Dragon Aviation Capital (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

🔴 After nearly 10 years, Malaysia Airlines is set to relaunch its Paris route in March on Airbus A350-900. Initially offering four weekly flights , the service will expand to daily flights starting on March 29, 2025. #Airways #News

Air India Cancels Kochi to London Flight ✈️ Minutes before Departure, Passengers Angry 😡 Tata Group-owned Air India (AI) flight AI149, scheduled to depart from Kochi (COK) to London Gatwick (LGW) at 12:25 PM on Saturday, was canceled due to a technical malfunction. The last-minute cancellation affected approximately 250 passengers, triggering protests at the airport. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/dWXmPDpq

AirAsia Eyes 13 More Aircraft and New Routes Amid Strong Demand AirAsia (AK) intensifies flight operations to accommodate increasing passenger demand. The airline plans to expand its fleet from 79 to 92 aircraft in Malaysia by December 2024 Datuk Captain Chester Voo, AirAsia Aviation Group’s Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer for airline operations, told Bernama that the company aims to fill connectivity gaps. AirAsia will deploy new and returning post-Covid aircraft to meet demand. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/dMY9CAiM

Killing or Retiring an Airline Brand! A Vistara aircraft lined up for takeoff at Changi, Singapore This is a brand that had quite a short but eventful life! A brand that will soon melt into an older more venerable but battered & bruised brand - #airindia It was a brand born in a time when aviation in #india was just another “taxable” industry! An industry that kept stuttering & staggering around! It was born out of a dream to return the TATA legacy to the skies. But, it had to be very different from what their previous airline was! It was brand conceived on a blank sheet of paper - an airline that had no previous baggage or history! It was a fresh new start in the sky for TATA - limitless! But it’s like the Bible story of the prodigal son - who was the apple 🍎 of his father’s eye! And when the prodigal son returned home, the other younger child was left to _______! The Indian version of the China one child policy! #aviation #travel

Emirates Will Cut its Singapore to Melbourne Flights After 28 Years Emirates (EK), the Dubai-based carrier, is ending its long-standing Singapore (SIN)-Melbourne (MEL), Australia flights. This decision comes five years after the airline terminated its Singapore-Brisbane (BNE) route in 2019. Emirates has operated this route since 1996 using wide-body Boeing 777s, with a brief interruption during the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2023. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/dEizWvWS Emirates 🇦🇪 Singapore Airlines 🇸🇬 Qantas 🇦🇺 Jetstar Airways Scoot Turkish Airlines 🇹🇷 Changi Airport Group Melbourne Airport Dubai Airports

Vistara is one of those rare products where brand identity and brand experience overlapped in perfect harmony. The purple looked different from the sea of reds being plastered on every airline. The in-flight rock album playlist before take-off, played at lobby music volume, created the perfect contrasting experience of calm and teenage rebellion energy. Vistara is a brand-building masterclass. It didn't shout at the top of its voice that it was cool, it whispered. With absolutely no effort, it somehow made even it's regular economy feel like premium economy. From its headrest to the cushioning to its nomenclature, everything was thought through, making one feel at ease in the skies. They created a foolproof, uncancellable, and beloved brand in a category that is the toughest in which to achieve any sort of love or loyalty. I know of friends who didn't mind paying a thousand more because it's Vistara. As a brand marketing nerd, I have always tried to understand why one feels the way they do in Vistara. I believe it ultimately boils down to the color purple, among many other things. It’s the color of imagination, romance, and calm. And when you’re sealed in a box suspended 35,000 feet above the earth, those are good feelings to have. It’s sad that this brand is now sailing into the sunset, but it will be remembered as one of the few brilliant brands built by India in a short span of time. #vistara #branding #brandbuilding

