Brisbane winter flights, capital's new Queenstown service and Singapore's chatbot

Winter flights boost for Auckland-Brisbane
The withdrawal of Emirates from all transtasman services next year is providing opportunities for other airlines. Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia have announced extra services on the Auckland-Brisbane route from next April. They will have up to five extra flights a week or an additional 38,000 seats. This up to 34 return services a week from April to October.

In addition, Virgin will be re-timing its weekday Auckland-Brisbane service to provide a better evening schedule, with the choice of departure times of 4:00pm, 6:00pm and 7:30pm. Air New Zealand chief revenue officer Cam Wallace says offering up to six daily return flights between Brisbane and Auckland next winter is a capacity boost of more than 10% compared with the corresponding period this year.”

Jetstar resumes Wellington-Queenstown
Jetstar will revive its Wellington-Queenstown service from the end of March. The three flights a week using A320 aircraft will depart on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings from March 27 and return mid-morning. Jetstar last operated this route four times a week in 2013 and it will be the fifth destination the airline runs from the capital.

Meanwhile, Air New Zealand has responded with the announcement it will boost capacity on the Wellington-Queenstown route by around 50% from April next year. This will come from an extra five A320 direct services a week, the equivalent of 38,000 extra one-way seats compared with the previous year. The new services will run between Thursday and Monday, taking the total number of jet services to 12 a week.  In addition, other services will use ATR turboprop aircraft.

United launches Tahiti flights
United Airlines will be the first US carrier to fly to Tahiti since Continental abandoned the route in 1988. The new service from San Francisco-Papeete will run three times a week from October 30, 2018, using a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. Continental, now part of United, previously operated a Houston-Los Angeles-Papeete-Auckland-Sydney routing with a DC10 from 1986-88.

Fiji restores Japan service
Fiji Airways will resume its service to Japan after suspending it in March 2009. The nonstop Nadi-Tokyo Narita route will operate three times a week from July 3, 2018, using an A330-200.

Have a chat with Kris
Singapore Airlines has introduced Kris, a beta chatbot, to its global Facebook page to answer pre-flight-related queries. Initially, he is trained to respond in English on baggage, check-in and online booking issues, as well as travelling with infants and children. He will be in constant learning mode and he capabilities will develop over time. Kris joins other chatbots, such as Air New Zealand’s Oscar, as airlines introduce artificial intelligence to their customer experiences. Air New Zealand has also added Google Assistant, a voice-based app, to its range.

Silk Air adds 737MAX to Cairns, Darwin
Silk Air has moved forward planned its planned Boeing 737 MAX 8 service to Australia from October 28, 2018, to early January. The Singapore-Darwin service, running five times a week, will start on January 7 while Singapore-Cairns, also five times weekly, starts on January 8. 

Malaysia makes changes to network
Malaysia Airlines has revamped most of its international routes by adding capacity and changing aircraft. The daily Kuala Lumpur-Auckland service will upgrade from an A330-300 to an A350-900 from August 5, 2018. Kuala Lumpur-Adelaide will increase from four to five times weekly from July 1, 2018, using an A330-300. Kuala Lumpur-Perth will resume on March 25 with a daily service using a B737-800, building to 12 times weekly by August 3, 2018. Other changes include replacing an A350-900 with an A380 on the daily Kuala Lumpur-London Heathrow service from July 20 to September 3, 2018, 

Further A380 production cuts?
Airbus is exploring plans to cut A380 superjumbo production to as low as six a year, industry sources have told Reuters. Airbus announced plans to lower A380 output to 12 aircraft in 2018 and eight in 2019, down from an annual peak of 30. The sources say plans to maintain that rate are in doubt as Airbus has yet to finalise an order for 36 A380s from Emirates.

Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines has announced 100 firm orders and 100 options for the Airbus A321neo. The deliveries are due to start in 2020 and Delta has opted for Pratt & Whitney engines. The deal comes as Delta is caught up in a dispute in which Boeing has accused Canada's Bombardier of earlier selling smaller jets to Delta at unfairly low prices. The US Commerce Department has tentatively recommended a 300% tariff on the import of those planes. That action in part prompted Airbus to assume majority control of a joint venture with Bombardier to build some of those planes at Airbus’ Alabama plant to circumvent those tariffs.

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