Since there were not many new route announcements from Oneworld and Skyteam I combined them into one entry for this week.
Oneworld:
Royal Jordanian since December 16th had begun 4x/week service from Amman to Nairobi. The routes will be served by A319’s.
Skyteam:
CSA Czech Airlines on December 18 restarted its route between Prague (PRG) and Baku (GYD), Azerbaihan. Service will be 1x/week and the A320 aircraft will fly the route.
After being able to confirm that I can gather new route updates on a weekly basis, I will begin a regularly scheduled posting that will summarize new carrier route updates for the 3 major alliances and other key airlines as they are announced.
I’ll start with the Star Alliance first (because I have to figure out who the other alliances are comprised of 🙂 ). I will move on to the other alliances in subsequent posts.
Star Alliance Route Updates:
All Nippon Airways (ANA) on December 16 started service from Osaka (ITM) to Akita (AXT). This route will operate 2x/day and be served by Dash-8 aircraft.
Asiana Airlines has recently restarted its third route to Vietnam on 14 December. This newly restarted route will connect Seoul (ICN) and Da Nang (DAD). The service will be 2x/week and flown by A321 aircraft. Its a seasonal The new operation is seasonal and scheduled until 25 February. The last time the airline operated the route was July-August 2008. Asiana already serves both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam.
BMIbaby (BMI) started 2 seasonal ski destination routes to the Alps. Effective on December 16, BMIbaby will operate 2x/week between East Midlands (EMA) and Chambery (CMF). Also effective on December 16 is 2x/week service between Belfast (BHD) and Geneva (GVA). The routes will be flown by their 737’s.
Egyptair Express has launched 2x/week service between Alexandria, Egypt (HBE) and Athens, Greece (ATH). The route will be flown by Embraer E-170 aircraft.
Turkish Airlines is expanding it services to Libya by introducing a new route between Istanbul Atatürk (IST) and Misrata (MRA). Currently this new service is 4x/week but effective in January service will be daily.
United Express on December 15 has initiated a seasonal route between San Diego (SAN) and Mammoth Lakes (MMH). Service will be daily. In addition 4x/week service began on December 16 between Santa Ana/Orange County (SNA) and Mammoth Lakes (MMH). The route will be served by CRJ-700’s.
On Friday 23 December Airbus delivered the first fuselage component for the new A350XWB to its facility in Toulouse, France. Assembly of the first A350 will be early next year and will be used solely for testing of systems and structures. The first A350 will never feel the wind beneath her wings. This airframe (#MSN 5000) will be used to verify all of the engineering that took place on computers prior to the manufacture of the aircraft. The first actual airframe that will be flight tested will be MSN1 which will begin final assembly in the 2nd quarter of 2012.
Airbus currently has firm orders for 567 of the A350 which is available in -800, -900 and -1000 variants.
The launch airline, Qatar Airways is planning to put the A350 into service sometime during middle of 2014.
Below are photos of the airframe being delivered to the Toulouse assembly facility (Courtesy of Airbus):
