Aviation Week Aviation Daily, Wednesday, September 24, 2014
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www.aviationweek.com/awin The business daily of the airline industry since 1939 Turkish Eyeing A380s, 747-8s INSIDE As Part Of Long-Haul Order Wednesday, September 24, 2014 AIRLINES AIRLINES tries to defi ne the composition of ■ ISTANBUL - Turkish Airlines is its future long-haul fl eet, Senior VP PAL To Review Planned U.S. Route Additions (p. 2) nearing a decision on orders for a for Investment Management Levent ■ Ryanair Looking At In-Flight Wi-Fi new long-haul fl eet and is seriously Konukcu said at the International Across Its Fleet (p. 3) considering A380s or 747-8s as the Society of Transport Aircraft Trad- ■ LOT CEO Sebastian Mikosz Details carrier’s board of directors evalu- ing (ISTAT) Europe conference. Growth Plans (p. 3) ates proposals by management. The airline has a large orderbook ■ Aerofl ot Relaunches Its LCC The airline is considering the comprising 248 aircraft, but it is Subsidiary (p. 5) Boeing 787, 777X and 747-8, as well heavily geared towards narrowbod- as the Airbus A350 and A380, as it TURKISH, p. 2 MRO ■ Industry Seeks Rule Change To Stop Unnecessary Maintenance Reports (p. 4) Beijing Tops Dallas/Fort Worth International AIRPORTS Airport’s Wish List ■ Japan Grants $16m For Central Asian Airport (p. 5) AIRPORTS America. Due to U.S. Department of INDUSTRY DATA CHICAGO—Dallas/Fort Worth In- Homeland Security restrictions on ternational Airport (DFW) is lobby- transfer passengers, the connection ■ ALTA Passenger Traffi c - July 2014 (pp. 6) ing American Airlines to add service can be tricky to make, but Dallas of- to Beijing, a DFW offi cial said in an fi cials believe it can be done. They interview here during World Routes note that American has had some 2014. success fl ying passengers between The route would help Dallas com- Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul and pete for what’s considered a lucrative South America. All three Asian cities grouping of passengers: Custom- were added to American’s DFW net- ers fl ying between Asia and South BEIJING, p. 2 INTELLIGENCE DATA WATCH Start-up carrier Greenland Express, which launced with a ALTA Passenger Traffi c - July 2014 single leased Fokker 100, has Year to date suspended fl ights after just 2014 2013 Change three months of operation and Passengers 102,301,385 96,731,103 5.8% is aiming to relaunch at some Intra-LatAm* 92,888,297 8,805,629 5.5% point with an Airbus A320 fl eet. Extra-LatAm 9,413,088 8,674,884 8.5% Greenland Express founder Gert Brask said that the suspension RPK (millions) 152,786.5 144,103.7 6.0% of services is “a planned time- Intra-LatAm* 106,739.5 100,788.3 5.9% out” to switch fl eet types, and Extra-LatAm 46,047.0 43,315.5 6.3% all unused tickets will be refund- * International and Domestic Flights ed. No timeline for the relaunch More ALTA traffi c on p. 6 was given. MARKET BRIEFING September 24, 2014 • PAGE 2 TURKISH, from p. 1 at the A380 and the 747-8. “Most probably we will need ies. Turkish has 117 A320s and 100 737s on order, includ- these larger aircraft,” he said. The airline represents one ing the A320neo and the 737 MAX. However, its wide- of the few current opportunities for both Airbus and Boe- body portfolio is more limited, with 18 Boeing 777-300ERs ing to place their largest widebodies. and 13 Airbus A330s set to arrive by the end of 2017. Konukcu indicates that in addition to being able to carry Turkish needs additional widebody lift after 2017 but has more passengers, “cargo capacity is also very important not placed an order for the latest-generation, long-haul for us” in any widebody decision. He does not say when a aircraft. decision will be made. Under the current fleet plan, Turkish will be operating The airline is facing severe slot constraints at its hub at 54 widebody aircraft by the end of 2014, growing to 79 by Atatürk International airport. A new airport in Istanbul is the end of 2021. due to open in late 2017. Konukcu indicates that the airline is seriously looking —Jens Flottau, [email protected] BEIJING, from p. 1 trying to obtain even more gates from the airport author- work in the past 18 months. ity. But LAX could be more of a pure Asia hub for American, “We think we can be the logical connecting point between since it lacks many South American connections. Asia and South America,” DFW Executive Vice President- Most airports use the annual World Routes conference to Revenue Management Ken Buchanan said. The problem now try to entice airlines to add service. is that much of the traffic that could be flying through hubs But American accounts for 85% of DFW’s passenger