Corporate Travel News For Asia

LOT Polish Airlines, via its official Facebook account, announced (05-Jun-2018) plans to offer services to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra via Singapore, under a codeshare agreement from 18-Jun-2018. As previously reported by CAPA, the carrier launched three times weekly Warsaw-Singapore service in May-2018.

CAPA - Centre for Aviation stated (04-Jun-2018) Shandong Airlines received a new Boeing 737 MAX (B-1275; serial number 61440), as recorded by the CAPA Fleet Database. The aircraft is the first 737 MAX for the airline.

Kunming Airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China United Airlines, Loong Airlines, West Air, Okay Airways and Juneyao Airlines plans to resume fuel surcharges on domestic services to offset the rising fuel costs from 05-Jun-2018 (Carnoc.com, 04-Jun-2018). Domestic fuel surcharge will increase from CNY0 (USD0) to CNY10 (USD1.56).

Hong Kong Airlines and El Al recently entered into a codeshare agreement, with Hong Kong Airlines to codeshare on El Al's Hong Kong-Tel Aviv service and El Al to codeshare on Hong Kong Airlines' Hong Kong-Auckland, Hong Kong-Tokyo Narita, Hong Kong-Osaka and Hong Kong-Seoul services (Carnoc.com, 04-Jun-2018). El Al currently operates its six times weekly Hong Kong-Tel Aviv service with its brand new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, configured with 32 business class, 28 premium economy class and 222 economy class seats.

IATA AGM president and Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, speaking at the IATA AGM and World Air Transport Summit, announced (05-Jun-2018) Seoul will become the host city of the 75th IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held between 02-Jun-2019 and 04-Jun-2019. Korean Air was also announced as the host airline of the 75th IATA AGM.

IATA, via its official website, named (May-2018) Jin Air as its latest member.

Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop expressed concern about the decision to change the Qantas website to refer to Taiwan as a Chinese territory (AAP/SBS, 04-Jun-2018). Ms Bishop reiterated her concerns regarding the CAAC request for airlines to no longer refer to Taiwan as an independent country, but noted that Qantas was free to make its own corporate decisions. "Private companies should be free to conduct their usual business operations free from political pressure of governments," Ms Bishop said, adding: "The decision of how Qantas structures its website is a matter for the company".

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the IATA AGM and World Air Transport Summit, stated (04-Jun-2018) the carrier plans to change its website to refer to Taiwan as a territory of China, not an independent nation, but that it needed extra time to comply with the request from CAAC. "Our intention is to meet the requirements. It is just taking time to get there", Mr Joyce said.

NokScoot, via its official Facebook account, announced (31-May/01-Jun-2018) it commenced Bangkok Don Mueang-Tokyo Narita service on 01-Jun-2018. Deputy CEO Giam Ming Toh said: "Japan is an important addition to NokScoot's network expansion, which has been focused on China along with Taiwan since its launch four years ago" (TTR Weekly, 04-Jun-2018). The airline also plans to commence Osaka and Seoul Incheon services in 2018, subject to regulatory approval.

Royal Brunei Airlines CEO Karam Chand, speaking to CAPA on the sidelines of the IATA AGM and World Air Transport Summit, stated (03-Jun-2018) the airline's board will decide in Jul-2018 on new routes to be launched later in 2018 with its new fleet of seven A320neos. The airline plans to take seven A320neos in 2018. Four will replace A320ceos, one will be used to increase frequency on existing routes and two will be used for new routes. Mr Chand said up to five new routes could be launched. The focus is mainly on North Asia but India and a fourth destination in Indonesia is also under consideration. Brisbane was previously looked at but will not be launched, at least not in 2018.