Nice to see Malaysia Airlines Group (MAG) move forward with long held ambitions to launch a 2nd Europe route. The timing of Friday's announcement may seem strange given MAG just slashed capacity by 20% to ensure operational stability. However, by the time Paris is launched in late March the group should be on a more solid footing, as I explained in the Astro AWANI interview last week: “Most of the operational issues they have been facing can be resolved in the next few months as they get aircraft back into service. It should be short term ... and the airline will be on a better footing next year.” https://lnkd.in/ekG7b-8R MAG also expects to take delivery of its first 6 A330-900neos by end Mar-2024, freeing up A350 capacity for Paris. Based on current OAG schedules, MAG’s A350 fleet is now used for double daily services to Doha and London along with 2 weekly Narita flights. Doha and Narita are among the initial A330-900 routes. MAG initially planned to use its A350 fleet to launch a 2nd Europe route after London in 2018. At the time Paris was a frontrunner along with Amsterdam. Related CAPA analysis that I wrote in Jun-2017: https://lnkd.in/eCD-Z_Zd Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) dropped Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Paris in 2015/early 2016 as part of a major restructuring that led to the establishment of MAG, replacing MAS. The restructuring also included lease deals for 6 new A350-900s, which were delivered from Nov-2017 to Jul-2018. While MAG quickly implemented the plan to transition both London frequencies from A380s to A350s, the 2nd Europe route never materialized. MAG started relooking at a 2nd Europe route in 2022 with initially Istanbul the frontrunner. However, the launch of Doha in May-2022 was so successful it decided to add a second Doha frequency in Aug-2022 instead of moving forward with a new Europe route. MAG therefore continued to use A350s for medium haul routes (prior to COVID it was Narita, Osaka and Sydney). A 7th A350 (a used ex-SAS -900) was added in late 2023, resulting in 28 widebodies including 15 A330-300s and 6 ex-Air Berlin A330-200s (added in 2018). Prior to the restructuring MAS had 34 widebodies, including the same 15 A330-300s, 13 777-200ERs and 6 A380s (taken back by Airbus as part of the 2022 deal for 20 A330-900s). MAG’s widebody capacity was 94% recovered in Aug-2024 (vs Aug-2019), based on OAG data. But overall international seat capacity was 103% recovered last month (prior to the recent cuts), due to more 737 flights and 737 densification. MAG now has 51 737s (includes 4 MAXs) vs 48 in 2019. MAG now has 57 international destinations & 62 routes (excludes charters) vs 47 & 53 in Sep-2019. MAG has been expanding its international network over the last year, launching 13 destinations with a focus on South Asia & SE Asia. Paris will not be easy commercially as SE Asia-Europe market conditions are now normalizing. However, Paris will help feed Australia/NZ and MAG’s expanded regional network.

Get ready to fall in love with Japan’s stunning scenery this season 🍂✈️ Let EVA Air take you on an autumn adventure through vibrant landscapes and breathtaking views. Your perfect fall getaway starts here! #IFlyEVA #TravelWithEVA #EVAAirways #EVAAir #FallInJapan #AutumnAdventure

SWISS finds itself in a First Class hot soup! The emissions from installing the new Allegris cabin will be *much* higher than expected. Please indulge me while I geek out. As part of an upgrade in passenger experience, Swiss International Air Lines will be rolling out, "SWISS Senses", which includes new seats in all classes, aligned with the parent Lufthansa Group. A new First Class cabin will also be installed on SWISS's current aircraft, including the Airbus A330, the oldest in the airline's widebody fleet. This is where things get interesting. While the Economy Class cabin is getting lighter, the First Class is getting heavier—so heavy that it's leading to a shift in the centre of gravity on the A330. To balance the heavy First Class seats, a 1.5-ton (!!) weight needs to be installed at the back of the plane. So not only will the First Class seats be responsible for ~9X the emissions of each Economy Class seat, the passengers up front will also result in an overall increase in emissions due to the 1.5ton additional weight. This would also significantly reduce emissions thanks to a lighter Economy cabin. Moreover, a heavier aircraft means more fuel burn, leading to more costs (on an older aircraft) and more drag too. Compare this with Finnair, which reduced the weight of its premium cabin by 40% via its latest generation of seats. Even Air China addressed a similar issue of a "heavy First Class" by moving the Business Class to the front of the aircraft and First Class to the middle to improve the centre of gravity. Why is SWISS going in the other direction? I'd love to #paxex and in-flight cabin experts to shed some light David Kondo Dr. Joe Leader. Original source in German: https://lnkd.in/eKxVPgg5