traf- like Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles instead goes via Can- fic, so airport officials generally defer to the carrier on any ada and Mexico because of U.S. government restrictions. important new route. Only if American is not interested will When DFW opened a new international terminal in 2005, DFW try to entice another carrier on a specific route. it built international transfer lounges, which are now used “We are very selective and careful to go after routes that for other purposes. Buchanan said the airport is optimistic won’t be accommodated by American,” Buchanan said. “We they could eventually be useful. “One day we would like an don’t want to do anything to negatively impact them. But we opportunity to test new security initiatives at DFW Airport,” also want to be a global hub.” he said. “We are constantly working with CBP.” Buchanan also said that DFW is not concerned about re- DFW could also be competing with Los Angeles Interna- laxed restrictions on routes from Dallas Love Field that start tional Airport (LAX) as a logical Asian gateway. next month (Aviation DAILY, Sept. 11). “We would like to grow Los Angeles,” American president Virgin America is leaving DFW to start Love Field service, but Scott Kirby said in an interview. He added that American Buchanan said the airport’s overall traffic numbers will not drop. — which will take over four gates from United at LAX — is —Brian Sumers, [email protected] PAL To Review Planned This was expected to lead to increased frequencies on existing U.S. routes, including flights to Honolulu and U.S. Route Additions Guam. The carrier said it would introduce new routes, with Chicago and East Coast cities among those under AIRLINES Ownership changes at Philippine Air- consideration. lines (PAL) have called some of the carrier’s new route New York was to be the first U.S. destination added. plans into question, including the launch of flights to New PAL planned to begin four weekly flights to New York’s York in March. John F. Kennedy International Airport via Vancouver in Business magnate Lucio Tan recently repurchased the March 2015, using Airbus A340-300s. The airline ended minority stake in PAL he had sold earlier to San Miguel its previous service to New York in 1997. Corp., once again giving him control of the airline. Tan has However, while New York has a large expatriate Filipino indicated that he will be assessing some of the strategies population, this route would face challenges. put in place by the previous management group. The A340s are less efficient than the Boeing 777- “With the ongoing transition in PAL management, the 300ERs PAL uses on other North American routes and airline is reviewing route expansion plans including the re- many competing carriers already offer one-stop, Manila- introduction of New York service,” a PAL spokesman says. New York flights more frequently than the proposed PAL “We will make the proper announcement as soon as de- service. tails of any new services are finalized.” The FAA upgrade has enabled PAL to phase out the When the FAA restored the Philippines to a category Boeing 747-400s it was using on its flights from Manila one safety rating in April, PAL executives immediately re- to San Francisco and Los Angeles, replacing them with vealed their intention to “implement an expansion plan” in 777-300ERs. the U.S. market. —Adrian Schofield,[email protected] COPYRIGHT © 2014 PENTON MARKET BRIEFING September 24, 2014 • PAGE 3 Before the end of the month, Ryanair will announce a Ryanair Looking At In-Flight deal with a second global distribution system (GDS) pro- Wi-Fi Across Its Fleet vider, Jacobs affirmed. The LCC has deviated from its strategy to sell only through its own website and con- AIRLINES Ryanair’s new “Business Plus” service cluded an agreement with Travelport this year as it looks is proving popular with passengers, and the carrier is con- to evolve its business offering and strengthen its position sidering onboard connectivity across its entire fleet even in the corporate-travel market (Aviation DAILY, March 12). before its Boeing 737 MAX 200 start arriving, an executive Jacobs said the Travelport cooperation is a “great suc- said. cess,” though he declined to disclose how much of its in- No firm decision has been made, but “we’re looking at ventory it is currently selling via the GDS. Ryanair and in-flight Wi-Fi options. The use of a laptop and a tablet on- Travelport agreed to specific targets per country and board is becoming standard by businessmen and families, overall. but we have to find the right technology and systems for Some 27% of Ryanair’s passengers already choose Ry- the different coverage zones and countries we fly to.