Association of Asia Pacific Airlines

A five-year Qantas Airways plan to reduce dependence on domestic flights and business services and establish two Asian joint-venture partnerships aims to help the Australian carrier to stimulate overseas business. It will lay off 1,000 employees, defer deliveries of six Airbus A380s (and possibly some Boeing 787s), retire four Boeing 747-400s and replace two London services with British Airways code-shares beyond Bangkok and Hong Kong.

In a bid to resuscitate  “steadily fading” overseas operations, Australia’s Qantas Airways plans to make 1,000 domestic jobs redundant, defer Airbus A380 (and possibly some Boeing 787) deliveries, retire some Boeing 747-400s, and replace some long-haul services with code-sharing flights.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) said today it expects to take delivery of the first production Boeing 787 in September, roughly a month before a planned, inaugural charter flight between Toyko Narita International Airport and Hong Kong. Following a pair of one-hour, domestic excursions out of Narita, ANA plans to launch scheduled service between Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and Okayama or between Haneda and Hiroshima.

If start-ups are indicators of a healthy completion and refurbishment industry, there is cause for optimism in an industry that has been hard hit over the last several years. Recent months saw the creation of new centers, designers, vendors and consultancies as well as expansion by existing MRO facilities to include cabin outfitting.