Melbourne Airport (MEL) ended 2022 with a flourish and this year has started in similar fashion.
After recording its busiest month since the onset of the pandemic in December, January saw the likes of Batik Air commence service from Bali (DPS), Sichuan Airlines resume flights from Chengdu (CTU), and Emirates add a third daily flight.
Additionally, Vietjet announced plans to serve the city from Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) from April—its first-ever Australian route—and Qantas outlined its entry to the Melbourne-Jakarta (CGK) market.
“Other carriers, such as Qatar Airways and United, are now flying more seats into Melbourne than they were pre-pandemic, which speaks to the confidence they have in Victoria,” SVP and head of airline business development Michael Cullen told Routes. “One of our other big recent successes is the return of Chinese carriers to Melbourne. By March, we’re hopeful of being at almost 50% of pre-pandemic capacity from mainland China, which will also help support our overall international recovery.”
Cullen said Melbourne is tipped to be the largest city in Australia by 2030—and he expects that to fuel more nonstop service, particularly as aircraft technology catches up to enable more efficient long-haul flights.
The Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT) and its counterpart in China have signed an agreement to push for bilateral tourism cooperation between the two countries.
Under the five-year agreement, the nations have agreed to support the exchange of administrators and tourism professionals to strengthen their mutual development in the areas of hotels, resorts, cruise ships, ports, tourism products and other related industries.Local tour operators and travel agencies will also take part by jointly advertising both countries’ tourist offerings through promotional materials and highlighting significant attractions and destinations.
“We are grateful for China’s commitment and interest in partnering with the Philippines as we usher in this new era of tourism focused on building the industry into a stronger, more sustainable, and more resilient economic pillar for the country’s transformation into a tourism powerhouse in Asia,” Philippine tourism secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said.
Japan’s Sapporo/New Chitose Airport (CTS), operated by Hokkaido Airports Co., welcomed 15.2 million passengers during 2022, an uplift of some 85% on the previous 12 months. This marks the first year since 2019 the airport has exceeded 10 million passengers
Domestic traffic accounted for the lion’s share of traffic last year, with 15 million passengers traveling on flights within Japan. About 257,000 departed and arrived on international routes.
Sapporo/New Chitose is located about 5 km (3.1 mi.) southeast of Chitose and Tomakomai, serving the Sapporo metropolitan region. All Nippon Airways is the largest operator at CTS by capacity, followed by Japan Airlines and Peach.
Across all seven airports operated by Hokkaido Airports Co.—which also include Obihiro, Asahikawa, Hakodate, Wakkanai Hokkaido, Kushiro, Memanbetsu—traffic collectively totaled 2 million passengers in December 2022, a 38% year-on-year increase.
SEA MILAN
Milan Malpensa (MXP) has strengthened its Asia network with the return of Air India. The carrier has resumed its four times per week service from Delhi (DEL) after a suspension of almost three years.
The restart of the route restores the Italian airport’s nonstop link with India—a market which saw O&D traffic of about 335,000 two-way passengers during 2019.
Other Asia connections currently operating from MXP include Air China’s direct flights to Beijing Capital (PEK), Cathay Pacific’s service to Hong Kong (HKG), and Singapore Airlines’ daily operations to Singapore Changi (SIN). Additionally, Korean Air has outlined plans to add a fourth weekly frequency to its Seoul Incheon (ICN) route from July.
Milan Malpensa, which is operated by SEA Milan, recorded 21.3 million passengers in 2022, a year-on-year rise of 122%. The total number of aircraft movements jumped by almost 58% to 186,626.
IT service provider Lufthansa Systems has secured six new customers for its NetLine/Plan network planning tool over the past 12 months, including two in the Asia-Pacific region.
It has also launched a new product called NetLine/HubDesigner, designed for airlines with one or more hubs. The platform optimizes fleet utilization and creates the ideal bank structure at a single hub or in a multi-hub environment.
“Our ambitions are quite straightforward—providing state-of-the-art network planning tools that help our customers to tackle the most complex network planning challenges in the current and future operating environment,” said Jan-Peter Never, product owner, NetLine/Plan at Lufthansa Systems.
“We see a lot of interest in NetLine/Plan and the NetLine/HubDesigner from the Asia-Pacific region.”
