Regional airlines heading for more promising years

Regional airlines heading for more promising years

Hendarsyah Tarmizi
Jakarta

After going through a series of challenges ranging from
terrorist attacks, war in Iraq, the outbreak of SARS and the
global economic slowdown during the last few years, Airlines
across the Asia Pacific have started to gain strength thanks to
the recovery in the global tourism industry.

The recovery in the tourism sector during the past several
months has resulted in a surge in global air traffic, paving the
way for a repeat of the boom in the aviation industry that took
place before the turn of the millennium four years ago.

According to data issued by the International Air Transport
Association (IATA), air traffic increased by 9.6 percent in the
first quarter of this year, much higher than IATA's forecast of
6.9 percent.

The Center for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) believes that
airlines across the Asia-Pacific region should post a double-
digit traffic growth provided that SARS does not once again
spiral out of control.

The higher than expected increase in air traffic during the
first three months of this year will certainly provide a
healthier ground for the region's airlines to take advantage of
the world's more promising industry, particularly for Asia.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) estimates that total
arrivals in Asia, which reached 121 million in 2001, will
increase by 250 percent to 416 million in 2020.

Taking advantage of the promising outlook, the region's major
airlines are expanding both their long and short-haul flights to
take a larger share of the growing aviation industry.

Singapore Airlines (SIA), for example, made a milestone in
aviation history with the inauguration the world's longest
commercial non-stop service between Singapore and Los Angeles
with the A340-500 aircraft on Feb. 3.

SIA will break its own record for the world's longest non-stop
commercial flight with the launch of a non-stop service between
Singapore and New York, with A340-500 aircraft in June, this
year.

"In addition, SIA will also introduce a new service to
Ahmedabad, the major commercial center of India's Gujarat
province in July," SIA's public relations manager in Jakarta,
Glory Henriette said. She added that an increase in the frequency
of flights was also planned for Brisbane, Guangzhou, Ho Chi Minh
City, Melbourne and Seoul.

With such flight expansion, SIA, which serves the Singapore-
Jakarta route eight times daily will offer 60 destinations in 33
countries, including Denpasar and Surabaya.

In 2003, SIA's carriage of passengers and capacity production
dropped by 12,8 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively, compared
to the previous year due to the drop in demand for travel and a
corresponding cutback in capacity during the SARS outbreak.

However, the airline is optimistic that long-haul business
remains promising. SIA acknowledges that the operation of four
budget airlines in Singapore this year and the growing number of
similar no-frills airlines in neighboring countries will slightly
affect yields from its short-haul flights.

Like SIA, Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways will also
launch a daily non-stop service from Hong Kong to New York
beginning July 1, with its ultra long haul A340-600.

In addition, Cathay has recently added passenger services
between Hong Kong and London, Auckland, Johannesburg, Colombo,
Osaka, Taipei and Sapporo and resumed services to Beijing.

Cathay has booked continued growth in passenger and cargo
traffic in recent months. "In April, for example, we carried
1,099,183 passengers, up from 1,036,623 in March," said Ida
Sylviana, the assistant manager for marketing and passenger sales
in Jakarta.

Meanwhile the Taiwan-based Eva Air airline which recently
increased its Taipei-Hong Kong services from 40 flights to 49
flights per week, has added a fifth brand-new Airbus A330-200 to
its fleet as part of the airline's fleet expansion program.

The new passengers aircraft serves EVA's Osaka route and is
also used in rotation for some flights to Macau. Another four new
A330-200s are being used for flights to Vienna in Europe,
Brisbane in Australia, and Tokyo, Hong Kong, Macau and Bangkok in
Asia.

"We can use the A330-200s to fly direct from Taipei to every
destination we serve in Asia, and additionally, because of its
extended range, to serve passengers on our non-stop trips to
Brisbane and Sydney," EVA Air's senior vice president K.W. Nieh
said in a press release.

Australia's Qantas Airlines also announced recently that it
planned to commence non-stop services from Australia to Mumbai in
India and Shanghai in China beginning Sept. 1, this year.

In addition, Qantas also plans to commence direct flights
between Brisbane and Los Angeles from June 14, the first non-stop
scheduled service on that route.