Feature Airlines
Flying for the long haul
The Airbus A350-900 is among the
newest planes on Thai Airways’
longhaul fleet
SINGAPORE
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has embarked on
a three-year transformation programme,
with a strong focus on scaling up its digital
capabilities and capacity amid stiff com-
petition.
A significant step in its transformation
is the upcoming integration of SilkAir
into SIA, after the regional arm undergoes
significant upgrades of more than S$100
million (US$73 million) to its cabins, in-
cluding new lie-flat seats in business class
and the installation of seat-back in-flight
entertainment systems in both business
class and economy class.
These upgrades are expected to start
in 2020, which will ensure greater prod-
uct and service consistency across SIA
Group’s full-service network.
SIA plans to open up ultra-long-range
(ULR) services with its upcoming fleet of
A350-900ULR aircraft, starting with non-
stop flights between Singapore and Los
Angeles launched on November 2.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles service via
Seoul has ceased since November 30, but
the daily service to Los Angeles via Tokyo
remains. Los Angeles will be served 17
times per week by the airline.
SIA has also launched the world’s long-
est non-stop flights between Singapore
and New York on October 11, 2018. The
thrice-weekly service takes almost 19
hours on the new A350-900ULR, with no
economy class seating offered.
In adddition, SIA has also increased
its existing daily non-stop Singapore-San
Francisco services to 10 flights per week
from November 28. Its route to San Fran-
cisco via Hong Kong remains in operation.
These new developments have raised
SIA’s number of weekly non-stop flights
between Singapore and the US to 27 by
end-2018.
Coming up on SIA’s longhaul network
is Seattle, due to be launched on Sep-
tember 3, 2019 on the Airbus A350-900,
which will increase the carrier’s total US
frequency from 53 to 57 flights per week.
Other latest destinations added to SIA’s
longhaul network include non-stop ser-
vices from Singapore to San Francisco,
Dusseldorf and Stockholm via Moscow.
– Pamela Chow
THAILAND
Recent years have proven to be rather tu-
multuous for Thai Airways International,
as the carrier continues its plan launched
in April 2015 as part of a cost restructur-
ing effort while battling Thailand’s avia-
tion downgrades that limited its expan-
sion plans.
Things started looking up for Thai Air-
ways with ICAO’s removal of Thailand’s
red flag status in October 2017, giving the
carrier “more flexibility on route planning
for both longhaul and regional routes”,
commented the airline’s executive vice
president, commercial, Wiwat Piyawiroj.
Thai Airways expects the US Federal
Aviation Administration to upgrade Thai-
land to Category 1 in the near future,
which would pave the way for relaunch of
US routes for the carrier. The airline has
not operated services to the US since sus-
pending its Bangkok-Los Angeles service
in October 2015.
“Our plans for the US market are to
enhance codeshare cooperation with our
Star Alliance partners in order to offer an
expanded network for customers,” said
Wiwat.
Thai Airways passengers currently can
fly to 14 destinations in North America
London is a key destination in Europe that many Asian carriers fly to
From launching a long-
haul LCC to pushing the
limits of ultra-longhaul
flights, Asia’s full-service air-
lines are now riding the new generation of
fuel-efficient aircraft and robust passenger
demand to fly longer and farther than ever before
through the airline’s codeshare agree-
ments.
Europe, a key market for Thai Airways,
is meanwhile showing improved perfor-
mance as the European economy picks up.
“European travellers visiting Thai-
land in 2018 already showed an increase
of 7.5 per cent while in 2017 it was at 5.4
per cent,” Wiwat shared. “Our European
routes performed very well for the first
five months (in 2018), especially to Ger-
many for both Frankfurt and Munich, and
to the three Scandinavian destinations as
well as Zurich.”
He added: “No new destinations (in
Europe) are planned at the moment, as we
do not have sufficient aircraft for expan-
sion. Our strategy for now is to grow the
non-daily flights to daily for routes such as
Brussels, Vienna and the two Italian desti-
nations – Milan and Rome.”
Thai Airways’ longhaul fleet number
will be maintained for now, as its aircraft
acquisition plan is pending government
approval, Wiwat told the Daily. THAI
took delivery of seven aircraft in 2017,
comprising five Airbus A350-900s and
two Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
More recently in September 2018, the
Thai flag carrier has proposed a revised
turnaround plan to the State Enterprises
Policy Commission. – Xinyi Liang-Pho-
lensa
PHILIPPINES
Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) longhaul net-
work – comprising only six destinations
across the US, Canada and the UK – is get-
ting a much-needed boost with its current
fleet modernisation.
The carrier has six firm orders for Air-
bus A350-900 XWB, four of which have
been up for delivery starting June 2017
and two in mid-2019, with options for an
additional six.
The A350-900s are deployed on the
new non-stop flight from Manila to New
York's JFK Airport launched in October
and on the daily Manila-London (Heath-
row) service launched in October 2018.
The US is one of the Philippines’ big-
gest inbound markets served by PAL
through non-stop flights from Manila to
Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
The resumption of the nonstop flight
from Cebu to Los Angeles, which was
temporarily shelved due to the lack of big-
ger aircraft, is being considered.
PAL president and COO Jaime Bautista
said that “services to other points in North
America and/or Europe are expected to
follow as more aircraft join the fleet over
the next 12 months, including possible
routes to Seattle, Chicago and a point in
western Europe”.
The refleeting with “more innovations
and product refinements” is aligned with
(PAL’s) goal to be rated five-star on Skyt-
rax from the current four-star, Bautista
said.
Bautista said that PAL “will take in 27
new aircraft” starting with the new A350-
900s and the six A321neos for delivery un-
til 2019, two of which have already arrived
in Manila.
The A321neo is now in use for the Ma-
nila-Brisbane service launched in May last
year and has increased its weekly services
from three to five since July.
PAL is targeting an April 2019 four
times weekly nonstop flight between Ma-
nila and Delhi using its A321neo aircraft.
PAL has also configured its A330-343
aircraft to increase the overall capacity by
22 per cent to stimulate leisure and busi-
ness travel. The 414 seats were reduced to
309 for wider legroom and fewer seats on
each row, and cabin amenities enhanced.
Since June 2018, the thrice-weekly Ma-
nila-Auckland service is using the tri-class
A330-343 with 18 business class, 24 pre-
mium economy and 267 economy seats.
Other medium-haul destinations using
the reconfigured A330 include Honolulu,
Sydney and Melbourne. – Rosa Ocampo
INDONESIA
Following the lifting of the EU’s ban on
Indonesian airlines in June 2018, Eu-
rope is now coming into greater focus for
Garuda Indonesia as the carrier plots its
longhaul expansion strategy.
The airline has started to assess several