKL

 Etihad Airbus A330-243 A6-EYH operating EY473 BNE-SIN-AUH

QF upgrade some trans continental routes

As reported back in November (HERE) Qantas are moving all weekday MEL-PER & SYD-PER flights to A330.  They have now announced that they will fast track the all A330 introduction on their SYD-PER flights to April, while at the same time changing weekday flights on BNE-PER to all B763.

This is great news for travellers as it means the end to narrow body jets on these trans-continental flights, at least on weekdays when travelling on QF (unless your unlucky enough to get a QF code share on JQ metal)

"We will now have wide-body aircraft on all weekday flights between the eastern states and Western Australia," says Qantas Domestic CEO Lyall Strambi. That's a change from the mix of wide-bodies (with two aisles) and Boeing 737s (with one aisle) currently used.

I suspect flights from ADL-PER will still operate with B738s as will flights to DRW & CBR so the B738 fleet can still be rotated through WA.

Read more about the end to narrow body trans-con flights from Australian Business Traveller HERE

QF 763's begin to depart

As die hard avgeek readers will know Qantas have a somewhat orphan sub fleet in their 767-300ER fleet with 7 ex British Airways Rolls Royce powered 763s.  These aircraft were registered in the VH-ZX* range.

These aircraft have always presented problems for Qantas, and they have long been flagged for retirement, but with replacement delays etc they have remained in the fleet.  Until now.  The first of the 7 to be retired is VH-ZXB which was flown from Sydney to Roswell New Mexico for desert storage.

These 7 frames are slowly being replaced by additional B738 capacity and A332s, both new A332s (see previous article) or older A332s returning to QF as JQ gets 787s

Australian Aviation has a short piece about ZXB's departure HERE

Domestic transcontinental flights

Normally when people think trans continental flights they think of LAX-JFK or similar in the USA, but Australia has its own transcontinental services between the three big east coast cities BNE, SYD & MEL and PER on the west coast.

Qantas have just taken delivery of their final Airbus A330-200 VH-EBV 'Kangaroo Island' which sports One World alliance titles, which they will operate on the domestic transcontinental flights.

Photo from Qantas Facebook page

Along with this delivery Qantas have announced that from May 2013 all week day flights on the MEL-PER-MEL & SYD-PER-SYD routes will be operated by A330-200 aircraft.  A move which has been in part to combat rival Virgin Australia who already operate their A330 fleet on all MEL-PER routes and next year also on all SYD-PER flights, these currently operate as a mix of A330 & B738 flights.

Qantas will also take delivery next year of the A332 fleet that is currently utilised by Jetstar, when Jetstar begin to take delivery of their new Boeing 787 fleet.

I hope that once these aircraft are received that all Brisbane-Perth flights will also go to all A332, (currently a mix of A332/B763/B738) but hopefully the change to A332 flights from SYD/MEL will mean all BNE-PER will be at least B763.

Read more about these services and the Qantas A332 fleets via Australian Business Traveler HERE or Australian Aviation HERE

A win for Brisbane?

Qantas have confirmed that it will close its engineering base at Tullamarine (MEL) with the loss of 422 jobs, while keeping its Avalon (AVV) and Brisbane (BNE) bases open.

Brisbane looks set to take a win from this closure by picking up the maintenance of the Qantas Boeing 737 fleet, along with its current work on the Boeing 767 and Airbus A330 fleets, while Avalon will retain its work on the Boeing 747 fleet.

Read more about the changes to Qantas engineering from the brisbanetimes.com.au Business Day section HERE