Airline News - Asia / Pacific.

Assn. of Asia Pacific Airlines' preliminary traffic results for February showed a 4.1% growth in international passenger boardings. Passenger traffic (RPKs) rose at the same rate and that, combined with slower expansion of capacity--up 2.5%--pushed load factor up 1.1 points to 73.8%. International freight traffic was more robust, lifting 5.3% in FTKs. Again capacity growth was modest at 2.6%, resulting in a 1.7-point increase in load factor to 66.9%. Mar 27, 2006

Air China, China Eastern, China Southern

Fuel surcharge hike no help to airlines. China has given its three main airlines - China Southern, Air China and China Eastern - the green light to hike their meager fuel surcharges on domestic routes. Mar 30, 2006

Air New Zealand 

Air New Zealand launched a three-times-weekly A320 service to Adelaide. The "born again" New Zealand airline, in a swipe at Qantas, is claiming Adelaide residents will have one of the fastest connection times to Los Angeles and San Francisco. On the SFO service from Auckland, ANZ is using its new 777s, while the LAX service is operated by 747s that have been upgraded with the airline's new interior featuring lie-flat seat-beds and premium economy products. This week, Qantas follows ANZ by returning to San Francisco. Mar 27, 2006

Air Tahiti Nui 

Air Tahiti Nui is introducing a third service on the Sydney-Tahiti-Los Angeles route. Each of the flights continues to London. Mar 27, 2006

China Southern

China Southern Airlines began thrice-weekly Guangzhou-Shanghai Pudong-Kitakyushu service aboard A319s and 757s in addition to flights from Guangzhou to Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore. It also plans to increase its Shanghai-Tokyo service. Mar 29, 2006

Dragonair

Dragonair is increasing frequencies to 13 cities including 10 in China with its summer schedule beginning today and running through Oct. 28. The new timetable adds a new destination, Shenyang. Services to Shanghai Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guilin, Hangzhou, Kunming, Nanjing, Sanya, Xian, Tokyo, Kaohsiung and Phnom Penh will increase. Dragonair will operate 16 flights per day between its Hong Kong base and Shanghai, while 30 additional flights per week will go to the nine other Chinese cities. Shenyang is Dragonair's 23rd Chinese destination. Mar 28, 2006

Korean Air

Korean Air is boosting summer services and upgrading aircraft used on the Seoul-New York JFK route. Weekly flights to Seattle will increase from three to four and weekly frequencies to Toronto will rise from two to three. Other increases are Paris CDG from five weekly flights to daily, Amsterdam and Zurich to thrice-weekly and Moscow to four-times-weekly. From Aug. 1 Korean will introduce 777-200ERs with cocoon-styled sleeper seats on the JFK route. The aircraft also feature AVOD in all three classes, inflight Internet and revamped interiors. Mar 28, 2006

Malaysia Airlines

Malaysia Airlines is increasing its number of nonstop flights between Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur from 14 to 18 with the new summer schedule providing convenient connections from KL to popular Malaysian tourist destinations such as Penang and Langkawi, and also to Australia and New Zealand. The focus on the London - Kuala Lumpur route is part of the airline's realignment program, and is in line with the stated strategy to move from a point-to-point to a 'hub and spoke' network. The four extra nonstop flights have been partly achieved by routing the previous Langkawi and Penang services through KL. MAL is dropping Manchester from 1 May 2006. http://www.malaysiaairlines.com Apr 2, 2006

Malaysia Airlines to lay off 6,500, cede most of domestic network to AirAsia. Malaysia Airlines delivered the news its employees feared, announcing it will abandon all but 19 domestic routes to AirAsia, take 19 aircraft out of service and lay off approximately 6,500 employees, or about 28% of its workforce.AirAsia will take over the remaining 96 routes and compete with MAS on the other 19, giving passengers the option of choosing a full-service or a low-cost carrier. The Malaysian government said it will stop subsidizing MAS from Aug. 1, according to press reports, although the carrier said in a statement that the government will compensate it for costs incurred in the restructuring of its domestic network. Mar 29, 2006

Qantas

Qantas Group will make the following changes to its Darwin schedule May 1: Qantas will operate a daily service to Brisbane and Jetstar will fly six-times-weekly. The route to Adelaide will be operated daily by Qantas and twice-weekly by Jetstar. Service to Melbourne will be operated six-times-weekly by Jetstar, increasing to daily July 1. Changes add 732 seats per week. Other services will remain as is. Mar 29, 2006