Air China's - Orient Aviation

Blue, Patrick Corp., was acquired by rivaltransport conglomerate, Toll Holdings.It is widely believed, assisted by SirRichard’s enigmatic comments about VirginBlue, that Toll will offer the British tycoonfirst rights to buy 62.5% of Virgin Blue oncethe takeover bid wins its expected approvalfrom the Australian regulatory authorities.– Tom BallantyneThe bell tolls forAustralian AirlinesQantas Airways is to close itsloss-making leisure subsidiary,Australian Airlines, in midyear,expand its domestic carrier, Jetstarand accelerate the launch of its long-haulinternational low-cost airline, JetstarInternational to this November.The Cairns, northern Queensland-basedairline has a fleet of five B767-300s. It flew toBali, several Japanese cities and Hong Kongand Singapore, but its operating costs arenow 30% higher than Jetstar.Jetstar will absorb some of Australian’sAustralian Airlines: operating costs 30% higher than Jetstarinternational routes and Qantas will takeover the Cairns to Singapore service.Qantas chief executive, Geoff Dixon,said he “was creating two distinct and viablebusinesses” in what remains as a very difficultoperating environment.“Jetstar will grow aggressively over thenext three years while we will continue toexpand Qantas’ international operations.The result will be two, separate competitivebrands with Qantas targeting premium businessand leisure passengers and Jetstar concentratingprimarily on leisure markets”,said Dixon.Jetstar International plans to open newAustralia-Asia services including Phuket,Bangkok, Osaka, Honolulu and Ho ChiMinh City.– Tom BallantyneNew China ATC corridorIn April, China opened an air trafficcorridor through previously restrictedwestern China air space, a decision thatcould reduce a 12 to 13-hour Asia-Europejourney by 30 minutes and save airlines upto US$30 million in fuel per year.The International Air TransportAssociation (IATA), which has been negotiatingwith China for several years to free upmore air space paths for international airlinesoverflying China, said the new route, IATA1, could initially benefit 110 flights a week.IATA added the route would eliminate2,860 hours of flying time, save 27,000 tonnesof fuel, cut out 84,400 tonnes of carbon dioxideemissions and reduce 340,000 kgs ofnitrogen oxide emissions annually.MAY 2006 ORIENT AVIATION 11