mosburger

Well, maybe time?

The KA flight SHA - HKG departs 1:05 PM which makes it possible to have a long business dinner and stay overnight as far as Nanjing and still make it to the flight comfortably on high speed rail & line 10 for one stop (Terminal 2 to Terminal 1) at the SHA end.

Compared to departing from PVG on AY it effectively gives you a full evening available the previous day and even time for a morning meeting if in Western/Central Shanghai or environs.

I've heard quite recently the night flight PVG - HEL is still debated between the two governments but so far no deal from the Chinese side.

WilcoRoger

The CEO shot down KUL as being too close to SIN and I wish CAN to be year-round

I'd love to have KUL, even as a stop on the way to SIN, but it won't happen with MH offering good connections and even AY codeshare.

this is the key

OH-LGG

Not necessarily.
More aircrafts coming and like W17/18 BKK daily double is leaving HEL 11:55PM and is back in HEL after 30 hrs (6:05AM)

r2d2

Some destinations create enough revenue to have rotations longer than 24 hours. However the 24 hour rotation is a major competitive advantage for AY and I think it's unlikely to see destinations farther away if they don't have strong demand from the Nordics. Thus I don't expect any low-demand destinations outside the 24 hour rotation.

WilcoRoger

The 24 hrs "rule" was also mentioned during the DO, so it's more the rule and the longer rotations are the exceptions. Of course the A350 pushes that 24hrs limit somewhat further with its higher cruising speed.

ff_flyer

And third departure to BKK on Mon/Thu at 18:35, this rotation is back within the 24 hour time-window.
A330 for people allergic to A350.

HJP

Both AY143 and AY145 seem to be A330.

r2d2

Yes it does, but the difference is so small that there might be no reasonable destinations within the extension. The A350 is 20 minutes faster than the A330 on the NRT route (both ways) which translates into about 300 km of additional distance for the 24h limit.

intuition

QR just announced their third daily to DPS, so keep on dreaming...

mosburger

Basically the same is valid for almost any SE Asian destination.

The "Jihadist" ME3 & TK, CX and local carriers have a stranglehold over almost any destination there apart from Vietnam where business travel needs from around the Baltic Sea and suitable location make it possible for AY to increase frequencies.

Or if AY likes to gamble, how about a add-on flight to Davao, hometown of Filipino strongman Duterte from HKG? A lot of investment from both Asia and Europe going to be directed to Mindanao and that opens up at least some possibilities.

ffay005

Why on Earth does AY have such a schedule to BKK?

Do they have something planned for the plane while it is in BKK? Maintenance? A two-hour tag flight would be possible, too, but they would have announced it by now, so I don’t see that as likely. However, that way they could serve KUL, HAN or SGN or even one of the Hainan airports.

BKK is one of the few destinations where they can fill up the plane with Finns, so they don’t need to follow any of the waves. They can depart and arrive at HEL pretty much any time of day as long as it’s not the middle of the night, and there will be adequate domestic connections + ARN/TLL.

If they want to offer a night flight option BKK-HEL, why not leave HEL in the morning and offer a daytime option in this direction? Departing HEL at 8–8:30 am would mean that they have three planes to choose from (HKG, SIN, BKK) and good domestic connections. On a leisure based route, you’d imagine that convenient schedules aren’t even that important – if you fly once a year, you’ll get up at eg. 3 am with a smile, just like you do for those once-a-year LPA flights leaving at 5 am…

Does the BKK route really bring in so much money that it warrants two planes for a single daily flight? Sure, load factor is high, but what’s the revenue per seat on such a route? Lots of upgraded pax in J and lots of Aurinkomatkat package tourists. Wouldn’t AY make more money flying one of these planes to BKK and the other one somewhere else?

Very hard to understand why such a schedule would make any sense.

ffay005

Completely off-topic, but what's so great about DPS? I've been to Bali once, and probably made all the wrong choices (Kuta Beach, far too many new friends, dirty beach, terrible traffic, uninspiring shopping; Denpasar was okay as a city, I guess, but not particularly interesting or special). So if I go to Bali again, where should I go if I want to like it?

Back on-topic, I wonder if DPS could work as a tag flight from SIN, like KL does it and QR used to do. Sure, there's a lot of competition on the tag part, but in the winter season, DPS wouldn't require any additional planes. (SIN-HEL arrives before 6 am, it coud easily arrive an hour later and you'd still make connections at HEL.) Or is demand to SIN so big that there isn't room for DPS pax on board? How many of the pax now transfer to DPS at SIN?

intuition

As the big-off-topic:er I am I must second this question! Perhaps we should open a thread "My favourite (existing or future) AY destination and why".

I've been to Bali once and hated it. Would only go back if booked into a walled all inclusive place, to sip drinks by the pool and watch people trim the grass with nail-clippers.

CeruleanBlue

I LOVE Bali but stayed 1 night in Seminyak (posher than Kuta) and hated it. For culture and healthy living, go to Ubud. For surfing and quiet time to chill, go down south to Uluwatu. For diving, anywhere on the East coast or off to Lembongan island. For climbing, there are 2 volcanoes to trek. The rice paddies are interesting, too.

The trick with most places and Ubud in particular is to get away from the busy main streets and into the lush "suburbs" and rice paddies or beach stretches around town. This is where you find the resorts, spas and gorgeous places to trek.

Needless to say I would move to Bali if I didn't have to frequent a few other places so often.

duvin

I did that and loved it. Well - it wasn't an all-inclusive, but expensive enough not to be bothered by locals (or kids!). Could've been anywhere warm enough though.