Qantas Airways said Tuesday it is axing its underperforming Sydney-Beijing route from March due to stiff competition from Chinese airlines and weak business class demand. The carrier had relaunched the route in 2017 in its third attempt in 35 years to make it viable and had already lowered the number of weekly flights to five from seven in 2018. It will maintain daily flights from Sydney to Shanghai, where it partners with hub carrier China Eastern Airlines. Qantas said since it had reintroduced the direct Sydney-Beijing services in 2017, capacity from Beijing to Australia on Chinese airlines had grown by around 20% and was expected to grow even further in 2020 at a time when broader international capacity to Australia was declining. <br/>
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Finnair is aiming to increase its fleet to more than 100 aircraft under a 6-year development plan which will focus on achieving a sustainable, profitable growth path. It is aiming to increase its short-haul fleet from 61 aircraft – comprising 37 Airbus single-aisle jets and 24 regional aircraft – to around 70 by 2025. Finnair will also expand its long-haul fleet from 22 aircraft to about 30. It operates 8 Airbus A330-300s and 14 A350-900s. CE Topi Manner said the carrier was embarking on a new phase of development, amounting to a "notable shift" from its previous accelerated growth. Manner says the airline is to "double down" on its strategy of serving European-Asian routes via Helsinki, by focusing on increasing frequencies to major high-yield Asian cities rather than adding new destinations. <br/>
British Airways has launched a review into a money-saving practice which increases its greenhouse gas emissions. It follows a BBC investigation exposing "fuel tankering" by airlines - in which planes are filled with extra fuel, usually to avoid paying higher prices for refuelling at destination airports. The industry-wide practice could mean extra annual emissions equivalent to those of a large European town. BA now says that using tankering to cut costs "may be the wrong thing to do". However, the airline added that it also uses the practice for safety and operational reasons, including helping planes to turn around quickly. IAG says it wants to be the world's leading airline group on sustainability. BA boasts it even prints its in-flight magazine on lighter paper to save weight. <br/>