Carry On: Thai flights grounded, Air NZ expansion, new A350 routes and more

Thai charter flights banned on safety grounds
China has joined Korea and Japan in stopping Thailand-based airlines from flying charters and new routes because of safety concerns highlighted by an international audit. The halt is disrupting the peak travel season around the Thai New Year holiday. About 100 charter flights to Japan alone have been cancelled and some 30,000 tickets either refunded or modified..

The move is a further a blow to Thai carriers, which have just begun to recover after a poor 2014 when political protests slashed the number of tourists. Thai Airways International, the national carrier which is in the midst of a major restructuring, has also been prevented from expanding because of the halt.

Air New Zealand further boosts long-haul routes
Air New Zealand’s latest schedule boosts the Auckland-Vancouver service to daily for a longer period in the northern winter. It had previously planned to operate daily service from December 21 to January 31 has been expanded to an eight-week period from December 7 to January 31. The Auckland-Tokyo Narita service will move from daily to 10 weekly from December 3 to March 26. Three of these services that used to land first in Christchurch from Tokyo have been cancelled. Air New Zealand also plans to begin its daily Boeing 787-9 operation on the Auckland-Singapore route from November 16.

Qatar puts second A350 on Doha-Frankfurt run
Qatar Airways now has the first two of its new-generation Airbus A350XWB aircraft but is only using them only on the Doha-Frankfurt route, boosting it from to a twice-daily service.  It is also planning three daily A350 flights to Singapore, a longer flight than Frankfurt.

Other early A350 routes include Auckland
Meanwhile, Singapore may be the first airport to see two A350 operators when Finnair commences its A350 service there after other Asian points. Vietnam Airlines will launch its A350 service to Paris CDG while Cathay Pacific may make Auckland an early A350 destination. A350 configurations range from 280 to 305 seats. No airline has first class (yet) and business class seat counts range from 29 to 46, with business class comprising 10-15% of total seats.

Chinese airline expands to Africa, Auckland expansion trimmed
Air China is resuming its service to Ethiopia after 21 years. From October 26 it will operate a three-times-weekly flight on the Beijing-Addis Ababa route with Airbus A330-200 aircraft. This will be the carrier’s second nonstop route to Africa, after Johannesburg, (to be launched on August 30). China Southern has extended its Guangzhou-Auckland
daily Boeing 777-300ER service until June 19. It will then operate an A330-200 from June 19. The three-times weekly Boeing 787-8 service will operate until May 31 when an A330-200 will take over. The
planned service increase from 10 to 14 weekly from August 1 has been cancelled.