Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals
Lao Central Airlines is planning to resume commercial flights before end of 2015 when Laos now a member of World Trade Organization (WTO) becomes an active member of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).
Besides the targeted fleet of four Sukhoi SSJ100 jets that it will own by mid-2015 including one existing SSJ100 jet stranded at Wattay Airport, Lao Central Airlines plans to purchase eight Boeing B737 Max and three or four long-range Boeing B777-200 jets so that it will be able to launch long-haul flights to Russia and Europe in the long-term.
Currently, Russia and Laos are in discussions to open flight corridors between Russian cities Vladivostok, Moscow and Vientiane. Vientiane will be an alternative gateway for smaller Russian carriers' future flights to cities in Cambodia and Vietnam and Lao Central Airlines will be able to launch flights to Russia from Vientiane.
The Chairman for Lao Central Airlines, also Chairman of the airline's parent company Phongsavanh Group, Prof. Dr Od Phongsavanh, explained the reasons of flight resumption delays to The Vientiane Times. He said the airline is planning to buy more aircraft such as B777-200 aircraft, hire pilots from Europe and build the airline's first own airport. It hopes to replicate AirAsia's KLIA LCCT and Bangkok Airways' Samui Airport success stories in Laos.
Dr. Od said the Lao Government has accepted Lao Central Airlines' proposal to build private airports with possible locations under study. The Lao Government aims to see an airport built in each Lao province within the next five years. Therefore, it has not revoked the Lao private airline's Air Operator Certificate (AOC). It regards the airline as an active contributor to Lao civil aviation development.
Lao Central Airlines CEO Mr Somboun Phongsavanh said the airline is seeking more information from British Airways and Lufthansa expertise to help the airline identify its weak and strong points before it proceeds to become a public-listed national airline.
Lao Central Airlines plans to resume flights to Don Mueang and Luang Prabang and partner with Khon Kaen Airport in Thailand on launching Indochinese tourist flights between Khon Kaen, Vientiane, Danang and Siem Reap before expanding overseas to include international flights from Vientiane to Phnom Penh, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Naypidaw and Hong Kong.
Khon Kaen currently has no international flights although it is now an international airport of northeastern Thailand.
Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals
Lao Airlines has become Southeast Asia's first airline to open direct flights to the homeland of Chinese poet and essayist Su Dongpo (Su Shi; 1036-1011), Changzhou in Jiangsu Province, from Vientiane, Laos. Therefore, Vientiane has become Changzhou Benniu Airport's first international flight destination.
Lao Airlines' first direct flight to Changzhou begins on 16 February 2015 at 8 am when it leaves Vientiane and arrives in Changzhou Benniu Airport at 11.30 am. At 12.30 pm, it leaves Changzhou for Vientiane and returns to Vientiane at 2.30 pm with Chinese tourists spending their Lunar New Year holidays in Laos today.
Lao Airlines operates the new services on Mondays and Fridays. The airline signed a contract with Changzhou Weitali National Air Travel Service in November 2014 to market and launch the flights.
Changzhou is Jiangsu's important industrial centre for textiles, food processing, engineering and high technology.
Tourist attractions of Changzhou include the "Ruins of Yancheng" which comprise the remains of a walled city founded over 3000 years ago in the Wujin district of Changzhou, one of five palaces housing the leaders of the so-called "Kingdom of Celestial Palace" near the People No. 1 Hospital, China Dinosaur Park, amusement park CC Joyland, the well-known Zen Buddhist temple Tianning Temple and Changzhou's sunken city and areas of archaeological ruins from the Spring and Autumn Period.
China is the biggest source of tourists for Lao Airlines followed by South Korea, Europe, Thailand and Singapore. In 2014, 750,887 tourists flew with Lao Airlines, of which 103,400 are tourists from China. Including Chinese tourists from Bangkok and Singapore, the number of Chinese visitors entering Laos has increased by about 72 per cent, from 245,033 visitors in 2013 to 422,440 visitors, according to statistics from the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism.
Besides Changzhou, Lao Airlines also operates weekly flights to Chengdu from Luang Prabang. It operates weekly scheduled flights to Kunming, Guangzhou and Jinghong (Xishuangbanna) from Vientiane, thrice-weekly scheduled flights to Singapore and daily scheduled flights to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi from Vientiane, Pakse and Savannakhet.
