During December, the Asia and Oceania markets had many new developments, particularly with new routes towards 2024. Regarding other regions, we leave the following links:
Apart from the new routes, aircraft additions to different airlines also took place in December.
The first Airbus A350 was delivered to Air India while Qantas added its first Airbus A220, with registrations VT-JRA and VH-X4A respectively. Both planes will enter regular service shortly.
Meanwhile, Juneyao Airlines received the 787-9 with registration B-20EQ from Everett Boeing Field. As a result, Boeing made its first 787 delivery to China after a four-year hiatus, as the last had been in November 2019.
In addition, Eva Air incorporated the two-year-old Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner B-17809, which had been in Everett since April.
Aero K
The South Korean company plans to launch flights between Cheongju and Da Nang, Vietnam, effective February 5th, 2024. Aero K schedules daily service with 186-seat, single-class Airbus A320-200 aircraft.
Flights are already on sale.
Daily
- RF 531 Cheongju CJJ 22:05 · 00:45+1 DAD Da Nang
- RF 532 Da Nang DAD 02:15 · 08:25 CJJ Cheongju
Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan are the current markets served by Aero K (all from Cheongju):
Japan
Philippines
- Clark (CRK): 7 weekly
South Korea
- Jeju (CJU): 21 weekly
Taiwan
- Taipei (TPE): 7 weekly
Air Busan
The carrier launched operations between Busan and Sanya last November 15th. Air Busan will serve four times a week with Airbus A321-200 jets.
Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday
Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday
Air Busan is the only airline offering this route.
Air Chathams
The New Zealand company, based on the island of Chathams, began flights between Auckland and Whakatane on November 20th using its Saab 340s. Previously, the carrier served this route with ATR 72-500s.
As listed on its website, this is the flight schedule between Auckland (AKL) and Whakatane (WHK):
In addition to Auckland, from Whakatane, Air Chathams has a weekly service to Whanganui with the same aircraft.
Air China
The airline will increase its flights between Beijing and Singapore from January 20th, 2024. At present, Air China offers two services per day with Airbus A330-300 and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner planes.
Daily
- CA 975 Beijing PEK 00:25 · 06:50 SIN Singapore
- CA 976 Singapore SIN 09:30 · 15:55 PEK Beijing
Daily
- CA 969 Beijing PEK 15:35 · 21:55 SIN Singapore
- CA 970 Singapore SIN 23:55 · 06:05+1 PEK Beijing
new · Daily
- CA 775 Beijing PEK 09:00 · 15:30 SIN Singapore
- CA 776 Singapore SIN 16:30 · 23:00 PEK Beijing
According to its website, the new flight will be operated on Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
Air India
The carrier inaugurated services between Mumbai and Melbourne on December 15th. Operations will be carried out with Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner jets, three times a week.
Wednesday, Friday and Sunday
- AI 310 Mumbai BOM 00:50 · 18:10 MEL Melbourne
- AI 311 Melbourne MEL 20:00 · 02:35+1 BOM Mumbai
Flights between India and Melbourne
New Delhi
- Air India (AI): 7 weekly · Boeing 787
- Qantas (QF): 5 weekly · Airbus A330
Air India will be the only one operating the Mumbai – Melbourne route.
Air Macau
Beginning January 10th, 2024, Air Macau will start flying between the country’s capital and Kuala Lumpur. The company already has a tentative schedule on its website, which is as follows:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday
- NX 922 Macau MFM 09:40 · 13:55 KUL Kuala Lumpur
- NX 921 Kuala Lumpur KUL 14:55 · 18:50 MFM Macau
Air New Zealand
Last December 6th, Air New Zealand boosted its flights between Auckland and Papeete due to the beginning of the high season. The airline increased from two to three weekly services.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday
- NZ 902 Auckland AKL 19:30 · 01:30+1 PPT Papeete
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
- NZ 903 Papeete PPT 03:00 · 07:40 AKL Auckland
New flight departing from Auckland on Wednesdays, and on Thursdays from Papeete.
Azimuth
Starting January 13th, 2024, Azimuth will inaugurate services between Mineralnye Vody and Minsk. The Russian carrier will offer a weekly flight on Sukhoi Superjet 100-95 aircraft configured with 100 seats.
Saturday
- A4 6001 Mineralnye Vody MRV 08:10 · 12:10 MSQ Minsk
- A4 6002 Minsk MSQ 13:20 · 17:20 MRV Mineralnye Vody
From Mineralnye Vody, Azimuth has services to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan, in addition to Russia.
Batik Air Malaysia
In February 2024, Batik Air Malaysia will launch five new routes from Kuala Lumpur (KUL). The operations will have the following schedule, according to its website:
- Kuala Lumpur – Kaohsiung (KHH) – Nagoya (NGO): 3 weekly · February 7th, 2024
- Kuala Lumpur – Kunming (KMG): 4 weekly · February 8th, 2024
- Kuala Lumpur – Istanbul (SAW): 4 weekly · February 9th, 2024
- Kuala Lumpur – Dayong (DYG): 3 weekly · February 9th, 2024
- Kuala Lumpur – Batam (BTH): 4 weekly · February 16th, 2024
Cebu Pacific
The company inaugurated services between Manila and Da Nang on December 7th. Cebu Pacific will fly three times a week with Airbus A320-200 and Airbus A320neo planes.
