British Airways increases London Chennai frequency to six flights a week

by Devesh Agarwal

British Airways Boeing 777-200ER. Photo © Devesh Agarwal.

From October 27, flag carrier British Airways will add an additional weekly flight on the London Heathrow Chennai route, taking its weekly frequency to six.

With this flight the airline will increase its weekly flights to 48 to five cities in India, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Hyderabad.

The carrier will continue to use a three class Boeing 777-200ER aircraft with Club World business class, World Traveller Plus premium economy, and World Traveller economy class cabins.

The flight schedule remains the same.

BA35 departs London Heathrow at 09:30 arrives Chennai 01:00 the next morning
BA36 departs Chennai at 04:00 arrives London Heathrow 09:35.

BA Lockheed L-1011. Photo by Michel Gilliand. Under GNU Lic.

British Airways first commenced service from London Heathrow to Chennai on November 3, 1988 with twice weekly flights via Kuwait City using a Lockheed TriStar L1011-385-1 aircraft. At that time, Terminal 4 at Heathrow airport was used. Today it is the ultra-large Terminal 5 or T5 as it is better known.

In October 1993, the flights were increased to four a week via Mumbai or Dubai using Boeing 767 and 747 aircraft. In November 1995 British Airways celebrated its 1000th flight to Chennai which at that time was a thrice weekly service via Mumbai using Boeing 747s. In the summer 1997 time-table the airline suspended its flights to the city. In October 1998 British Airways re-started twice weekly services to Chennai using the Boeing 747-400. This service was upgraded to five a week in 2008.

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Singapore Airlines to launch seasonal services to Athens

by BA Staff

Image Credit: Devesh Agarwal

Southeast Asian full service carrier Singapore Airlines has announced its return to Athens, Greece, with twice weekly seasonal nonstop services from its hub at Singapore's Changi International Airport to commence between June and October 2014. The flights will be operated using one of Singapore Airlines' 13 Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, configured with either 285 (30J / 255Y) or 271 (26J / 245Y) seats in a 2-class configuration. The schedule for the new flights is as follows:

Flight	Route	Depart	Arrive	Days
SQ382	SIN - ATH	0205	0830	14
SQ381	ATH - SIN	1300	0455	14

Singapore Airlines had previously suspended its year round services to Athens in the wake of the Greek financial collapse in October of 2012. But burgeoning tourist demand for travel to Greece from Asia prompted the airline to resume its services in time for next year's high season. Including Athens, Singapore Airlines serves 14 destinations across Europe.

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Pakistan routes news and analysis: Gulf Air, Pakistan International Airlines, and Turkish Airlines

by Vinay Bhaskara

Several pieces of routes news from Pakistan emerged over the past week, and Bangalore Aviation has prepared a summary of these changes

Gulf Air increases frequency to Pakistan

• Bahrain based  Gulf Air has added 7 new weekly frequencies on its offering to Pakistan, from mid-December 2013, bringing its total Pakistani operation to 21 flights per week to four destinations. A summary of the changes is shown below
• Bahrain - Islamabad increases from 2x weekly to 3x weekly Airbus A330-200
• Bahrain - Karachi increases from daily to 10x weekly Airbus A320
• Bahrain - Lahore increases from 3x weekly to 4x weekly A330-200
• Bahrain - Peshawar increases from 2x weekly to 4x weekly, split as 2x weekly Airbus A321, 1x weekly A330-200, and 1x weekly A320

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) increases service to Manchester/Toronto from November 2013

• Total frequency to Toronto increases to 4x weekly with addition of second weekly Karachi - Lahore - Toronto flights using Boeing 777-200LR equipment
• Total frequency to Manchester increases to 6x weekly with addition of third weekly Islamabad - Manchester on Boeing 777-200ER equipment
• Pakistan International Airlines continues to persist in operating a potpourri of routings for its intercontinental flights, by having low frequencies from each of Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, and even Peshawar. This is certainly not unprecedented; Saudia has a similar setup out of Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam. But it would likely be more efficient for PIA to choose just one airport to serve as its gateway for long haul flights; either Karachi, which has the highest yielding traffic, or Islamabad, which has the highest volume of passengers. 

Turkish Airlines switches to 737-900ER

• Istanbul based Turkish Airlines is planning on switching aircraft for some of its flights to Pakistan, replacing the Boeing 737-800 with the Boeing 737-900ER
• Interestingly, the decision to replace the 737-800 with the 737-900ER actually represents a downgrade in capacity, as the 737-800s are configured with 165 seats (12Y+ / 153Y), while the 737-900ERs are configured for 151 seats (16C / 135Y) including a true regional business class product. This is an indication that Turkish Airlines is seeing strong premium demand on its Pakistani routes, but volumes are a bit soft (understandable given the residual weakness in the Pakistani economy)
• The routes affected are:
• All 4x weekly flights to Karachi, Pakistan's business capital
• One of 3x weekly flights to Islamabad, Pakistan's political capital

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