AIRLINE NEWS

AIR INDIA will introduce a non-stop link between London and New York (Newark) from August 15, as a fifth-freedom service that originates from Ahmedabad. ASIANA AIRLINES will increase the frequency of its non-stop Seoul Incheon– Delhi service from three to five times weekly on July 3. Flight times will remain the same. CATHAY PACIFIC’S newly delivered A350 will begin services to Düsseldorf on September 1 and London Gatwick on September 2. Later in the year the fuel-efficient aircraft will be deployed to Auckland (October 30), Paris and Rome (both October 31). CHINA AIRLINES’ first A350 has been delayed until September, due to a backlog of aircraft at Airbus’s final assembly plant. The aircraft was originally scheduled for delivery in July. EVA AIR will launch a four-times-weekly service between Taipei Taoyuan and Chicago O’Hare on November 2. JAPAN AIRLINES has started codesharing on Alaska Airlines services departing from its California gateways, plus Vancouver. JET AIRWAYS will make its Mumbai– Singapore route an all-widebody service in August, when an A330-200 will be used for both its daily flights. SCOOT has started operations to India, with flights from Singapore to Chennai and Amritsar. Flights are served with the B7878 Dreamliner. SINGAPORE AIRLINES has started flying its A350 to Johannesburg. The aircraft currently serves the route on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, but the frequency will be progressively increased to cover all seven weekly flights. VIETJET AIR has signed a deal for 100 B737 Max 200 aircraft – the largest by any Vietnamese airline – and expects to start taking delivery from 2019.