hayzel7773

They've been looking at an out plan for almost a year now. If they really wanted out, they would have axed the route. The route is a legacy route of 34 years that is considered prestigious to them. Unless things go south in terms of CI financials, the route is here to stay. The moment financials go bad, NYC will be the first to go.

bzcat

CI should really figure out a way to increase yield out of JFK instead of always complaining about the costs. Port Authority is not going to cut them a deal either way (EWR and JFK are both managed by the same entity).

I would be curious if CI even have a local sales force based in Manhattan. You can't survive at JFK as a commercial airline (as opposed to Govt own/subsidized one) just with ethnic VFR traffic and no corporate contracts.

tris06

They do have an office so they do seem to have a local sales office. New York633 3rd Avenue, 8th Floor, Suite 800, New York, NY 10017, U.S.A.
Tel: 1-917-368-2000
Fax: 1-212-867-3190
Reservations: 1-800-227-5118
Office Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 - 17:30 ET (Except Public Holidays)



NY is likely struggling because of oversupply, and actually the USA-Taiwan on particular routes are a little oversupplied with capacity. Eva is also losing money from memory when it was discussed but was able to absorb the costs. As coolfish mentioned earlier as long as its a small loss and not going to threaten the overall sustainability of the company then CI will continue flying to New York. I plan to fly to New York next year in June. I will likely pay much higher rate than deals to fly out of the USA which always seem really good value in comparison to flights starting from Asia or Australia.

I still hope we will see some more orders of the A350 soon to replace the B777 (Long haul) in the next 5/6 years as it is much more efficient and cost effective even if the staff don't like it.

coolfish1103

The thing is operating out of EWR is more expensive than JFK, LGA is not an option to land and SWF is way too far out of the city area, so this is either Ho brain farting or just stick with JFK (or cancel).

hayzel7773

Just some news about CI:

CI835 was forced to turn around and head back to TPE after 3 unruly and drunk pax began to drink their duty free alcohol, smoke on the plane and assaulted a cabin crew. One of the gentleman even went to smoke in the bathroom. The smoke detector did not go off. The CAA is now investigating why the smoke detector failed. They were accommodated onto a CAL flight the next day. They face a maximum fine of NT50k for their unruly act(including the assault).

2nd thing is that union troubles are stirring up again. CI recently fired 3 TFAU FAs thst were on the CI division of TFAU’s leadership. The union claims its retribution for union membership, CI says they were fired due to a personality issue(tardiness etc.) and one was fired for that+ due to destruction of company property(the guy that was wearing the company uniform and someone splashed red paint all over it during a union skit). The lawyer is saying they are preparing a lawsuit and the 3 have been removed from union leadership as they no longer qualify for the position. The corporate union, which underwent a “hostile takeover” type event by TFAU, is joining TFAU in its protest and says they may join the suit. Interesting times for CI and Labor relations. They seem to be struggling compared to BR and the unions.
UPDATE: After today's newest Transport committee meeting, the govt leaders are urging the MOTC to take care of the issue because they are the "largest shareholder of CAL". CAL has updated its statement saying one employe damaged company property(the uniform), one defamed the company when he said "would you want to fly this type of plane(CAL)", another two did not wear IDs during work, were habitually late, and demonstrated poor service standards. Unlike what the union claims, they have NOT been terminated yet but are in the midst of going through the discipline committee.

In addition, some alarming news about FAT has come out. According to market analysts, FATs worsening financials have placed the airline in risk of bankruptcy. However, the airline claims they have been profitable since '15. Minister of Transport claims that the airline won't close(though the same was said about Transasia when reports came out last year). The CAA has no comment even though they are the ones with the specifics on FATs financials(they get to audit every single quarter). Taiwan will be introducing ageing aircraft laws next year, and this will most definitely affect FAT. They have recruited SABRE to help run its ops and make the operation profitable. I hope we won't see another airline go.

coolfish1103

Apparently all Oceania routes are going 359 from Spring 2018, so that's another 1.5 planes utilized. Brisbane taking 1 359 and Melbourne taking 3/7 359.

Vienna probably taking the other 2/7.

tris06

Which spring? Australian spring or northern hemisphere spring??? I assume we mean northern hemisphere which makes me super happy! Now I want to start purchasing only PE flights from spring 2018.

2 A350's are going to be delivered within the next 2/3 months and maybe a 3rd one around May/June 2018. Final frame is due around September/ October so maybe this will be used for expansion only?

tris06

Found it here. Okay good in march it starts..China Airlines moves Australia/NZ to all-A350 service from Mar 2018

China Airlines in this week’s schedule update filed additional changes to its Northern summer 2018 season, effective 25MAR18. All service to Australia and New Zealand is now scheduled to be operated by A350, instead of A330, including following routes.

Taipei Taoyuan – Brisbane – Auckland eff 25MAR18 A350-900XWB replaces A330-300, 1 daily
CI053 TPE2350 – 1045+1BNE1250+1 – 1800+1AKL 359 D
CI054 AKL1930 – 2130BNE2300 – 0555+1TPE 359 D

Taipei Taoyuan – Melbourne eff 25MAR18 A350-900XWB replaces A330-300, 3 weekly
CI057 TPE2325 – 1045+1MEL 359 257
CI058 MEL2210 – 0555+1TPE 359 136

Previously reported changes for Australia/New Zealand service:
Taipei Taoyuan – Sydney eff 25MAR18 Northern summer season operates 11 weekly (CI055/056 Day x136) instead of 14 weekly. A350 operation

hayzel7773

Looks like they are trying to make sure that BR doesn't enter the market!

coolfish1103

I am not sure if it has to do with BR much cause the original plan for the 359 was to replace all 343 and 333 long haul routes (which includes Oceania flights). Plus BR use to serve AKL, SYD and they dropped before CI even ventured in.

It's more of whether BR cares about Oceania passengers or Kangaroo route transfers. Maybe they will have to start some routes here with those excess planes coming in.

coolfish1103

I think CI just made a suicidal switch at LAX by putting the day time flight all in to ONT.

CI 5/6 is cancelled and all becomes 23/4 to Ontario.

tris06

does that mean they only Have 1 daily flight from LAX then?

bzcat

I agree... I think this is going to decimate their North American yield due to all the broken connections and belly cargo revenue. I hope the subsidy they are getting from ONT is very generous.

Yes, just 1 single midnight departure.


CI008 TPE2350 – 2050LAX 77W D
CI007 LAX0005 – 0500+1TPE 77W D

CI024 TPE1610 – 1320ONT 77W D
CI023 ONT1545 – 2055+1TPE 77W D

TerryK

Wow, daily ONT-TPE flights. That's aggressive. When does service start?

bzcat

March 25, 2018 is when ONT goes daily