Ansett International will suspend its thrice-weekly services between Sydney and Taipei from 12 February because of declining yields. The Boeing 767-300ER used on the service will be re-deployed to domestic services. EVA Air will reinstate services between Taipei and Sydney in its own right. Ansett will increase Sydney-Hong Kong services from five a week to daily flights. Virgin has cleared two hurdles towards establishing a new domestic carrier in Australia. It has gained approvals from the Australian Federal Government's Foreign Investment Review Board and been awarded key slots at Sydney. DHL International plans to establish a central Asia hub in Hong Kong in partnership with Cathay Pacific. The hub, which will operate from the Express Cargo Terminal from March 2000, will be the focal point of DHL's Asian air network, combining with the company's south-east Asia hub in Singapore to provide intra-Asian services. Continental Airlines is launching a four times weekly non-stop service between Houston and Sao Paulo, Brazil, using McDonnell Douglas DC10-30s. United Airlines will reinstate its daily Hong Kong- Singapore service in mid-February after having dropped the route in early 1998 because of the Asian economic crisis. From April, Delta's low-fare carrier Delta Express will expand its New York presence to a third airport with the introduction of a service at Kennedy, with two daily round-trip flights to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This will be expanded to four flights daily in June. Delta Express already operates from New York's Islip/Long Island airport and Newark, New Jersey, and recently began non-stop services from Islip to Tampa, Florida. United Airlines has begun daily non-stop services between Melbourne, Australia, and Los Angeles, codesharing with Star Alliance partners Ansett Australia and Air New Zealand.
Source: Flight International
