Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport

The A380 becomes mainstream, with 103 now in service: which airlines, destinations, stage lengths?

There are 103 A380s in service as of early May-2013. Emirates has 33 and Singapore Airlines has 19, so when assessing network scheduling, these two and their hubs predominate: of the 1,048 weekly A380 flights, 402 are from Emirates alone. Dubai and Singapore airport see the most A380 flights.

But there are some less predictable statistics. The airport to see the most A380 operators is Hong Kong followed by Paris and Los Angeles. The largest A380 destination that is not (yet) an A380-hub is London Heathrow. The UK and USA are the most common A380 destinations after Australia, Singapore and the UAE. Asia, not the Middle East, sees the most A380 flights; South America sees none. Guangzhou-Shanghai Pudong is the shortest A380 route at 1,202km while Los Angeles-Melbourne is the longest at 12,751km. Qantas and Lufthansa have the highest average sector length while Thai Airways is placing the most number of cycles – about two – on its aircraft per day. Qantas and Air France are placing the least (just over one).

American answers Delta’s expansion in Los Angeles with its own new push from LAX

American Airlines is joining its US legacy rival Delta during 2013 in making a push from Los Angeles International Airport, a strategic but highly fragmented market where no one carrier holds a dominant, commanding position. Presently United has a marginal edge over its two rivals in terms of seat share, but it appears that American and Delta are aiming to close that gap by adding new service from Los Angeles throughout the year.

Unlike Delta, which is launching service to some already-crowded markets from Los Angeles, American appears to be undertaking a different strategy, introducing service in markets served by only one other carrier. In some instances the only other competitor is Allegiant Air, which is a low-frequency operator whose business model is not built on competing with other airlines based on schedules. In other markets Delta is American’s lone competitor, introducing an interesting set of competitive dynamics into the Los Angeles market.

Delta remains bullish on foreign investments strengthening its bottom line but cost creep is a worry

Delta Air Lines in 2013 aims to narrow competitive network gaps with its US legacy rivals through the maturation of its cross-border investments in Aeromexico and Gol while laying the groundwork to strengthen its dominance in the strategic New York market. This after unveiling plans in Dec-2012 to bolster its position at London Heathrow through an equity stake in Virgin Atlantic.

As its major competitor United embarks on 2013 still in the throes of merger integration, and with a strong likelihood that American and US Airways will begin the complex process of combining their respective networks this year, Delta will continue to enjoy the revenue benefits of its long-ago completed merger with Northwest.

But Delta also has its own set of challenges to overcome including a spillover from 2012 of unit cost creep and proving to sceptics that its recently purchased oil refinery will live up to expectations. At the same time Delta’s stock price continues to underperform its peers, which could mean the airline still has to convince investors that its three-year profit streak has staying power.

Turkish Airlines plans further North American expansion with Houston and potentially Miami

Turkish Airlines is planning further expansion of its North American network, currently five destinations, with the recent announcement of plans to serve Houston from Apr-2013. The airline has also indicated it will commence services to Miami, Boston, Detroit and Atlanta as part of its near- to medium-term network expansion plan with Miami also likely to be launched in 2013.

The launch of new US routes comes after Turkish has used 2012 to take a break in opening more trans-Atlantic routes and instead focus on increasing frequencies to its existing North American destinations.

New Air New Zealand CEO Christopher Luxon values alliances as airline eyes Asia and US growth

Christopher Luxon, who next year will take over as Air New Zealand CEO from Rob Fyfe, sees growth opportunities in the carrier's flagship long-haul division. A critical component of that growth will be alliances and partnerships, which in the past three years have taken on greater prominence in ANZ. Short-term growth prospects are in North America, with Air New Zealand evaluating service to destinations like Denver and Houston, hubs for Star Alliance partner United. Medium- and long-term growth opportunities are in Asia Pacific, where partnerships will be even more critical to help ANZ's disadvantaged position of a higher cost base and end-of-line positioning.

Mr Luxon's appointment, effective 01-Jan-2013, fulfils Mr Fyfe's objective to have an internal candidate succeed him, but with Mr Luxon having been with ANZ for a mere 13 months, he also brings critical outside experience. He has been the general manager of ANZ's international division and previously worked for Unilever in Asia, Australia and North America. At 42 years old, he continues the region's theme of young CEOs: Qantas' Alan Joyce is 46 and Mr Fyfe was appointed CEO when he was 44.

New Denver-Tokyo 787 service to help boost United's sagging trans-Pacific performance

United’s plans to launch new flights from its Denver hub to Tokyo Narita Airport in Mar-2013 with its 219-seat Boeing 787 comes at fortuitous timing. While North Asia-North America traffic has been growing, primarily at the behest of Asian carriers, United is the best positioned of US carriers to take part in this growth since it achieves the highest trans-Pacific yields. Combined with anti-trust immunity with Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA), which is already showing benefits, and United's market leading position in the US, United will be able to grow the market.

Yet trans-Pacific yields are the lowest international ones for United, as it is with other US carriers. The trans-Pacific market does not have the strong corporate and leisure base of Europe or the VFR traffic of Latin America. With yield growth being more limited, the 787 will help the bottom line with its step change in efficiency, reducing costs. United will certainly not be the last carrier to take advantage of changing competitive dynamics.