6.3.2019 TTG Show Daily ITB Berlin 17
destinations in Europe, with the Jakarta-
Paris route scheduled for launch in winter
2019, while it has increased the Jakarta-
Amsterdam service from six-times weekly
to daily in November 2018.
Garuda Indonesia has restarted its
Jakarta-London Heathrow direct services
on December 13, after suspending the
service on October 29. The thrice-weekly
flights will utilise the Boeing 777-300ER,
and will offer two classes.
Ari Askhara, president director of
Garuda Indonesia, said in a statement that
the reopening of the route was made pos-
sible following the company’s cost struc-
ture management.
“The reopening of the service is also
part of Garuda’s move to develop the
international route network, especially
when the Indonesia to UK traffic is grow-
ing in line with the UK market to Indone-
sia,” Ari said.
Garuda Indonesia has introduced two
new options in the economy class for pas-
sengers “to rest more comfortably” dur-
ing their longhaul flights – the Economy
Sleeping Comfort (ESCort) and Premium
Seats – available on its London-Denpasar
and Jakarta-London routes.
ESCort seats allow passengers to lie
down during the longhaul flight on one
economy row, with a mattress, pillow, du-
vet and blanket provided. Other benefits
in the ticket class include free baggage
allowance of up to 40kg, business class
meal and amenity kit, priority baggage
handling, Wi-Fi voucher worth US$5 and
mileage accrual at 200 per cent.
Meanwhile, premium economy passen-
gers will enjoy more seat space as one ad-
jacent seat would be cleared. A duvet, free
baggage allowance of up to 40kg, busi-
ness class meal and amenity kit, priority
baggage handling, Wi-Fi voucher worth
US$5, and mileage accrual at 150 per cent
will also be included.
JAPAN
Japan Airlines (JAL), the nation’s flag car-
rier, has announced a dramatic departure
from its long-held aversion to operating a
LCC and will commence commercial op-
erations with a new budget airline from
Tokyo’s Narita International Airport from
summer 2020, ultimately targeting long-
haul travellers.
“The company decided to establish a
new carrier to accommodate a new gener-
ation of visitors who are expected to visit
Japan heading into 2020 and beyond,” Tet-
suya Onuki, managing executive officer of
JAL’s international route marketing divi-
sion, told the Daily.
“JAL currently has a LCC investment in
Jetstar Japan, which is an airline built on a
business plan featuring shorthaul routes,”
said Onuki. “On the other hand, the new
LCC business will focus on medium- to
longhaul international routes.
The as yet unnamed airline will initially
operate Boeing 787-8 aircraft in order to
rival similar LCCs on regional routes be-
fore spreading its wings into Europe and
the Americas, Onuki added.
In the past summer season, JAL oper-
ated 140 flights a week between the Amer-
icas and Japan, as well as 42 from Euro-
pean destinations and a further 14 from
Australasian cities, giving a total of 392
round-trips per week between Japan and
longhaul destinations.
The latest addition to the company’s
longhaul repertoire was the September
2017 launch of daily flights to Melbourne,
a result of growing demand on the route
thanks to the Japan-Australia Economic
Partnership Agreement of 2015.
In FY2019, JAL will seasonally increase
flights between Tokyo (Narita) and Chi-
cago (O’Hare) from June 8 to September
3, 2019, featuring 11 flights per week.
On flights between Osaka (Kansai) and
Los Angeles, JAL will now feature full-flat
seats in business class, in addition to the
introduction of premium economy class
service with the JAL Sky Suite 787-9 air-
craft.
On its existing longhaul routes, JAL op-
erates the Boeing 777-300ER, 777-200ER,
787-8 or 787-9 aircraft for the “technical
advantages” available on the aircraft.
The carrier began rolling out the JAL
Sky Suite in 2013 to enhance the passen-
ger experience, featuring top-of-the-range
options including wider seats in economy
class. – Julian Ryall
HONG KONG
Barely two years since the airline began
its transformation campaign, Cathay Pa-
cific (CX) has launched non-stop routes
to a slew of longhaul destinations served
by the Airbus A350 fleet, including Bar-
celona, Brussels, Christchurch, Copenha-
gen, London-Gatwick, Tel Aviv, and most
recently, Dublin.
Frequencies on several of the airline’s
most popular routes, including Barce-
lona and Tel Aviv, were also boosted in
2018.
A spokesperson said: “One of the goals
of (CX’s) transformation is to find new
Premium economy seats on board Singapore Airlines' aircraft
sources of revenue by flying to destina-
tions that people want to visit and con-
necting Hong Kong directly to new places
for the first time. Examples include Tel
Aviv, Barcelona, Christchurch, Brus-
sels, Copenhagen, Washington DC, Cape
Town, Nanning and Jinan, Medan and
Davao, etc.
According to the airline's spokesper-
son, CX opened a record nine new desti-
nations in 2018. In addition to the desti-
nations already launched so far last year,
i.e. Brussels (March), Copenhagen (May)
and Dublin (June), the airline has also
commenced flights to Washington DC
and Cape Town in September and No-
vember respectively last year.
As of June 2018, CX and Cathay Drag-
on have a combined fleet of 195 aircraft.
Of the 78 new aircraft expected to be
delivered by 2024, the airline received
its first A350-1000 aircraft in June, with
a total of eight A350-1000s delivered in
2018.
CX chief customer and commercial of-
ficer, Paul Loo, said: “We already have one
of the youngest longhaul fleets in the sky,
and with the arrival of the Airbus A350-
1000, our fleet is only going to get young-
er. The aircraft follows the successful entry
of the -900 variant which has enabled us
to expand our longhaul network at an un-
precedented rate, providing our custom-
ers with a wider range of non-stop travel
choices.”
The remaining 12 A350-1000 order
will arrive by 2021. After initial rounds
of regional services, starting with Taipei
on July 1, 2018, the new Washington DC
service has been launched on September
25 on the A350-1000, which at 8,153 miles
(13,121km) makes it the longest on the
airline’s network. – Prudence Lui
MALAYSIA
Amid concerns of volatile fuel prices and
unfavourable foreign exchange move-
ments, Malaysia Airlines does not have
plans to introduce any new longhaul
routes or add capacity on existing routes.
It will instead focus on marketing the pre-
mium segment, maintain a strong focus
on cost management and invest in im-
proving customer experience that deliver
a competitive edge.
On January 15, 2018, the airline re-
placed its Airbus A380 operations with
the more fuel-efficient A350-900 on the
twice-daily Kuala Lumpur-London sec-
tor.
The 486-seat A380 was deemed too
large for optimal efficiency on the London
route and hence the airline made a deci-
sion to reduce capacity by over 40 per cent
with the smaller A350-900 aircraft fitted
with 286 seats.
London is currently the only destina-
tion in Europe the airline flies to, while it
depends on the Oneworld alliance mem-
ber airlines to connect to the rest of Eu-
rope and North America.
The airline had suspended flights to
Los Angeles in April 2014, Frankfurt in
April 2015, Amsterdam and Paris in Janu-
ary 2016, as part of a route rationalisation
exercise to stem losses.
Malaysia Airlines has relaunched four-
times weekly flights from Kuala Lumpur
to Brisbane on June 1, 2018. This route
had previously been axed from the net-
work in 2015 amid a network rationalisa-
tion exercise. – S Puvaneswary
EXPERIENCE THE WONDER S OF SOU THE A ST A SIA
WWW.ASEANTOURISM.TRAVEL