Wednesday, August 12 2026 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
HONG KONG – The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has opened its second city hotel in China, Mandarin Oriental Pudong, Shanghai, and is offering guests two packages, both priced from CN 3,600 (plus 15% service charge), until September 30.
TOKYO – Japan Airlines is planning to introduce its new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to more international routes from June 1, including Boston, San Diego, Singapore and Beijing (from June), Delhi (from July), Moscow and San Francisco (from September) and Sydney and Bangkok (from December). JAL will launch a new (daily) service from Narita to Helsinki on July 1.
DUBAI – Emirates is increasing capacity on its Bangkok and Hong Kong services. There will be a second daily, non-stop Airbus A380 service to Bangkok and a fourth daily service from Dubai to Hong Kong from October 27. Emirates currently has five flights daily to Bangkok, including one A-380. The second A-380 will replace a smaller aircraft. www.emirates.com (ATI).
SYDNEY – China Southern Airlines will begin a daily A380 service from Guangzhou to Sydney effective October 27. The airline’s new A300-300 and A300-200 aircraft with flat beds in Business Class will also be deployed onto Australian services – to Melbourne and Sydney – by the end of October. The new A300-223 aircraft entered service on routes to Brisbane and Perth from the beginning of April.
BANGKOK – Thai International subsidiary THAI Smile has adopted Phuket as its second hub after Bangkok, with new services from Phuket to New Delhi (twice weekly), Phuket to Mumbai (twice weekly) and Phuket to Kuala Lumpur (four weekly). New THAI Smile services have also been launched from Bangkok to Mandalay, Burma, (five weekly) and Bangkok to Ahmedabad, India (twice weekly). The airline operates 11 new A-320 aircraft in two classes – Economy and Smile Plus (short-haul Business class). From Bangkok it services Macau, Surat Thani, Krabi, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Ubon Ratchatani and Udon Thani.
GUANGZHOU - China Southern Airlines has opened a new red carpet check-in area at Baiyun International Airport for First and Business Class passengers following a 30% increase in front-end travellers from 2011 to 2012. The airline has seen a big spike in front-end travel since it launched A380 services from Guangzhou to Los Angeles last year (A380 aircraft will service Guangzhou-Sydney flights from October). www.flychinasouthern.com