Thursday, June 25, 2015

Peach expands Taipei; Haneda and more Kansai.

On June 25th, Peach Aviation [MM/APJ] officially revealed the launch of Tokyo/Haneda [HND/RJTT] – Taipei/Taoyuan [TPE/RCTP] on August 8th (Peach plans Narita hub and Haneda – Taipei.). The service will initially be operated six days a week with 180-seat Airbus A320s, but is expected to be increased to daily from the Winter 2015/2016 schedule. On the same date, the growing LCC will also add a third Osaka/Kansai [KIX/RJBB] – Taipei/Taoyuan round-trip which will be flown six days a week.

Airbus A320-214 JA803P taxies at Narita. Peach's fleet will steadily grow to 20 by 2017 (Peach orders three Airbus A320s.). No A320neo are planned at least for now. (Photo: Ryosuke Yano)

Peach's new link uses Haneda's under-utilized midnight slot-pairs allocated for international services. The aircraft for the Haneda route will arrive into Taipei as the third flight from Kansai late in the evening, and turn around for a red-eye flight to Haneda. After a brief 70-minute stay, it will return to Taipei as the outbound flight from Tokyo, in time for the first flight of the day from Taipei back to Kansai.

Fares will range from 7,680 JPY for a Happy Peach ticket, which only includes a 10-kilogram carry-on baggage allowance, and go up to 53,580 JPY for last-minute, flexible and inclusive tickets. Tickets will go on sale at a later date yet to be announced. A promotional 12,000 JPY round-trip fare will be offered for travel between August 19th and October 23rd.

Flight Schedule:
Kansai – Taipei/Taoyuan increase from 14 to 20 weekly. (Aug/8 - Oct/24)
MM023 KIX 0840 – 1030 TPE 320 Daily *Departs 10 min late on Mo.
MM027 KIX 1605 – 1755 TPE 320 Daily
MM029 KIX 2105 – 2255 TPE 320 Tu/We/Th/Fr/Sa/Su *No operation on Oct/16 & 23.
MM022 TPE 0915 – 1255 KIX 320 Mo/We/Th/Fr/Sa/Su *No operation on Oct/17 & 24.
MM024 TPE 1105 – 1445 KIX 320 Daily *Departs 10 min late on Mo.
MM028 TPE 1830 – 2210 KIX 320 Daily 

Haneda – Taipei/Taoyuan NEW six weekly with A320-200. (Aug/8 - Oct/24)
MM1029 HND 0555 – 0830 TPE 320 Mo/We/Th/Fr/Sa/Su *No operation on Oct/17 & 24.
MM1028 TPE 0030 – 0445 HND 320 Mo/We/Th/Fr/Sa/Su *No operation on Oct/17 & 24.

"We have become a pioneer in creating new markets. As with Kansai, we hope to tap into the still under-served Tokyo market and expand the pie," said CEO Shinichi Inoue. The Kansai-based carrier will be the first Japanese LCC to serve heavily-regulated Haneda, and the third LCC overall after AirAsia X [D7/XAX], Hong Kong Express Airways [UO/HKE] (d.b.a. HK Express), and Spring Airlines [9C/CQH], which will also start on August 5th with a four-times-weekly service connecting Shanghai/Pudong [PVG/ZSPD]. Tigerair Taiwan [IT/TTW] and Zest Airways [Z2/EZD] (d.b.a AirAsia Zest) have plans as well.

Besides the newly-announced Haneda route, Peach is adding Kansai – Miyazaki [KMI/RJFM] on August 28th (Peach loads Kansai – Miyazaki.), followed by Naha – Seoul/Incheon [ICN/RKSI] on September 4th (Peach announces Okinawa – Seoul.). From its base at Osaka/Kansai [KIX/RJBB] and Okinawa/Naha [OKA/ROAH] (Peach launches Naha hub; but Naha – Ishigaki axed.), Japan's so far most successful LCC would operate nine international and 13 domestic routes covering 17 destinations by then. Tokyo/Narita [NRT/RJAA] (Peach starts Narita to Fukuoka and Sapporo.) and Sendai [SDJ/RJSS] (Peach plans Sendai hub by Summer 2017.) have already been announced as their third and fourth hubs in the future.

Source: Peach Aviation, June 25th. (in Japanese)
Source: Peach Aviation, June 25th. (in Japanese)

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