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
- 5J 5756 Manila MNL 19:25 · 21:30 DAD Da Nang
- 5J 5757 Da Nang DAD 22:30 · 02:25+1 MNL Manila
China Southern Airlines
The airline will start flying between Beijing Daxing and Almaty as of February 15th, 2024. China Southern will have three weekly operations with Airbus A321neo aircraft.
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
- CZ 5097 Beijing PKX 18:25 · 22:15 ALA Almaty
- CZ 5098 Almaty ALA 23:30 · 06:15+1 PKX Beijing
Current destinations from Almaty
Himalaya Airlines
Himalaya resumed services between Kathmandu and Chongqing on December 12th, which will be operated with Airbus A319s and Airbus A320s. The company had suspended flights on this route since May 5th, 2021.
Tuesday and Saturday
- H9 787 Kathmandu KTM 09:25 · 15:15 CKG Chongqing
- H9 788 Chongqing CKG 16:25 · 18:35 KTM Kathmandu
Beijing, Chongqing, Lhasa, Qingdao and Shanghai are Himalaya Airlines’ destinations to China from Nepal’s capital city.
Humo Air
Humo Air, a new airline based in Uzbekistan, began scheduled operations last December 15th following the addition of its first aircraft. The carrier has its hub in Tashkent, the country’s capital, and three domestic destinations, all served by its Airbus A320-200.
Karshi, Nukus, Samarkand and Urgench are the current connections, and it plans to inaugurate new routes within Uzbekistan in the short term, as well as the first international services, which will be to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
The Airbus A320, operated via wet lease, has the registration LZ-MDI.
Hunnu Air
On December 16th, the Mongolian company inaugurated its operations between Ulaanbaatar and Dubai (DWC). Hunnu will serve once a week with 98-seat Embraer 190 jets.
Flights will be carried out, in both directions, with a technical stopover in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Saturday · schedule
- MR 481 Ulaanbaatar UBN 10:00 · 12:00 ALA Almaty
- MR 481 Almaty ALA 13:00 · 15:40 DWC Dubai
- MR 482 Dubai DWC 16:40 · 22:50 ALA Almaty
- MR 482 Almaty ALA 23:50 · 05:30+1 UBN Ulaanbaatar
Hunnu Air offers two weekly services between Ulaanbaatar and Almaty, which are on sale.
Iberia
The Spanish airline will restart flights between Madrid and Tokyo Narita effective October 27th, 2024. Iberia will return to Japan after nearly a five-year suspension, since its last service was in March 2020 as a consequence of the COVID pandemic.
In line with its website, the carrier will offer three weekly operations with 348-seat Airbus A350-941 aircraft.
Thursday, Saturday and Sunday
- IB 281 Madrid MAD 12:00 · 10:10+1 NRT Tokyo
Monday, Friday and Sunday
- IB 282 Tokyo NRT 12:20 · 20:20 MAD Madrid
iFly Airlines
Starting April 15th, 2024, the Moscow-based Russian company will begin services to Chita, which is located 900 kilometers north of Mongolia. According to its website, iFly schedules daily service on Airbus A330-200s.
Daily
- F7 335 Moscow VKO 15:45 · 03:50+1 HTA Chita
- F7 336 Chita HTA 06:30 · 07:10 VKO Moscow
Current routes from Chita
- Blagoveshchensk (BQS): IrAero
- Hailar (HLD): Air China
- Irkutsk (IKT): IrAero and S7
- Khabarovsk (KHV): Aurora and Yakutia
- Krasnoyarsk (KJA): Aeroflot
- Moscow (DME): S7 and Ural Airlines
- Novosibirsk (OVB): S7
- Vladivostok (VVO): Aurora and Yakutia
- Yekaterinburg (SVX): Ural Airlines
- Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (UUS): IrAero
Juneyao Airlines
The airline added the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, registration B-20EQ. On December 21st, the aircraft departed Everett at 11:24 a.m. local time and arrived in Shanghai on the evening of Friday, December 22nd.
As a result, Boeing resumed 787 deliveries to Chinese companies after a little more than four years, as the last one had been in November 2019.
Juneyao’s fleet consists of the following:
- Airbus A320-200: 30
- Airbus A320neo: 18
- Airbus A321-200: 27
- Airbus A321neo: 10
- Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner: 7
Juneyao was the first airline in China to incorporate the 787 in 2018.
Link Airways
The Australian carrier announced that it will move its operations from Melbourne Essendon Airport (MEB) to Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL). At the time of publication, these changes will be with all of its current routes, and will begin from MEL between January and February 2024.
