Analysis for Asia

Romanian national carrier Tarom is to push ahead with the acquisition of up to three widebodied aircraft to support its long-haul network development. The formal Request for Proposals (RFP) confirms a CAPA – Centre for Aviation exclusive story from the start of June when the airline’s CEO, Eugen Davidoiu, told The Blue Swan Daily that the recent arrival of Boeing 737-800s was just the first stage of a fleet renewal plan both to facilitate network growth as well as to replace older generation equipment.

An index of economic activity in non-industrial growth industries has shown that central and western Chinese cities are leading the way in attracting new growth. The latest edition of the monthly Mastercard Caixin BBD China New Economy Index (NEI) highlights the central and western cities are becoming magnets for growth, partly supported by increasing visitor arrivals at expanding airports across the region.

Scoot has boosted sixth freedom traffic from Sydney since rescheduling three weekly frequencies to improve connections with and India and is planning to introduce a similar schedule change for Melbourne.

Paypal has found a way to tap into the lucrative China market by partnering with search giant Baidu. The move will give Paypal access to an additional 100 million users currently registered on Baidu Wallet, while Chinese online shoppers will have access to PayPal's 17 million international e-commerce sites.

Qatar Airways will offer Canberra-Europe passengers a generally faster transit time than Singapore Airlines despite Qatar’s decision to serve Canberra with a stop in Sydney. Qatar will also likely offer aggressive fares from Canberra to Europe, driving down average fares after it launches services to Canberra in Feb-2017.

This winter, Japan Airlines (JAL) will reinstate a second daily flight into the London, but rather than the mid-afternoon arrival time seen on all other flights in the Tokyo – London market, the service will arrive in the UK capital in the early hours of the morning, providing the Asian airline with an unique selling point versus rivals. It last operated two daily flights into London from Tokyo late last decade after it switched an existing Osaka – London flight to the capital in March 2009, but it closed in December of the same year.

As the world turns mobile, as customers initiate increasing amounts of airline buying transactions on smartphones, it looks as if China’s growth has levelled off.

US major Delta Air Lines is at the centre of a deepening transatlantic airline partnership that will see Sir Richard Branson sell his majority stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways. The airline will pay €375 million to acquire 10% equity and a seat on the Air France-KLM Group Board of Directors and £220 million of that money is being immediately used by the European joint venture to acquire a 31% stake in UK carrier Virgin Atlantic Airways.

The Singapore Airlines Group is again boosting capacity to Australia for the winter season. The Singapore Airlines Group will be operating 168 weekly passenger flights between Singapore and Australia during the peak winter months in 2017/2018, up from 160 flights last year.

The CAPA LCCs in North Asia Summit 2017, which occurred in Osaka in June 2017, delivered some of the most thought-provoking discussions from a wide range of expert speakers.