SAS to open new routes to Los Angeles and Miami

Scandinavian Airlines-SAS (Stockholm) is expanding and opening three new nonstop routes to USA in 2016. The new routes being launched are Los Angeles from Stockholm (Arlanda), Miami from Oslo and Miami from Copenhagen.

SAS is also increasing the number of departures from Stockholm (Arlanda) to New York (JFK) and Chicago (O’Hare) and between Copenhagen and Shanghai.

That means that SAS will now offer over 330,000 additional seats on its intercontinental routes in 2016.

The first flight to Los Angeles will depart on March 14, 2016 and SAS will have daily departures from Stockholm to Los Angeles throughout the summer season and five-six departures a week in the winter season.

The first flights to Miami are expected to depart in the fall of 2016 and the Miami route will have a daily departure from Scandinavia.

Timetable Stockholm Arlanda – Los Angeles

Daily departures from Arlanda (SK933) at 09.50 arriving in Los Angeles 12.15.
Daily departures from Los Angeles (SK934) at 14.15 arriving at Arlanda 10.00.

Timetable Copenhagen – Miami

Departures Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Copenhagen (SK953) 09.30 arriving in Miami 13.50.

Departures Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from Miami (SK954) 15.50 arriving in Copenhagen 07.10.

Timetable Oslo – Miami

Departures Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays from Oslo(SK955) 09.35 arriving in Miami 13.50.
Departures Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Miami (SK956) 15.50 arriving in Oslo 07.05.

Stockholm – Hong Kong, September 2015

In addition to the new routes, SAS is increasing the frequency of its long haul routes starting with the winter program. SAS will then offer daily flights on the following routes:

Copenhagen – Shanghai (two additional departures each week)
Stockholm – Chicago (one additional departure each week)
Stockholm – New York (one additional departure each week)
Oslo – New York (one additional departure each week)
Copenhagen – San Francisco (one additional departure each week)

These new long haul routes and additional departures mean SAS will now offer its customers over 330,000 more seats on its intercontinental routes in 2016. SAS currently offers long haul flights from Scandinavia to New York, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo.

SAS aircraft slide show:

Finnair to open 12 new routes for the summer of 2016 including Svalbard

Finnair (Helsinki) has announced its expansion for next summer:

Finnair is opening four new routes to Edinburgh, Billund, Pula and Svalbard for summer 2016.

Finnair will start flying to Edinburgh from April 18 to October 27, 2016.

Flights to Billund in Jutland, Denmark, will become a year round destination from April 4, 2016.

Finnair will continue to increase its Croatia service with two weekly flights between Helsinki and Pula, from June 20 to August 12, 2016.

Finnair will be the first airline to offer scheduled international services to Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. From June 1 to August 27, 2016 there will be three weekly flights from Helsinki to the northernmost airport in the world. Svalbard – located between Norway and the North Pole, is a land of untouched arctic wilderness.

In summer 2016, new scheduled flights will replace previously chartered flights to the Greek islands of Zakynthos, Skiathos, Santorini, Mytilene and Preveza. The same will apply to Rimini and Verona in Italy and to Varna in Bulgaria.

Finnair will also increase the number of flights to the popular summer destinations of Malta, Tel Aviv in Israel and to Biarritz and Nice in France. Malta was a new destination this summer and there has been a high demand from Finland and Asia, so an extra weekly flight will be added for summer 2016.

Copyright Photo: AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-214 OH-LXI (msn 1989) taxies to the gate at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Finnair aircraft slide show:

American Airlines announces Los Angeles – Havana charter flights

American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth) and Cuba Travel Services plan to operate the first charter flights between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Jose Marti International Airport (HAV) in Havana later this year, providing travelers the only nonstop service connecting the West Coast to Cuba since travel restrictions were eased.

American’s new charter service between Los Angeles and Havana will be sold by Cuba Travel Services and will operate on Saturdays beginning on nDecember 12 with Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

In addition, American will operate a Saturday flight between Miami International Airport and Havana, also sold by Cuba Travel Services.

American has operated charter flights to Cuba since 1991. With these additions, American will offer 22 weekly flights from Miami, Tampa and Los Angeles to five destinations in the country: Camaguey, Cienfuegos, Havana, Holguin and Santa Clara. This year, American will operate approximately 1,200 charter flights to Cuba, more than any other airline. American also is the leading carrier to the Caribbean with up to 150 daily flights to more than 30 destinations.

