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Asia and Oceania route updates – March 2024

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Many new routes were announced in Asia and Oceania during March, as well as the inauguration of some connections within this market.

The addition of new aircraft is a common occurrence in this region, mainly in airlines from China, India and Japan.

We review the important highlights of the Asia/Oceania market in March:

 

  • AirAsia will launch a new route between Malaysia and Thailand.

 

  • Air China Cargo to add a new destination in the United Kingdom.

 

  • 6 new aircraft for Air India, also including its express subsidiary.

 

  • Air Macau will return to Fukuoka, and Hawaiian will expand frequencies to the Japanese city.

 

  • Air New Zealand, the temporary suspension of its services to Chicago, and the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines issues.

 

  • All Nippon Airways takes delivery of its fourth Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner. The first this year.

 

  • China Eastern inaugurated a new connection to Malaysia.

 

  • Delta boosts operations between Detroit and Shanghai.

 

  • Fly91 started flights in India.

 

  • FlyArystan schedules a third connection to Uzbekistan.

 

  • Hong Kong Airlines adds another daily frequency to Tokyo Narita.

 

  • IndiGo will begin operations to Colombo from Mumbai.

 

  • Juneyao Airlines will have two new international routes.

 

  • Qantas will resume services between Sydney and Port Moresby after nearly 40 years.

 

  • Starlux and the start of flights to Phu Quoc.

 

  • Tianjin inaugurated two connections between China and Seoul.

 

  • VietJet will launch its first route from Hanoi to Australia.

 

  • Virgin Australia began using its Boeing 737 MAX 8 on other international routes to/from Brisbane.

 

Aero Mongolia

The Ulaanbaatar-based company will increase its flights to Seoul from March 31st. Aero Mongolia, which operates with Airbus A319-100 jets, will expand from three to five per week.

Monday, Wednesday and Saturday

 

New flights on Thursdays and Sundays.

Aero Mongolia routes

Map by gcmap.com

China

 

Japan

 

South Korea

 

Vietnam

 

AirAsia

As of June 17th, AirAsia is scheduled to resume regular services between Kuala Lumpur and Utapao. In line with its website, flights will be three weekly, as follows:

Tuesday, Friday and Sunday

 

Air China Cargo

The cargo subsidiary of Air China will launch operations to Manchester on April 2nd. According to its website, the airline will have two services a week with Boeing 777s.

Tuesday and Saturday

 

Air China will be the only company to offer cargo flights from/to Manchester with wide-body freighters.

Air Macau

The carrier confirmed the resumption of its operations to Fukuoka, which will be performed from Macau starting July 12th with Airbus A320-200 aircraft.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday

 

Air New Zealand

The airline announced that it will temporarily suspend services between Auckland and Chicago effective March 31st. Currently, Air New Zealand has two weekly flights on the 302-seat Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

Why is Air New Zealand discontinuing this route? It is related to the aircraft used, the 787-9.

Until at least October 25th, operations will be suspended due to ongoing challenges with the availability of serviceable Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines which is impacting airlines around the world. These are the engines used on Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787s.

What is happening with the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines?

Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines normally require heavy maintenance, where they are taken off the aircraft and sent to the offshore manufacturer for inspection, after 1000 engine cycles (take-offs and landings). During regular inspections, Air New Zealand engineers identified that the engines required maintenance after 750-850 cycles. Rolls-Royce has been unable to provide Air New Zealand with spare or replacement engines to deliver the level of service needed, leading to a reduction in the amount of flying Air New Zealand can deliver via its 787 fleet. 

Air New Zealand’s route schedule in the U.S.

Map by gcmap.com

 

China Eastern

Last March 16th, China Eastern Airlines began flights between Kunming and Kuala Lumpur. Services will be carried out on Airbus A320-200 planes with a capacity of 186 passengers in single class.

Daily

 

In addition, the company operates once a day to Hangzhou from Malaysia’s capital city with the same jets.

Delta Air Lines

The airline will boost its services between Detroit and Shanghai beginning May 22nd. Operations, which are performed with Airbus A350-900s, will increase from three to seven weekly.

Daily

 

Shanghai Pudong Terminal 1

Delta currently offers daily service between Seattle and Shanghai on Airbus A330-900neo aircraft:

 

Fiji Airways

The company confirmed that it will make changes on the Nadi – Hong Kong route, that operates with Airbus A330-200 and Airbus A330-300 jets.

Fiji Airways will reduce its frequency between the two cities for short periods from June to December.

Reductions (from 5 to 4 weekly)

  • June 5th to June 19th
  • July 3rd to August 14th
  • September 4th to September 25th
  • October 9th to November 13th
  • December 4th to December 11th

 

 

Fly91

The new Indian airline, which introduced its first ATR 72-600 in February, confirmed its first scheduled routes within the country.

Fly91 will have these connections:

Map by gcmap.com

 

The company’s first flight, between Goa Mopa (Manohar Airport), Bengaluru and Sindhudurg, was on March 18th.

