Expanding East and West

The news follows a flood of recent announcements that the carrier has made detailing its rapid expansion plans.Yesterday, the carrier said it plans to launch three additional destinations in the next six months, on top of the 12 new routes already being rolled out in 2012.From 1st November, Emirates will launch four weekly flights to Adelaide, rising to a daily service from 1st February 2013. Adelaide will be the airline’s fifth destination in Australia which is currently served with 70 flights per week.The airline’s current double-daily service to Perth will grow to 19 weekly flights from 1st December, becoming a triple daily operation from 1st March next year.On the western side of the globe, the French city of Lyon will be added to the Emirates’ network from 5th December, the carrier’s third point in France after Paris and Nice. Emirates will operate five weekly flights to the city.Lastly, the carrier said it will Emirates will begin flights into Poland from 6th February 2013, where the airline will operate a daily service to the capital, Warsaw.

“Emirates is currently in a concentrated and sustained period of global expansion,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group. “The addition of Adelaide to our network and the boost to our Perth operations demonstrates our commitment to investment and growth in our Australian operations and highlights the economic strength and global demand for the two cities as business, leisure and investment destinations. We will also grow capacity to Melbourne with the introduction of daily A380 services in October, in addition to our existing double decker flight into Sydney.Our increased operations into France, linking with Lyon, comes on the heels of our announcing a second A380 service into Paris from 1st January – all of which a response to acute demand for our services to and from this market. Poland continues our exciting push into this region of Europe,” Sheikh Ahmed added.

Emirates has already launched nine new destinations so far in 2012; Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Lusaka, Harare, Dallas, Seattle, Ho Chi Minh City and yesterday Barcelona. Lisbon will launch on 9th July, Erbil follows on 12th August and Washington comes on board as of 12th September.Aviation analyst Saj Ahmad said it is no surprise that Emirates is upping its presence in new and existing markets. “Announcements like these tend to follow when carriers place big orders and Emirates is no exception,” he said. “And while it has to deploy its 777-300ER and A380 inventory somewhere, it wouldn’t be launching such routes and increased frequencies if demand didn’t support their planned growth.My only surprise, if indeed that’s the right word, is why there haven’t been even more news announcements. But after all, there’s only so many pilots that Emirates can snare/train and employ and I would hazard a guess that it is this issue, not regulatory. that is constraining their furious growth,” he added.

Afternoon flights will depart Brisbane at 4.00pm, arriving in Emerald at 5.55pm; with a return flight departing Emerald at 6.25pm, arriving in Brisbane at 8.10pm.No flights will take place on Saturday, but on Sunday the afternoon service will operate.Virgin Australia’s General Manager for Sales, Justin Montgomery, proclaimed the flights and the low fares, starting at $88 each one, signalled the beginning of a new era of much needed competition on the route.The spacious and stylish cabin of our brand new 68‐seat ATR‐72 turbo‐prop aircraft is already generating very positive feedback from guests who have flown on it” Montgomery said.The in‐flight experience is certainly in keeping with Virgin Australia’s new business model and will appeal to business and leisure travellers alike.

The ATR turbo‐prop turbine-driven propeller is also being used for flights from Brisbane to Gladstone and Port Macquarie, and will soon also join the Capital Connect shuttle service between Sydney and Canberra.Click here for an inside look at the fuel-efficient 68 seater, which Virgin Australia chief John Borghetti trumpets as “the best aircraft to operate on regional routes throughout Australia.

Responding to already strong demand, the airline will double its capacity on the Melbourne – Brisbane route from next Tuesday 23 August with two daily return services, meaning that there will be an early morning flight from Melbourne to Brisbane returning mid morning from Brisbane to Melbourne as well as the afternoon/early evening option. Tiger Airways is earmarking a return to a number of other popular destinations soon and will announce further network developments in due course.

Since resuming Australian domestic services last week Tiger has enjoyed solid bookings and achieved a 100% departure and arrival performance to date.With safety underpinning the operation at all times, a key long term goal for Tiger Airways is to become the most popular and punctual airline operating in Australia,continued Ms Regan.Combined with our great value fares we believe that we have an offering many Australians will continue to embrace.

Instead, the airline will operate temporary flight LA 805 from Santiago to Sydney via Papeete, departing at 10.50pm on Thursday , 23 June and Saturday, 25 June, arriving in Sydney at 10.50am on Saturday 25 June and Monday 27 June.Papeete will be used for a technical stop only. Passengers cannot disembark or join the flight there.Passengers seeking to fly on the services via Papeete must have either an Australian passport or a current Australian visa.For enquiries members of the travel industry in Australia should call the airline’s trade line on 1 800 221 572 while consumers should call 1 800 558 129.

PR209 Manila-Melbourne-Sydney was canceled on Tuesday as a precautionary measure to ensure passenger safety after volcanic ash clouds from Chile reached some parts of Australia.The volcanic cloud traveled across the Pacific from Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano, which erupted on June 5.