With the addition of Havana, American will have launched nine international flights from its LAX hub this year. Additions include a second daily flight to London’s Heathrow Airport; Vancouver, Canada; Belize City, Belize; Guadalajara, Mexico City and Mazatlan, Mexico; Sydney (pending regulatory approvals) and Tokyo-Haneda (pending Japanese government approval).

Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-823 N823NN (msn 29560) departs from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

American Airlines aircraft slide show (current livery):

Hawaiian Airlines’ new safety video

Hawaiian Airlines (Honolulu) has issued their new safety video which shows off the beauty of the islands:

Aloha a mahalo i kēia kipa ‘ana mai! (Aloha and welcome aboard!) Sit back, relax and let our ‘ohana take you on a journey through some of our favorite spots in Hawai‘i in our new in-flight safety video.

Bangkok Air raises the security level at Bangkok, second quarter profit rises over 131%

Bangkok Airways (Bangkok Air) (Bangkok) has issued this statement following a terrorist bombing on Monday (August 17) at the Erawan shrine in Bangkok. 21 people died in the bomb blast. According to the Bangkok Post, 23 nations have now issued travel warnings for travel to Thailand. Here is the statement by the airline:

Bangkok Airways PCL has increased its security measures to ensure passengers’ highest safety.

Mr. Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, President of Bangkok Airways PCL commented,

“on behalf of everyone at Bangkok Airways, we would like to express our deepest condolences to those who have been affected by this unfortunate event.”

“However, we are monitoring the situation closely and have been cooperating with the Airport Authority of Thailand (AOT) to raise security measures at Suvarnabhumi Airport, all destination airports and at the airline’s own airports (Samui, Sukhothai and Trat) to a higher level to ensure the safety of its passengers and its staffs.”

“Bangkok Airways is in normal operations”, added Mr. Puttipong.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

In other news, the company issued it operating results for the second quarter:

Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited announced its operating results for the second quarter of 2015 which has amounted to a net profit of 102.2 million baht ($2.8 million); up by 131.8 percent from the same period of the previous year.

Mr. Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, President of Bangkok Airways PCL commented that, “In the second quarter, total revenue of the company was 5,563.4 million baht, increased by 12.9 percent from the same period in the previous year. Net profit was reported at the amount of 102.2 million baht, mainly based on higher average fare and higher number of passengers. Available Seat Kilometers (ASK) ascended by 4.3 percent; our load factor was at 59.9 percent for this quarter. For the first six-month period, the company received total revenue of 12,297.3 million baht in which net profit was reported at 1,188.9 million baht.”

Mr. Puttipong continues, “The number of passengers of Bangkok Airways increased by 5.6 percent for the second quarter of 2015 in which our main market, Asia, particularly East Asia, has the highest growth. Despite the slow growth of Europeans traveling to Thailand, excluding the Russian, the company was able to maintain the sale growth from this market comparing to last year. The top 3 countries that the number of passenger has still been growing are Germany, United Kingdom and France.”

“In addition to that, Bangkok Airways has increased flight frequencies on Samui-Singapore route to 10 flights per week, and Samui-Kuala Lumpur route to 11 flights per week starting from 29 March 2015.

The additional frequencies adhere with our business strategy are to establish Samui airport as our second hub, followed by Suvarnnabhumi airport and to expand our route network in order to serve our codeshare partners from Australia and Southwest Pacific. During the second quarter, the company has entered into a codeshare agreement with Jet Airways which added our frequencies on Bangkok-Mumbai route from 1 flight to 3 flights per day. This certainly has provided more choices to the passengers as well as to increase the efficiency of our routes.” Mr. Puttipong added.

Recently, BA stocks has been added to numerous indexes which are MSCI Global Small Cap Indexes (effective since 29 May 2015.), FTSE SET Mid Cap index (effective since 22 June 2015), SET50 and SET100 indexes for the second half of 2015 (1 July – 31 December.) This helps make BA more known amongst investors around the world.

Currently, Bangkok Airways has a total of 29 aircrafts; 10 of turbo-prop ATR72-500/600s, 19 of Airbus A319s/A320s. The company will take delivery of another 2 to 3 aircrafts by the end of 2015 to serve high travel demands in the up-coming high season.

Copyright Photo: Richard Vandervord/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-232 HS-PGW (msn 2509) in the special Samui scheme taxies at Phuket.

