Jetstar partners with Pacific carriers, Emirates backs A380 and more

Jetstar partners with Hawaiian, Fiji
The Jetstar Group has made partnership deals with two Pacific-based regional carriers, Hawaiian Airlines and Fiji Airways.

The new interline partnership with Hawaiian will give regional passengers in New Zealand convenient flight connections to Hawaii and the US mainland. Jetstar’s domestic flights from Wellington, Christchurch, New Plymouth, Dunedin, Palmerston North, Napier, Nelson and Queenstown will connect in Auckland with Hawaiian’s non-stop flights to Honolulu.

The partnership comes as Hawaiian Airlines prepares to increase its New Zealand operations from three to five non-stop weekly flights from March 21.

Meanwhile, Fiji Airways has expanded its codeshare partnership with Jetstar and to cover main trunk routes in New Zealand: Auckland-Christchurch, Auckland-Wellington and Christchurch-Wellington. In Singapore, Fiji will add its code to flights operated by Jetstar Asia to Darwin, Haikou, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Emirates backs A380 future
Emirates Airlines has struck a $US16 billion deal to buy 36 Airbus A380 superjumbos just days after the European manufacturer said it would have to halt production without new orders. The Dubai airline has placed firm orders for 20 of the superjumbos with options for a further 16. Deliveries are scheduled to start in 2020.

Emirates is already the world's biggest customer for the A380 with 101 in its fleet and 41 more firm orders previously placed. "This order will provide stability to the A380 production line," Emirates chairman and chief executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum says. "Our customers love it, and we've been able to deploy it on different missions across our network, giving us flexibility in terms of range and passenger mix."

The new order will boost Emirates’ commitments to a total of 178 A380s worth $US60 billion.

Singapore names routes for newest A380s
Singapore Airlines says London and Hong Kong will be the next destinations for its latest Airbus A380 aircraft, featuring recently unveiled new cabin products. From February 16, the aircraft will operate as SQ322 (Singapore-London) on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. From February 17 to April 5, it will operate as SQ305 (London-Singapore). From April 7, the new aircraft are scheduled to operate as SQ317 (London-Singapore) on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. From February 18 to April 6, the new A380s will also be deployed on services to Hong Kong four days a week.

Qantas Dreamliner to go indigenous
Qantas says its fourth Boeing 787-9 will celebrate Australia’s indigenous peoples with a yet-to-be-revealed special livery. The aircraft is due for delivery in early March and will be welcomed into the fleet at a special event in Alice Springs. It will be the second Qantas aircraft to feature Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture (pictured is a Boeing 747-400 named Wunala Dreaming).

“[This] is in keeping with the airline’s commitment to championing reconciliation and promoting the best of Australia to the world,” Qantas says. The fleet four 787-9s will operate a Los Angeles-Melbourne-Perth-London Heathrow routing, allowing Qantas to offer nonstop flights between Australia and Europe for the first time. The two 787-9s already delivered have enabled the start of Melbourne-Los Angeles flights.

Meanwhile, Qantas has opened reservation for its planned Melbourne-San Francisco route, scheduled to begin on September 1 using Boeing 787-9 aircraft. The service will operate four times times a week. As a result, Qantas will be reducing its Melbourne-Los Angeles service from 13 to nine times weekly, 

Longest Dreamliner approved
Boeing has received approval in the US clearing the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner for commercial service. It can fly 330 passengers, in a typical two-class configuration, up to 6430 nautical miles (11,910km). To date, Boeing has over 170 orders for the 787-10 from nine customers worldwide. The first delivery is expected to Singapore Airlines in the first half of 2018.

Singapore's travel insurance move upsets some
Some Singapore Airlines customers are upset with a new online booking feature that automatically includes travel insurance unless travellers opt out. The feature was introduced last year in Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. Singapore says it encourages customers to buy insurance to safeguard their travel plans. But customers complain it is difficult to get refunds when they fail to opt out on booking.

In 2016, Virgin Australia stopped the pre-selection of travel insurance on its online booking platform after discussions with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Two Virgins to codeshare
Virgin Australia has added Virgin Atlantic as a new codeshare partner for its Melbourne-Hong Kong nonstop service as well as flights from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney to Los Angeles. The Hong Kong service already has codeshares with airlines in the HNA Group, while the North American services have codeshares with Delta Air Lines.

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