Kuala Lumpur International 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).

Jetstar Group concentrates on its Singapore hub as Jetstar Asia increases focus on Southeast Asia

This is the third report in a three-part series on Jetstar’s Singapore-based operations, which includes Jetstar Asia, Jetstar Airways and Valuair. The first two reports analysed Jetstar’s position in two key markets, Singapore-Indonesia and Singapore-China. This report looks at other markets and Jetstar’s overall outlook in Singapore.

Over the last year Jetstar has slowed down fleet and ASK expansion from Singapore after a period of rapid capacity growth for all of the country’s major LCCs, intensifying competition and impacting profitability. Seat capacity, however, has continued to grow rapidly as Jetstar Asia has increased its focus on short-haul Southeast Asian markets, particularly Malaysia, while decreasing its focus on medium-haul flights to North Asia, particularly mainland China.

In the coming months Jetstar Asia/Valuair will take two more A320s for a total of 20 aircraft, with the additional capacity once again being allocated to short-haul markets, primarily neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia.

Nepalese international market could see growth as BB expands and Nepal Airlines renews fleet

Nepalese start-up BB Airways aims to pursue significant expansion of its international network following a restructuring which will see the carrier replace a wet-leased Boeing 757 with two dry-leased Airbus A320s. The carrier, which launched services in Sep-2012, has had a relatively slow initial seven months but has an ambitious plan to exploit the expected rapid growth of the Nepalese international market with a focus on migrant worker traffic.

Nepal is a small but underserved market with huge potential. Foreign carriers dominate the market, exploiting the weakness of flag carrier Nepal Airlines, which recently committed to renewing its small fleet in 2015 but is unlikely to grow significantly. If it succeeds at rapidly expanding and overcoming initial challenges, BB could soon become Nepal’s largest carrier.

Xiamen Airlines, China's fourth largest domestic airline, aims to surpass 20m pax in 2013

Privately-owned carrier Xiamen Airlines has regained its position as China's fourth largest airline after a drop in capacity in 2H2012 and early 2013 when measured on available domestic and seat capacity and frequency. This places Xiamen as the world's 27th largest airline by seat capacity – larger than perhaps better-known carriers including KLM, Korean Air and Cathay Pacific. While those carriers eclipse Xiamen when weighing available seat kilometres, Xiamen as the 51st largest on ASKs is still larger than Air New Zealand, Finnair or Vueling.

This strong domestic carrier – 94% of seat capacity is within mainland China – will accelerate growth of its small international footprint by adding services around Southeast Asia following its ascension to SkyTeam in late 2012. But the domestic Chinese market remains its focus, and Xiamen will use many of the 15 737-800s it is receiving this year to grow its presence around its namesake home of Xiamen. Despite the name connection, Xiamen Airlines has more capacity outside of Xiamen than it does to or from the city. In 2013 Xiamen Airlines aims to break the 20 million threshold for annual passengers carrier, and also carry over 200,000 tons of cargo and mail.

Lion's Malindo breaks AirAsia-MAS duopoly in Malaysian domestic market. Next stop: Delhi...and Asia

Lion Air Group affiliate Malindo launched services on 22-Mar-2013 with seven daily flights spread across Malaysia’s two largest domestic routes – Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. With its hybrid business model and low fares, Malindo will impact both AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines (MAS), which were previously the only two carriers on domestic trunk routes within Malaysia.

Malindo is planning rapid domestic and international expansion, leveraging Lion’s huge order book for 737s. India is poised to become Malindo’s first international destination with service to Delhi starting in Jun-2013, exploiting a market which is under-served due to cuts last year at AirAsia X. Several planned destinations in India and China will allow Malindo to increase aircraft utilisation and tap into the lucrative Malaysia-India and Malaysia-China markets. It also seeks to tap the fast-growing Indonesia-India and Indonesia-China markets, which Malindo will serve by offering connections to Lion.

Malaysia Airlines 2013 outlook clouded by increasing competition and launch of Malindo

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) faces a challenging 2013 as low-cost carrier competition intensifies in the Southeast Asian market. The new oneworld member is back in the black, having posted profits for 3Q2012 and 4Q2012. But MAS remained in the red for the full year and will struggle to meet its goal of returning to full year profitability in 2013.

MAS operates in a highly competitive home market, competing against AirAsia on a majority of its routes. Competition will intensify after new Lion Air Group affiliate Malindo launches services in late Mar-2013, becoming the second LCC in the Malaysian market. Meanwhile challenges remain on long-haul routes, where MAS one year ago reduced capacity significantly as part of a new business plan, due to rising fuel prices and unfavourable global economic conditions.