Representatives of foreign airlines have agreed to make every effort to ensure that visitors to the Beijing Olympics enjoy the smoothest possible arrival in the Chinese capital.

Li Jiangmin, director of the Department of International Affairs & Cooperation under the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), speaking to some 110 representatives from 58 overseas passenger airline carriers, said, ‘Thousands of athletes, journalists and visitors will begin their Olympics journey by getting on board your and our airlines.’ This after guiding them through the just-finished Terminal Three, which greatly increases the airport’s handling capacity.

The foreign airlines have each agreed to select a chief representative as ‘first person responsible for the Olympic project in China and whould have a special envoy for the Olympics in the company.’

The airport will see some 1,400 flights arrive and depart every day when the Games begin next August.

At the moment, before the airport’s new Terminal Three becomes operational, the airport is on a ’slim flight plan’, cutting some 100 domestic flights to ensure flight safety and ease congestion. It aims to handle 1,000 flights a day by October. The new red-roofed terminal is set to open on a trial basis next February.
Source: China.org.cn

In the 2007 summer schedule, Lufthansa offers 52 non-stop weekly flights between China and Germany, servicing the four gateways of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. Now, through a strategic partnership with both Air China and Shanghai Airlines, Lufthansa has extended its network and services to even more Chinese cities.

Lufthansa was the first European airline to introduce native Chinese flight attendants on board its flights from and to China. And has been doing it for over six years.

Lufthansa employs about 200 native Chinese flight attendants. And the airline also supplies a wide choice of Chinese movies and audio entertainment.

On arrival in Germany, a Chinese Welcome Service is available to greet Chinese passengers in their language of choice and assist them on their travels.
Source: China.org.cn

Emirates will launch its second daily service to Shanghai on February 1, 2008. Ghaith Al Ghaith, Emirates’ Executive Vice President Commercial Operations Worldwide said: ‘Emirates’ current daily service to Shanghai has been exceptionally successful. From Shanghai, we currently offer excellent connections to Africa and Europe. . . ‘

‘We are seeing a sharp increase in demand since the UAE and Chinese governments have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate travel for Chinese tourist groups to the UAE.’

Since Emirates’ launch to Shanghai, the number of Chinese hotel visitors in Dubai has more than doubled from 32,265 in 2004 to 68,504 in 2006. Dubai imported $7.6 billion worth of Chinese goods and exported in excess of $134 million to China.

Emirates’ second daily will be served by the airline’s wide-bodied, plush Airbus A340-300 with 267 seats in a three-class configuration.

The problem is whether Dubai, as it stands, can be seen as a hub for international travel.

Dubai airport is not in the same league as Singapore or Hong Kong. Swapping flights there can be a chore.

Emirates is banking on the fact that its superior service — in which it is a world leader and challenges that of Singapore Airlines — is good enough to overcome the handicap of Dubai airport.
Source: Travel Daily News

First of all what is RNP? It stands for Required Navigation Performance which uses GPS (global positioning system) and sophisticated avionics to ensure that aircraft stay on precise, pre-programmed paths. Air China A319s will use this capability to guide its planes through Himalayan mountain valleys when arriving and departing the airport at Lhasa. The illustration shows the runway there and the fact you need all the help you can get.

It has already been used this month making it the world’s first Airbus plane to use RNP in revenue service. Now it is being extended through the Airbus A319 fleet.

Naverus makes the system and has worked with Airbus, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Air China to make this new safety measure work.

In addition to providing navigation solutions for terrain challenged airports, RNP can also be used to increase safety and operational efficiency while minimizing aircraft emissions and noise at any airport.

There is a further benefit which is not widely understood. It is possible, using meteorological information, to plan a flight path to use the minimum of fuel to get from A to B. As the price of fuel rises and as the protests against the so-called greenhouse effect become louder so it will be important for a commercial aircraft to use the least possible amount of fuel. Systems to fly aircraft in this way to some extent have been in use with some airlines for several years. Now RNP takes it to a new level.
Source: Aero-News.net

An agreement signed by Air China could see it becoming one of the largest airline training providers in the world. It has signed a framework agreement to build a training center in Shunyi near Beijing airport that will eventually house 30 full-flight simulators as well as other pilot and cabin-crew training equipment.

Air China said the framework agreement ‘is a letter of intent and final details still need to be worked out’. It adds ‘there is no specific timetable’ for building the new training center.

Air China says its existing center is ‘not that big’ and there have been occasions when the carrier has had to send pilots to other simulator centers in China or overseas. The airline wants a much larger training center to support future growth.

Air China said, ‘We are doing it because we have a plan to expand our fleet, so we need to have more pilots and cabin crew.’

The airline has 187 aircraft in service and another 81 on order, including Airbus A320-family aircraft, A330s and Boeing 787-8s. Air China also has equity stakes in other airlines such as Cathay Pacific Airways, Shenzhen Airlines and Shandong Airlines.

According to statistics from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), the industry regulator, about 11,000 pilots are employed to fly more than 770 aircraft operated by the major Chinese commercial airlines. This is a figure industry experts say is inadequate to cope with rocketing demand for passenger services.

The Civil Aviation Flight University of China, the nation’s major training school for commercial airline pilots based in Sichuan and Henan provinces, graduates a maximum of 600 pilots a year.

Based on the delivery of new aircraft, industry experts estimate that China has needed between 1,200 and 1,600 new pilots every year since 2000.

Our image is of a flight simulator. It may look like a Dalek but, inside, it is very close to the real thing. Pilots training in one can be put through emergencies that simply never happen in real life.
Source: Source: Flight