Bangkok Air aircraft slide show:

ANA announces two new Star Wars™ themed logo jets

ANA (All Nippon Airways) (Tokyo) is building on its previous R2-D2 Star Wars Boeing 787-9 logo jet announcement, with this follow-up announcement announcing two additional Star Wars logo jets:

ANA, Japan’s largest airline, today announced that two more of its planes will be decorated with Star Wars characters as part of an agreement with The Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd. BB-8, a brand new character from Star Wars: The Force Awakens scheduled for theatrical release in December 2015, will be displayed on the livery of the BB-8™ ANA Jet, a Boeing 777-300 ER (below).

Image: ANA.

ANA also announced the Star Wars™ ANA Jet, which will showcase both BB-8 and R2-D2 on the outside of a Boeing 767-300 (below). These Star Wars themed planes will join the previously announced R2-D2™ ANA Jet, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. Through this combination of characters, ANA hopes to welcome more passengers of all ages from around the world.

Image: ANA.

ANA launched the Star Wars Project in April 2015 after signing a five year promotion license contract for the Star Wars brand with The Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd. As part of the agreement, the ANA Star Wars planes’ will also display in-flight decorations, such as headrest covers, paper napkins and cups featuring Star Wars characters – more details will be announced at a later date. The partnership also means ANA will be the only airline in the world to offer all six of the currently released Star Wars films as part of its extensive in-flight entertainment options on international routes. This will be the first time that any of the Star Wars movies have been included as part of an in-flight entertainment system.

The three Star Wars™ Jets will fly international and domestic routes. On October 18, the R2-D2™ ANA Jet is scheduled to go into service on international routes, initially as flight NH116 between Tokyo and Vancouver, and then fly between Japan and other cities in ANA’s robust international network including the US (Seattle and San Jose), Europe (Munich, Paris and Brussels), Australia (Sydney), China (Beijing), and Indonesia (Jakarta).

In November, the Star Wars™ ANA Jet will fly domestic Japanese routes, and then in March 2016 the BB-8™ ANA Jet is scheduled to start serving international routes principally between Japan and North America (the exact routes have yet to be announced)[3]. Fans will be able to see the planes’ schedules at www.ana-sw.com.

ANA aircraft slide show:

IndiGo firms up its order for 250 Airbus A320neo aircraft – Airbus’ largest order by number

Airbus (Toulouse) has issued this statement about IndiGo (Delhi) by firming up its large Airbus A320neo Family order:

India’s largest domestic airline by market share, IndiGo celebrated their 9th birthday by firming up their last year’s commitment and ordering 250 A320neo Family aircraft. This historical aircraft purchase agreement was signed on the 69th Independence Day of India on the 15th of August, 2015.

IndiGo placed an order in 2005 for 100 A320s which have all now been delivered. In 2011 IndiGo became the first Indian operator to commit to the A320neo bringing their total to 280 Airbus aircraft. With today’s announcement, IndiGo has ordered 530 A320 Family aircraft with Airbus.

The A320neo “new engine option” incorporates many innovations, including latest generation engines and large Sharklet wing-tip devices, which together deliver 15 percent in fuel savings from day one and 20 per cent by 2020. This is equivalent to a reduction of 5,000 tonnes of CO2 per aircraft per year.

Image: Airbus.

IndiGo aircraft slide show:

Virgin Australia launches its new Airbus A330 Business Class suites

Virgin Australia Airlines (Brisbane) today (August 17) launched its new Airbus A330 Business Class suites (above), according to the airline, “setting a new standard in domestic business class around the world.”

Virgin Australia continued:

Virgin Australia’s new wide-body Business Class experience, ‘The Business’, will be available on its entire Airbus A330 fleet at the end of October.

Key features include:

The world’s longest and widest fully lie-flat bed in domestic business class (above);
Reverse herringbone cabin layout, maximising privacy and enabling 100 per cent direct aisle access in a 1-2-1 configuration;
The latest in in-flight comfort, with ample space to multi-task, customised triple-layer seat cushion supported by a hammock sub-frame and a turndown service with memory foam mattress toppers and high-grade cotton pillows and doonas;
High Definition 16″ touch screens featuring the Virgin Australia Entertainment seatback system with an enhanced graphical user interface;
Individualized, award-winning service from dedicated Virgin Australia cabin crew;
A restaurant-style, hand-delivered fine dining experience enabling guests to dine when they want, with new Luke Mangan-designed menus and premium Australian wines; and
A world-first collaboration with Nespresso which aims to deliver the finest coffee in the sky.
Virgin Australia Chief Executive Officer John Borghetti said: “Today, Virgin Australia has once again changed the game in domestic business class travel.

