News for Asia

Australia's Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) reported (21-Aug-2017) the overall domestic on-time performance for Jul-2017. Details include:

• On-time departures: 79.9%;
  • Virgin Australia Regional Airlines: 86.9%;
  • QantasLink: 83.3%;
  • Qantas: 83.0%;
  • Regional Express: 82.9%;
  • Virgin Australia: 81.1%;
  • Tigerair: 71.2%;
  • Jetstar: 69.5%;
• On-time arrivals: 79.0%;
  • Virgin Australia Regional Airlines: 84.9%;
  • QantasLink: 83.4%;
  • Qantas: 81.3%;
  • Regional Express: 80.6%;
  • Virgin Australia: 78.0%;
  • Jetstar: 73.2%;
  • Tigerair: 69.1%;
• Cancellations: 1.9%;
  • Tigerair: 4.0%;
  • QantasLink: 2.4%;
  • Regional Express: 2.3%;
  • Virgin Australia: 1.9%;
  • Qantas: 1.4%;
  • Jetstar: 0.9%;
  • Virgin Australia Regional Airlines: 0.4%. [more - original PR]

Auckland Airport stated (18-Aug-2017) Thai Airways' plans to increase Bangkok Suvarnabhumi-Auckland frequency from five times weekly to daily and introduce Boeing 787 equipment on the service in Nov-2017 will add 65,000 seats and inject NZD53 million (USD38.7 million) p/a into New Zealand's economy. More than 46,000 New Zealanders travelled to Thailand in the last year, with the majority being holiday makers. [more - original PR]

Armenia's General Department of Civil Aviation (GDCA) director Sergey Avetisyan stated Armenia will meet with China in autumn 2017 to discuss the issue of organising direct services between the nations (Armenpress, 17-Aug-2017). He said: "In autumn I will visit China and expect to sign new inter-state agreement. I plan to have meetings with the representatives of Chinese airlines to discuss the possibility to operate Armenia-China flight. If we successfully pass this stage, we don't rule out anything".

Garuda Indonesia and Saudia plan to expand their codeshare network in 2H2017 to include Garuda's Jakarta-Makassar, Jakarta-Medan and Jakarta-Surabaya services and Saudia's Madinah-Riyadh-Jakarta, Jeddah-Bahrain, Jeddah-Cairo, Jeddah-Casablanca, Jeddah-Dammam, Jeddah-Madinah, Jeddah-Madrid, Jeddah-Qassim, Jeddah-Riyadh, Jeddah-Tabuk and Riyadh-Jakarta services (Airline Route, 17-Aug-2017). Garuda has 27 codeshare partners and Saudia has 11, according to OAG.

Cairns Airport CCO aviation Paul McLean said (16-Aug-2017) the airport is in active discussions with Philippine Airlines (PAL) on maintaining Cairns as a destination and with other airlines about trans Tasman routes. Philippine Airlines plans to suspend Manila-Cairns-Auckland service and commence nonstop Manila-Auckland service, effective 06-Dec-2017. [more - original PR]

Fliggy VP Jerry Hu, commenting on the company's MoU with Qantas, noted that the popularity of mobile device use for internet access and the impact this has on commerce, means Fliggy "can provide brands with a large customer base, as well as facilitate direct communication with their customers" (Travel Trade Gazette Asia, 15-Aug-2017). Qantas and the Alibaba Group subsidiary signed an MoU earlier in Aug-2017, allowing Qantas to sell its content in China on the Fliggy online platform. The Alibaba Group online marketplace reaches more than 500 million consumers in China.

Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti reported "some pretty significant flows" in cargo bookings for Melbourne-Hong Kong service and said the service is "opening up opportunities for us on the cargo side" (Air Cargo News, 15-Aug-2017). Mr Borghetti commented: "As we go forward, once we establish ourselves, firstly with more services, we can then go into the second phase of seeing how we expand this with freighters etc".

AirAsia X introduced (16-Aug-2017) self service check-in kiosks at Gold Coast Airport as part of the airport's roll out of common use passenger processing systems. The airport is the first in Australia to feature AirAsia X self service check-in kiosks and will be followed by Sydney Airport, Melbourne Tullamarine Airport and Perth Airport. AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail said: "This major initiative is part of our ongoing mission to continuously innovate with technology and practice cost efficiency". [more - original PR]

Singapore Airlines announced (15-Aug-2017) plans to replace A330-300 and Boeing 777-200 aircraft with A350-900 equipment on three of four daily Singapore-Brisbane frequencies, changing aircraft on one daily frequency on 16-Oct-2017, 16-Dec-2017 and 16-Jan-2018. The change will add 24 premium economy seats per service and increase business class capacity by 42% to nearly 100,000 seats p/a. Overall two way Singapore-Brisbane capacity will increase by 53,040 seats to 750,000 seats p/a by Jan-2018. The carrier will increase frequency from three to four times daily in Aug-2017. The A350-900 is configured with 42 business class, 24 premium economy and 187 economy class seats. Singapore Airlines regional VP Tan Tiow Kor said: "The introduction of these three new Airbus A350-900 aircraft along with the introduction of a fourth daily service is in response to the growing demand we have seen from the Queensland market. While this growth is across all cabin classes the demand for additional premium cabin options has been encouraging". Brisbane Airport Corporation CEO and MD Julieanne Alroe said: "The passenger mix is changing and it's evident more travellers are wanting a premium experience". [more - original PR] [more - original PR - Brisbane Airport]

New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MIBE) released (14-Aug-2017) a report providing a snapshot of the experiences of international visitors to New Zealand from 3Q2013 to 1Q2017. Key highlights:

• A high proportion of visitors say New Zealand met or exceeded their expectations, and satisfaction was consistently high across different amenities;
• Most visitors were highly satisfied with their visit to New Zealand;
  • Overall, visitors reported high levels of satisfaction with visiting New Zealand, rating their visit on average 9 out of 10.
  • Visitors were most satisfied with the natural and built environment (9.1 out of 10) and with their sense of safety (also 9.1 out of 10);
  • Visitor satisfaction was higher among visitors from the US and UK. The US and the UK had the highest average overall satisfaction scores (9.4 out of 10), with Japan and South Korea having the lowest (8.8 and 8.7);
  • Other characteristics (such as age and gender) did not seem to influence visitor satisfaction;
• Most visitors said their experience in New Zealand met or exceeded their expectations;
  • Over 95% of visitors said their trip in New Zealand met or exceeded their expectations;
  • Visitors from the US and UK were more likely than visitors from other countries to say New Zealand exceeded their expectations;
  • More than 98% of visitors said New Zealand's environment met or exceeded their expectations. Environmentally conscious visitors were more likely to say the environment exceeded their expectations;
• Visitors were very likely to recommend New Zealand as a holiday destination;
  
  • New Zealand had a positive net promoter score of 78% when it comes to visitors recommending New Zealand;
  • More than 80% of visitors were likely to recommend New Zealand, with visitors from the US and UK being the most likely to say this;
• Among visitors who were less satisfied, common themes appeared in their reasons;
  
  • Of those visitors who gave lower satisfaction scores (1-7), high prices was a commonly listed reason;
  • Other reasons cited included no free WiFi or internet, and inconsistent quality of facilities, of public transportation and customer service. [more - original PR]