The curfew is a very big factor not operating to Sydney and the operating cost out of Sydney is very high,Al-Baker observed.Melbourne is a more efficient use of airplanes because it is a 24-hour airport and Sydney is not, so we operate there, citing that Qatar could not afford to park our airplanes for 12-13 hours in an airport.Qatar began Australian operations in late 2009 and saw of Melbourne as one of two Australian routes, and Al-Baker claims this expansion remains on the agenda.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ Chief Executive Officer, said: “Our Casablanca operation has exceeded our expectations over the past five years, and we are pleased to be able to build on this success with an additional service. We remain committed to building sustainable ties in the North African region, and deepening the strong relationship between Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.”

Etihad currently operates a three-cabin Airbus A330-200 aircraft between Abu Dhabi and Casablanca, configured to carry 200 passengers  10 in Diamond first class, 26 in Pearl business, and 164 in Coral economy.In addition to carrying passengers between Abu Dhabi and Casablanca, Etihad offers seamless connections to many popular onward GCC destinations including Jeddah, a choice of Asian destinations such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Manila, the Indian Subcontinent, Sydney in Australia and Johannesburg in South Africa.

Moulay Hicham El Kadiri Boutchich, Etihad’s Country Manager for Morocco, said: “Etihad has enjoyed consistently high load factors across all cabins since the launch of services between Casablanca and Abu Dhabi in 2006 and we are very proud of that success. We will continue to look at ways to make our service more accessible for all of our customers business and leisure.

“The additional weekly flight will open new horizons for our commercial activities in Morocco and will offer our customers more flexibility in their travel to Abu Dhabi and onto the airline worldwide network.Etihad extended its codeshare agreement with Royal Air Maroc in September 2010, allowing Etihad passengers to travel from Casablanca to Agadir, Laayoune, Fez and Marrakech in Morocco, and Nouakchott in Mauritania and Dakar in Senegal.

Etihad Airways key dates during five years of services to Morocco:2 June 2006  inaugural Abu Dhabi-Casablanca service commenced with three frequencies per week;July 2006  launch of a fourth weekly Abu Dhabi-Casablanca flight;September 2009 – opening of a new Etihad Airways office in Casablanca;September 2010 – expansion of codeshare agreement with Royal Air Maroc, allowing both companies to expand their offerings to Morocco, the Gulf and West Africa;

China Southern already flies from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to its hub in Guangzhou, just over 100 km from Hong Kong. Guangzhou is, of course, a key business class destination in its own right, and as China’s second-busiest airport it has extensive connections to other Chinese cities.
The WA government and China Southern inked a deal earlier in May to provide the regulatory backbone for the flights, but our well-placed Perth source tells Australian Business Traveller that the flights are likely to start in October or November this year, with the main holdup being airport capacity.

With Perth Airport already undergoing a three-year $515 million overhaul, China Southern could eventually use its Airbus A380 superjumbos on the route, since the airport upgrades will include A380-capable gates. But in the meantime, we’d expect the flights to kick off with smaller planes, most likely Airbus A330-200 aircraft. China Southern outfits its A330s with 264 seats in a two-class configuration. In business class passengers can expect a 1.9m angled-flat bed in a 2-2-2 cabin arrangement:At the back of the plane is the usual Airbus 2-4-2 economy class cabin layout.

The airline is also reputed to be one of Virgin Australia’s potential partners to connect into the Asian market.That would tie neatly in to Virgin Australia’s agreement with Western Australian regional airline Skywest, which will fly new Virgin Australia-branded planes between the lucrative WA resources sector hubs. An international hub-to-hub flight between Perth and Guangzhou would sweeten the deal for Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti’s plans to be in Asia and I mean all of Asia.

Business travellers from regional Australia have particular reason to celebrate. Emirates will put up connecting passengers in first and business class overnight at the Stamford Plaza hotel at Sydney Airport so they can be certain to make the early flight to Dubai.Emirates will use stretched Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on the route, with 12 first class suites, 42 angled lie-flat business class seats, and 304 seats in a 3-4-3 economy class configuration at the back of the plane.

Frequent flyers may remember the additional flight from previous years: Emirates used a smaller 777-200LR plane as a third daily flight before moving that aircraft on to other routes. The flight is returning from October 2011.The business class seats on the 777 aren’t quite as comfortable as the A380 seats for sleeping since they recline to an angle rather than fully flat — and unfortunately there’s no stand-up bar at the back of business class like there is on the superjumbo.But business travellers looking to make early connections into Europe may find the better timings an acceptable tradeoff, especially on a day flight, because the recliner seats are comfortable enough for snoozing, and the award-winning widescreen ICE on-demand entertainment is just as good.If you’re booking a business class ticket, don’t miss our special report on the best seats to choose in business on Emirates’ 777-300ER.