“Later this year, Virgin Australia will change the game again with the launch of its new long-haul Business Class on our Boeing 777 flights to Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi.

The new 1-2-1 seating configuration will ensure every guest has 100 per cent direct aisle access and ample privacy to work, rest and unwind. A new turndown service with memory foam mattress topper, large pillows and a doona has been designed to ensure guests arrive at their destination feeling refreshed and recharged. For guests travelling in pairs, the centre suites include a sliding privacy screen that can be opened or closed.

In addition to the physical transformation, an enhanced restaurant-style meal service (above) with new Luke Mangan menus has been designed, enabling guests to dine whenever they choose. For guests wishing to maximise the time to work and rest while on board, a new ‘Express Dining’ option is available.

The suites, originally inspired by the interiors of some of the world’s most premium automotive designs, were customised in conjunction with renowned design agency, Tangerine London, Virgin Australia Creative Director Hans Hulsbosch, of leading brand agency Hulsbosch, and manufactured by B/E Aerospace.

New long-haul Business Class suites, a redesigned Business Class bar and a new Premium Economy cabin will be progressively introduced on the airline’s Boeing 777 fleet of aircraft, which will commence reconfiguration in November and fly to Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles.

NEW AIRBUS A330 BUSINESS CLASS FEATURES

Individual suites in a 1-2-1 seat configuration which convert into the longest and widest domestic fully lie-flat bed (Length: 80” Width: 28”)
Reverse herringbone cabin layout, maximising privacy and enabling 100% direct aisle access in a 1-2-1 configuration;
Retractable privacy screen dividing centre seats.
Simply tailored, hopsack seat upholstery with leather head and arm rests and customised triple-layer seat cushion supported by a hammock sub-frame.
Unique tablet holder specifically designed for Virgin Australia as well as dedicated side console that expands your workspace with high power USB and universal power socket.
Three types of adjustable lighting including reading light, soft ambient lamp and brighter overhead light.
High Definition 16″ touch screens with an enhanced graphical user interface for the Virgin Australia Entertainment seatback system and 400 hours of entertainment.
Enhanced restaurant-style, hand-delivered fine dining service enabling guests to dine when they want with new Luke Mangan-designed menus, new table linen and Virgin Australia’s iconic Opera House salt and pepper shakers
Turndown service by Cabin Crew with memory foam mattress toppers and high-grade cotton pillows and doonas, day blanket and pillow for daytime services.
Amenity kit featuring REN cosmetics.

All Photos: Virgin Australia. “Introducing the world’s longest and widest fully lie-flat bed in domestic business class. Today the first of our A330 aircraft with our new business class suites takes to the air. The new look features the world’s longest and widest fully lie-flat bed in domestic business class, restaurant style dining designed by Luke Mangan, and a world-first collaboration with Nespresso to deliver the finest coffee in the sky.”

Virgin Australia aircraft slide show:

Lion Air takes delivery of its 150th Boeing Next-Generation 737

Boeing delivers Lion Air’s 150th 737

Lion Air (Jakarta) started passenger operations on June 30, 2000 with one Boeing 737-200. Today the fast-growing Indonesian carrier along with Boeing is celebrating the delivery of the 150th Next-Generation 737. Lion Air is now the largest privately-owned airline in Indonesia.

Photos: Jim Anderson/Boeing via Randy’s Journal. The pictured Boeing 737-8GP PK-LPJ (msn 39869) wears a special logo to celebrate the milestone. PK-LPJ was handed over to the airline on August 14.

Lion Air aircraft slide show:

Boeing delivers Lion Air’s 150th 737

Trigana Air Service ATR 42-300 with 54 people on board is missing in Indonesia

Trigana Air Service (Jakarta) flight TGN 267 with 49 passengers and five crew members on board and operating between Jayapura to Oksibil in Papua, eastern Indonesia has gone missing today (August 16). The airliner is now overdue and is feared to have crashed in the remote area. The flight was operated with an ATR 42-300 registered as PK-YRN (msn 102). The flight crew lost radio contact with ATC before 1500 (3 pm) local time after taking off from Sentani Airport at Papua’s regional capital of Jayapura (see the map below).