Inflight Review by : Gan Yung Chyan / KUCINTA SETIADistributed to All Press Media & Travel Professionals
Airline : V Air Airbus A321 in Don Mueang.
Routes : V Air, the low-cost subsidiary of TransAsia Airways, flies from Taipei Taoyuan to Don Mueang and Chiang Mai. In March or April 2015, it plans to launch charter flights to Siem Reap from Taoyuan. Other destinations like Jeju, Seoul-Incheon, Osaka, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong are in the planning stage.
Aircraft : The Airbus A321 has spacious legroom. ****Safety Demonstrations : Adequate.
Inflight Service : Service is excellent. The air stewards and air hostesses are trained models that attend to every passenger's needs with delight like screen idols. They speak competently in Hokkien, Mandarin and English. ******
Postcard / Stationery : V Air issues free Taiwan immigration arrival forms. Foreigners are not required to fill in immigration departure forms. There are no postcards. *****
Inflight Magazine : V Air Viva is the official inflight magazine of V Air in pristine condition onboard. ******Sky Shop : There is an inflight duty-free catalogue called Vitamin . V Air souvenirs are listed in an online store located on its web-site www.flyvair.com. Purchase orders are only opened to Taiwanese passengers. ******
Onboard Meals and Refreshments : Onboard hot meals and refreshments can be booked online in advance. ******
Surcharge : Passengers do not need to pay a surcharge if they want to sit at the emergency rows. ******Bookings : V Air accepts online Mastercard and VISA payments from the world. Electronic tickets are issued at its official web-site and received via email. There is a pdf itinerary attachment. There are no refunds for ticket cancellations. Web-check-in boarding is not provided. Walk-in bookings are done in the Zhengzhou Road Head Office of V Air in Taipei. ******
Check-In and Departures : Check-in at Taoyuan Airport counters next to TransAsia Airways two hours before departure. Flights depart on time.******
Ground service in Taoyuan in response to passengers' requests and enquiries : Excellent. ******Overall Impression : V Air is the six-star community LCC of Taiwan and Asia. Children and families will like to travel with this quirky reliable airline. The logo of V Air is the familiar Formosa black bear. V represents victory, viva, verve and local Taiwanese culture.******
** Poor / two-star*** Good / three-star***** Very good / five-star****** Excellent / six-star (the highest category)
Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals
The Philippines and Singapore have increased their seat capacities between Manila and Singapore by 7.1 percent to 18,888 seats per week from the current 17,627 seats per week.The expanded Air Services Agreement (ASA) also allows Singaporean carriers to add more destinations in the Philippines to include Iloilo and Bacolod, adding to the current list of cities Cebu, Davao and Kalibo.Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said the Philippines agreed to increase the limit on the frequencies for fifth freedom rights to Singapore to 10 per week from eight per week.The fifth freedom right is currently exercised by Singapore-based Jetstar Asia through daily services to Osaka from Manila.CAB also said that both countries have agreed on a third country code sharing, which allows Philippine and Singaporean airlines to share marketing services with third-party countries outside the Philippines and Singapore.The Memorandum Of Understanding on Air Services was signed by the Philippines and Singapore on 13 February 2015 in Manila in conjunction with the Visit The Philippines Year 2015 campaign.
Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals
Asia's first airline, Philippine Airlines, is launching its scheduled inaugural flight from Manila to New York via Vancouver on 15 March 2015 using its Boeing B777-300ER and operates its inaugural scheduled flight from New York to Manila via Vancouver on 16 March 2015. It will also launch its first weekly flight to Tablas in the Philippines from Manila on 20 March 2015.
Flight PR0126 departs from Manila for New York at 11.50 pm on 15 March, transits in Vancouver at 8.50 pm before leaving Vancouver at 10.50 pm and arrives in New York on 16 March at 7 am. After 3 hours 55 minutes later, the B777-300ER aircraft leaves takes off from New York at 11 am, transits in Vancouver at 1.50 pm before departing from Vancouver at 3.20 pm and touching down in Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 at 8.35 pm.
Flight PR0126 operates on the Manila - Vancouver - New York routes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays while flight PR0127 operates the New York - Vancouver - Manila services on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
On the domestic front, Philippine Airlines' first scheduled flight from Manila to Tablas begins at 11 am on 20 March and arrives in Tablas at 12.05 pm before taking off again at 12.25 pm and returns to Manila at 1.30 pm on the same day. The aircraft to be operated on the new route is not specified. Flights are operated on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Tablas is the site of one of the best diving destinations in the Philippines - the Blue Hole.