- Melbourne (MEL) – Dubbo (DBO): 1 weekly · February 2nd, 2024
- Melbourne (MEL) – Orange (OAG) – Dubbo (DBO): 4 weekly · January 8th, 2024
- Melbourne (MEL) – Wollongong (WOL): 5 weekly · January 7th, 2024
Link Airways currently has 11 Saab 340s in its fleet, all configured with 34 seats.
Peach
In early November, Peach increased from three to four daily flights between Osaka and Seoul. The Japanese low cost airline will operate with Airbus A320-200 and Airbus A320neo aircraft under the following schedule:
Daily
Daily · new
Peach’s international network from Osaka
China
- Shanghai (PVG): 7 weekly · Airbus A320
Hong Kong
- Hong Kong (HKG): 21 weekly · A320/A321
South Korea
- Seoul (ICN): 28 weekly · Airbus A320
Taiwan
Thailand
- Bangkok (BKK): 7 weekly · Airbus A321
Qantas
At 12:06 local time on Wednesday (20), QantasLink’s first Airbus A220 landed at Sydney Airport. The plane, registered VH-X4A, arrived from Montreal with stops in Vancouver, Honolulu and Nadi.
This aircraft is the first of 29 A220s ordered by the Qantas Group for operation by QantasLink, its regional airline operating metropolitan and regional destinations throughout Australia.
The carrier will replace the existing Boeing 717s with the new Airbus A220s.
Shanghai Airlines
The company will resume operations between Shanghai Pu Dong and Osaka from January 1st, 2024. Shanghai Airlines will offer the following schedule:
Daily
- FM 821 Shanghai PVG 14:35 · 18:00 KIX Osaka
- FM 822 Osaka KIX 19:00 · 20:35 PVG Shanghai
Singapore Airlines
Beginning June 21st, 2024, Singapore will inaugurate services between Changi and Gatwick airports. The carrier, which will fly five weekly, has not yet confirmed which aircraft it will use.
Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
- SQ 310 Singapore SIN 23:55 · 06:25+1 LGW London
Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
- SQ 309 London LGW 10:15 · 06:20+1 SIN Singapore
Thai
The airline increased its flights to Kathmandu (Nepal) last December 15th, where it operates with 168-seat Airbus A320-200s.
Here is the schedule:
Daily
- TG 319 Bangkok BKK 10:15 · 12:25 KTM Kathmandu
- TG 320 Kathmandu KTM 13:30 · 18:15 BKK Bangkok
Daily · new
- TG 309 Bangkok BKK 21:15 · 23:25 KTM Kathmandu
- TG 310 Kathmandu KTM 00:25 · 05:10 BKK Bangkok
In addition to Thai, Nepal Airlines operates this same route as follows:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday
- RA 401 Kathmandu KTM 14:40 · 19:15 BKK Bangkok
- RA 402 Bangkok BKK 20:15 · 22:30 KTM Kathmandu
Thai Lion Air has three services per week between Bangkok Don Mueang and Kathmandu:
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
- SL 220 Bangkok DMK 15:00 · 17:30 KTM Kathmandu
- SL 221 Kathmandu KTM 18:20 · 22:45 DMK Bangkok
Turkmenistan Airlines
Effective March 5th, 2024, Turkmenistan will start operations between Ashgabat and Ho Chi Minh City. The flights, which have a tentative schedule, will be carried out twice a week on Boeing 777s (not yet available for sale).
Tuesday
- T5 657 Ashgabat ASB 15:50 · 01:30+1 SGN Ho Chi Minh City
Wednesday
- T5 656 Ho Chi Minh City SGN 03:30 · 09:15 ASB Ashgabat
Thursday
- T5 655 Ashgabat ASB 07:40 · 17:20 SGN Ho Chi Minh City
- T5 658 Ho Chi Minh City SGN 19:20 · 01:05+1 ASB Ashgabat
Virgin Australia
The airline plans to launch services to Ayers Rock starting in June 2024. Flights will be performed from Brisbane and Melbourne with Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
Considering both routes, Virgin will offer a daily operation.
Brisbane
Monday, Wednesday and Friday
- VA 1693 Brisbane BNE 12:15 · 15:40 AYQ Uluru (Ayers Rock)
- VA 1694 Uluru (Ayers Rock) AYQ 16:25 · 20:05 BNE Brisbane
Melbourne
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday
- VA 1681 Melbourne MEL 12:40 · 15:30 AYQ Uluru (Ayers Rock)
- VA 1682 Uluru (Ayers Rock) AYQ 16:15 · 19:35 MEL Melbourne
Xiamen Airlines
As of December 25th, Xiamen Airlines increased its flight frequency between Xiamen and Amsterdam from three to seven. The carrier operates with 287-seat Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner jets.
Daily
- MF 811 Xiamen XMN 12:35 · 17:40 AMS Amsterdam
- MF 812 Amsterdam AMS 20:30 · 14:05+1 XMN Xiamen
Amsterdam and Paris are Xiamen Airlines’ destinations in Europe. In the case of the French capital, the company has two services per week on the same aircraft.
Cover photo: nibrage – JetPhotos (Macau).
The post Asia and Oceania route updates – December 2023 appeared first on Flightradar24 Blog.