FlyArystan

Effective June 3rd, the carrier plans to add its third destination in Uzbekistan. The flights, already listed in its booking system, will be conducted three times per week from/to Almaty, FlyArystan’s hub.

Almaty – Nukus

Monday

 

Wednesday and Saturday

 

Nukus – Almaty

Monday and Friday

 

Wednesday and Saturday

 

FlyArystan’s website schedules three weekly on the Almaty – Nukus route and four weekly on the Nukus – Almaty segment.

Hawaiian

The airline will increase its flights between Honolulu and Fukuoka on August 6th. According to its website, Hawaiian will boost from three to four services a week.

Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday

 

Monday, Wednesday and Friday

 

New flight on Wednesdays departing from Honolulu, and from Fukuoka on Thursdays.

Hawaiian routes to/from Japan

Map by gcmap.com

Honolulu

  • Fukuoka (FUK): 3 weekly · currently
  • Osaka (KIX): 7 weekly · Airbus A330
  • Tokyo (HND): 16 weekly · Airbus A330
  • Tokyo (NRT): 6 weekly · Airbus A330

 

Kona

  • Tokyo (HND): 3 weekly · Airbus A330

 

Hong Kong Airlines

As of March 31st, the carrier will expand its services on the Hong Kong – Tokyo Narita route, with the addition of a fourth daily flight. Hong Kong Airlines will operate with Airbus A320-200s and Airbus A330-300s with 174 and 292 seats respectively.

Daily

 

 

 

Daily · new flight

 

Cathay Pacific, Greater Bay Airlines, Jet Linx Aviation and HK express have services between the two airports, as well as Hong Kong Airlines.

IndiGo

The Indian low cost announced it will launch a new route to Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 12th. IndiGo will offer three weekly flights using Airbus A320-200 and Airbus A320neo aircraft.

Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

 

Currently, SriLankan Airlines and Vistara operate this route, with this schedule:

SriLankan

Daily except Monday and Tuesday

 

Daily except Wednesday and Thursday

 

Except Thursday and Friday · Daily

 

Vistara

Daily

 

On Wednesdays, flights take off from Mumbai at 08:10 and 11:50 from Colombo.

Jetstar

Effective March 27th, Jetstar will boost its operations between Sydney and Avarua, Cook Islands. The airline currently has three flights per week with the 238-seat Airbus A321neo.

Tuesday, Friday and Sunday

 

New flight on Wednesdays.

Jetstar’s international routes from Sydney to Oceania

Map by gcmap.com

Cook Islands

  • Avarua (RAR): 3 weekly · Airbus A321neo (currently)

 

Fiji

  • Nadi (NAN): 3 weekly · Airbus A321neo

 

New Zealand

 

Juneyao Airlines

The company confirmed the addition of two new international routes between April and May. These operations will be performed from/to Shanghai with Airbus A320-200 planes.

Map by gcmap.com

 

Helsinki, Hong Kong, Denpasar, Nagoya, Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo (Haneda and Narita), Macau, Singapore, Jeju, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Bangkok (Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi), Chiang Mai and Phuket are the international connections of Juneyao in Shanghai Pudong.

Qantas

The airline will commence services between Sydney and Port Moresby starting April 1st. In accordance with the Qantas reservation system, flights will be operated twice weekly with 174-seat Boeing 737-800 airplanes.

Monday and Friday

 

Port Moresby airport in a Qantas Boeing 767-300(ER) in 2005

Qantas already operates to Papua New Guinea from Brisbane:

Daily

 

SalamAir

The carrier will begin two new international connections from Muscat between May and June.

According to SalamAir’s website, New Delhi and Islamabad will be these routes, which will start on May 2nd and June 19th respectively.

New Delhi

Daily

 

Islamabad

Daily except Tuesday and Saturday

 

Daily except Wednesday and Sunday

 

As we announced in the European edition, Tirana, in Albania, will be a new destination for the company as of June 17th.

Starlux

Phu Quoc, Starlux’s new connection in Vietnam.

The airline will inaugurate flights from/to Taipei effective June 26th.

Daily except Tuesday and Saturday

 

Starlux in Vietnam

Map by gcmap.com

 

Thai AirAsia

The company will modify its services between Bangkok Don Mueang and Kaohsiung, with an extension to Tokyo Narita in both directions. These flights, which will maintain the same frequency, will start next June 16th.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

 

 

Tianjin

The Chinese carrier inaugurated two new routes between China and Seoul during early March. Services will be conducted using Airbus A320-200 jets, twice a week.

Yulin

Monday and Friday

 

Tuesday and Saturday

 

Linyi

Tuesday and Saturday

 

VietJet

The airline will launch a second route between Vietnam and Sydney effective June 8th.

In accordance with its website, VietJet will fly twice weekly to/from Hanoi with 326-seat Airbus A330-300 planes.