Philippine Airlines which turns 75 years old in 2016 owns the largest airline exhibitor booth in PTAA Travel Tour Expo 2015.
Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals
The 22nd PTAA Travel Tour Expo which inaugurates the Visit The Philippines Year 2015 all-year round campaign is the largest national Travel Fair in Southeast Asia. It was held in Manila's SMX Convention Center from 13 to 15 February 2015 and attracts 26 airline exhibitors, five international tourism boards, China Panorama Tours and many travel agents of the Philippines in the exhibition halls and five function rooms.
During this period main airline branch offices in Manila are closed and their ticketing staff are sales and marketing officers promoting discounted-tickets to the public in the convention centre.
Airline exhibitors include Philippine Airlines, China Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Cebu Pacific Air, AirAsia, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Dragonair, Cathay Pacific Airways, Eva Air, All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, Korean Air, Jetstar Asia Airways, Jeju Air, Garuda Indonesia, Aeroflot Russian Airlines, Gulf Air, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Brunei Airlines (RB), Turkish Airlines, South African Airways, SkyJet Airlines and Air Juan.
Inflight Review by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press Media & Travel Professionals
Airline : Cebu Pacific Air Airbus A320 in Manila.
Routes : Cebu Pacific Air flies from Manila, Clark, Cebu and Iloilo to Singapore with Airbus A320, A319 and A330 jets. On 26 March 2015, it launches direct Cebu-Tokyo-Cebu flights four times a week every Tuesday, Thursday and weekends using A320 aircraft. The flight from Cebu departs at 5.55 am and arrives in Tokyo Narita at 11.20 am. The return flight departs from Narita at 12.05 pm and touches down in Cebu at 4.25 pm. Cebu Pacific Air flies to 27 domestic and international destinations and operates around 700 flights per week from its Cebu hub.
Aircraft : The Airbus A320 has narrow legroom. ***
Safety Demonstrations : Adequate.
Inflight Service : Service is mediocre. The very few air stewards are cheerful and eager to please passengers. Some air hostesses pull long faces at passengers requesting for this and that and they do not smile much. Overall, they attend to passengers' requests very well. They speak competently in Tagalog and English but not Mandarin and other Chinese dialects. There is a brief inflight game on every flight.**
Postcard / Stationery : Cebu Pacific Air issues free logo barf bags and Philippine immigration arrival forms. Nowadays, foreign tourists are not required to fill in immigration departure forms. Filipinoes must fill in departure forms before checking-in their respective flights from the Philippines. There are no postcards.***
Inflight Magazine : Smile is the official inflight magazine of Cebu Pacific Air. ***
Sky Shop : There is an inflight duty-free catalogue . Cebu Pacific logo souvenirs are listed in Smile. The airline regularly sells useful items. This month it sells different kinds of socks, backpacks and luggage covers, to name some. ***
Onboard Meals and Refreshments : Onboard hot meals can be booked online in advance but it is not certain whether the prices are lower than or same as those sold onboard. Cebu Pacific Air's web-site does not provide the assurance and must make an effort to address the issue. Hot meals are standard Filipino food, beef and chicken dishes with no memorable taste. Refreshments and juices are also served. **
Surcharge : Passengers do not need to pay a surcharge if they want to sit at the emergency rows. Cebu Pacific Air has eliminated fuel surcharges.****
Bookings : Cebu Pacific Air also accepts online payments via PayPal. Electronic tickets are issued at official web-site www.cebupacificair.com and received via email. There is a pdf itinerary attachment. There are no refunds for ticket cancellations. Web-check-in boarding passes must be printed from the web-site under "Manage Booking". Online boarding passes cannot be emailed to the passengers.
