Carry on: Qatar cuts back on A350, Singapore-Air France deal and more

Qatar cuts back A350 services
Qatar Airways this week launched its latest service to Australasia ahead of its planned Doha-Auckland operation in December. But chief executive Akbar Al Baker says the new daily service to Adelaide will be forced to cut back in coming months because of slow delivery of the new Airbus A350, which is making its first regular appearance in this part of the world.

“This is causing me great concern because it is impeding our growth,” he told the media in Adelaide. “If we don’t receive our aircraft according to planned delivery dates, then we have to pull back.” It’s not known if this will affect the planned Auckland service, which will use long-range Boeing 777s rather than the A350s, for which Qatar is the launch carrier.

It is configured with 36 fully flat business class seats in a 1-2-1 layout and 247 economy seats. Airbus has blamed the late delivery of the A350s on the cabin providers.

Qatar is already flying to three other Australian cities, with Sydney coming on stream in March after Melbourne (2009) and Perth (2012). These routes use B777s but Sydney will be upgraded to an A380 capable of carrying 517 passengers in September to meet demand.

Qatar has been named the global airline of the year and needs more air traffic rights before adding another destination, presumably Brisbane. New Zealand already has an air services agreement with Qatar.

Singapore seeks joint venture with Air France
Singapore Airlines (SIA), a founder of the Star Alliance, is said to be in talks with Air France for a joint strategic partnership. This will be SIA’s second such agreement after one signed with Lufthansa earlier this year.

The unusual part is that while Lufthansa is a member of the Star Alliance, Air France is an anchor member of the rival Skyteam.

In both cases, the aim is to give SIA access to more European airports and more effectively compete with the three major Gulf carriers’ networks. The Air France agreement will include a joint-venture arrangement on each of the airlines’ daily-Singapore-Paris CDG services. SIA will require a waiver from its alliance to clinch a deal.

Emirates adds two Chinese cities
Emirates this week expanded its global network to two mid-western inland cities in China and boosted capacity on its services from Dubai to Taipei and Prague.

The new Chinese service from Dubai, which will use Boeing 777-200LRs, lands at Yinchuan Hedong International Airport before carrying on to Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport.

Yinchuan is the capital of the Ningxia Hui region and is situated on the Yellow River. It has a population of two million and is the home of the permanent China-Arab expo.

Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan Province and is also on the Yellow River. It is one of China’s eight great ancient capitals and has a population of nearly 10 million.

Emirates’ other services to China are to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Meanwhile, Emirates is now using A380s on its operations to Taipei and Prague. These routes were launched in 2014 and 2010 respectively.

In another capacity boost, the Dubai-Cape Town service will increase to three times daily from July. [Corrected from original that stated weekly.] This service uses B777-300ER aircraft.

Route news of the week
AirAsia X has added a new night-time flight on its Kuala Lumpur-Shenzhen, China, route. This increases the operation to three times daily, operated by Airbus A320 aircraft. AirAsia X will also increase its Kuala Lumpur-Osaka Kansai service from seven to nine times weekly from June 20. Aerolineas Argentinas is ending service to Cuba, with the last Buenos Aires Ezeiza-Caracas-Havana operation on July 31. It runs twice a week using Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Skyteam member Xiamen Airlines has opened reservations for its new service to the US. The Xiamen-Shenzhen-Seattle route launches on September 26 and will use a Boeing 787-8 aircraft three times a week. Dutch airline KLM will add new destinations in the US and Sri Lanka for the northern winter season. KLM last served Miami in March and Colombo via Dubai in March 1997.

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