Wednesday and Saturday

 

Thursday and Sunday

 

Current VietJet routes in Australia

Map by gcmap.com
  • Adelaide (ADL) via PER: 5 weekly · Airbus A321
  • Brisbane (BNE): 5 weekly · Airbus A330
  • Melbourne (MEL): 7 weekly · Airbus A330
  • Perth (PER): 5 weekly · Airbus A321
  • Sydney (SYD): 7 weekly · Airbus A330

 

It will be VietJet’s first route between Hanoi and Australia.

Virgin Australia

In March, Virgin Australia introduced the Boeing 737 MAX 8 on three international routes from/to Brisbane.

Fiji, Indonesia and Samoa are the markets in the region that have added operations of the Australian carrier’s aircraft:

Map by gcmap.com

Fiji

  • Nadi (NAN): mix 738/7M8

 

Indonesia

 

Samoa

  • Apia (APW): operates only with Boeing 737 MAX

 

West Air

At 17:24 local time on Tuesday (12), China West Air’s inaugural flight from Changsha arrived in Vientiane. The carrier will operate three weekly flights on 180/186-passenger Airbus A320s until March 30th, at the time of publication.

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

 

During the last month, the Asian market, mainly, received the incorporation of many new jets.

The amount of brand new aircraft delivered from the factory is similar to the US-Canada market, as we could see in the edition published earlier this month.

Europe tends to receive many new airplanes, but less than the Asia/Oceania region. Meanwhile, in Latin America, the quantity is much lower.

These are the new aircraft added to Asian and Oceania airlines:

 

  • Air Busan

 

  • 9 Air

 

  • Air China

 

  • Air India x3 – Air India Express x3

 

  • All Nippon Airways x2

 

  • Cebu Pacific x2

 

  • Donghai Airlines x2

 

  • Hong Kong Airlines

 

  • IndiGo x2

 

  • Shandong Airlines

 

  • Silkavia

 

  • Starlux Airlines

 

  • Virgin Australia

 

  • Vistara x2

 

  • Xiamen Air

 

AircraftAirlineRegistrationFerry flightDate
Airbus A320-251NAir IndiaVT-RTKTLS-DELFeb 27th
Airbus A321-251NXHong Kong AirlinesB-KKEXFW-DWC-HKGFeb 27th
Airbus A320-251NIndiGoVT-IQYXFW-DELFeb 27th
Boeing 737 MAX 8Shandong AirlinesB-224RBFI-HNL-GUM-TNAFeb 28th
Boeing 737 MAX 8Donghai AirlinesB-224ABFI-JRF-GUM-SZXFeb 28th
Airbus A330-941Cebu PacificRP-C3905TLS-MNLMarch 1st
Airbus A350-941Starlux AirlinesB-58505TLS-TPEMarch 1st
Airbus A321-251NXAir BusanHL8525XFW-ALA-PUSMarch 2nd
Boeing 737 MAX 89 AirB-224VBFI-JRF-RUM-PVGMarch 3rd
Boeing 737 MAX 8Air ChinaB-223XBFI-HNL-GUM-PEKMarch 4th
Boeing 737 MAX 8Air India ExpressVT-BXLBFI-KEF-KWI-HYDMarch 5th
Airbus A320-251NAir IndiaVT-RTSTLS-DELMarch 7th
Boeing 737 MAX 8Xiamen AirB-224XBFI-HNL-GUM-XMNMarch 10th
Boeing 737 MAX 8Air India ExpressVT-BXNBFI-KEF-KWI-HYDMarch 12th
Airbus A321-271NXChina AirlinesB-18112XFW-DWC-BKK-TPEMarch 14th
Airbus A320-251NIndiGoVT-IQUTLS-DELMarch 14th
Boeing 737 MAX 8Donghai AirlinesB-224CBFI-HNL-GUM-SZXMarch 15th
ATR 72-600SilkaviaUK-76205TLS-SAT-TASMarch 15th
Airbus A350-941Air IndiaVT-JRETLS-DELMarch 16th
Boeing 787-9 DreamlinerAll Nippon AirwaysJA927APAE-HNDMarch 16th
Airbus A320-251NVistaraVT-TQXTLS-RKT-BLRMarch 16th
Boeing 787-10 DreamlinerAll Nippon AirwaysJA981ACHS-LAX-HNL-HNDMarch 19th
Boeing 737 MAX 8Air ChinaB-223YBFI-HNL-GUM*March 20th
Boeing 737 MAX 8Virgin AustraliaVH-8IDMLB-PHX-KOA-NOU-BNEMarch 20th
Airbus A321-271NXCebu PacificRP-C4142XFW-MCTMarch 20th
Airbus A320-251NVistaraVT-TQWTLS-RKT*March 21st
Boeing 737 MAX 8Air India ExpressVT-BXOBFI-KEF*March 21st

*The aircraft continues with the delivery flight.


To read the other reports we have published during March, you can click on the following links:

 


 

Cover photo: Music Home – JetPhotos (Shanghai, China).

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