There is a factual error in every Cebu Pacific Air online booking, which is the error in the Philippine departure tax from Manila, for example. It states departure tax amounts to 1,620 Pesos but departure tax from Manila is only 550 Pesos. Cebu Pacific Air must make an effort to correct the clause on each online ticket issued. Besides, the airline must ensure that its call centre agents understand that a shoulder-travel bag and a small bag or tote bag can be carried onboard under a maximum total weight of 7 kg.**
Check-In and Departures : Check-in at Cebu Pacific Air counters. Cebu Pacific Air regularly delays flights on departure and many times cancels flights for reasons unexplained. From 25 December 2014 to 15 January 2015, it cancelled or delayed domestic flights and several international flights as ground crew were reported on leave during the public holidays. The airline was penalised severely as a result and risked evocation of licence if it repeated its mistake on public holidays. The airline's on-time performance is the lowest in Southeast Asia.**
Ground service in Singapore : Good. It would provide potential customers convenience if Cebu Pacific Air opened a downtown sales and ticketing office in the city centre of Singapore to facilitate off-line bookings and answer walk-in enquiries during office hours, just like Lion Air. The call centre agents in Manila sometimes do not understand phone-in enquiries. **
Ground service in Manila in response to passengers' requests and enquiries : Poor. **
Overall Impression : Cebu Pacific Air, judging from various aspects of its services, is a two-star airline with plenty of room for service improvement. It needs to put in effort to project its image as a reliable LCC.
** Poor / two-star
*** Good / three-star
***** Very good / five-star
****** Excellent / six-star (the highest category)
Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals
XiamenAir is launching three new routes in late March 2015 with its Boeing B737-800 jets.
On 29 March 2015, XiamenAir flight MF841 departs from Hangzhou at 8.20 pm and arrives in Singapore at 1.20 am before taking off from Singapore at 2.30 am for Hangzhou and touches down in Hangzhou at 7.30 am on 30 March 2015 under MF842. Flights will operate on a daily basis without any transit in Xiamen and Fuzhou.
From Hangzhou, XiamenAir will continue to fly towards Xi'An, the eventual destination of the new route.
On 30 March 2015, XiamenAir flight MF817 departs from Jinjiang Airport of Quanzhou for Manila at 8.50 am, arrives in Manila at 11 am before taking off from Manila at 11.55 am and returning to Quanzhou at 2 pm under MF818 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
On 31 March 2015, XiamenAir flight MF839 resumes Xiamen Airlines flight to Osaka from Xiamen at 3 pm, arrives in Osaka Kansai at 6.50 pm before embarking on the return journey to Xiamen at 7.50 pm and touching down in Xiamen at 10.15 pm under MF840 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals
Jatayu Airlines which stopped flying to Singapore from Pekanbaru more than seven years ago plans to resume commercial domestic flights in Indonesia by April 2015 in the name of New Jatayu Air.
Its commercial manager Mr Handrich said that New Jatayu Air is still waiting to receive its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the Indonesian civil aviation authority in Jakarta. It hopes that it will start flying as early as March 2015 or by April 2015 and introduces its new inflight magazine.
New Jatayu Air aircraft Boeing B737-200 has been left stranded at Hang Nadim International Airport of Batam for almost one year. Its official web-site www.jatayuair.co.id only allows demonstration flight searches, and not online bookings tentatively. Interested customers can reserve for open-date tickets at the Palembang branch office only.
New Jatayu Air last announced on 24 February 2014 that it was planning to launch commercial low-cost flights linking Batam with Bandung and Palembang in 2014.
Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals
MIAT Mongolian Airlines, that launched twice-weekly scheduled flights from Ulaanbaatar to Singapore via Beijing on Wednesdays and Saturdays in late September 2014, is conducting its last scheduled flight to Singapore on 4 March 2015, according to its GSA in Singapore, Aviation Services (S) Pte Ltd.
Due to operational requirements, MIAT flight OM232 operates its last Ulaanbaatar-bound scheduled flight to Ulaanbaatar via Beijing on 28 February 2015. On this day, it departs from Changi Airport Terminal 3 at 7.30 pm, transits in Beijing at 1.45 am for one hour and arrives in Ulaanbaatar at 5.15 am on 1 March 2015 (Thursday).
The return one-way flight OM231 leaves Ulaanbaatar at 8.15 am on 4 March 2015, transits in Beijing at 10.30 am before embarking on its onward journey to Singapore at 11.30 am and touches down in Singapore at 6 pm on 4 March (Wednesday).
MIAT Mongolian Airlines wishes to advise passengers from Singapore intending to travel to Mongolia to fly with the airline via Hong Kong on 4 March onwards until further notice. No other airline flies to Ulaanbaatar from Hong Kong except MIAT.
MIAT is resuming summer flights to Frankfurt from Ulaanbaatar in June 2015.
