China Eastern Airlines reports the proposed sale of a minority stake to Singapore Airlines has won the approval of four government agencies. As a result it expects trading in its shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai to resume before the end of this month.

The four agencies who have approved are the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission and the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

China Eastern is still awaiting the final approval of the State Council.

Luo Zhuping, board secretary of China Eastern Airlines said, ‘The terms of the proposed sales are similar to what have been widely reported in the media.’

According to the latest reports, Singapore Airlines and Temasek, the Singapore government’s investment company, will buy a combined stake of about 25% in China Eastern, China’s third-largest carrier.

Luo Zhuping said, ‘The top priority for us is to introduce new products from Singapore Airlines to improve client services. There’re going to be significant changes to the management of the company.

‘There will be a great improvement in the company’s decision-making and financial management after the induction of Singapore Airlines representatives into China Eastern’s board of directors.’

Good, nay, excellent. And staff training exchanges between China Eastern Airlines and Singapore Airlines have been conducted for a long time. More frequent exchanges are expected after the share sale.

All of which is very important. What the airlines of China need is the pizzaz, the imagery, the inflight service, the customer care which is synonymous with Singapore Airlines.

Silly to argue about which is the best airline in the world. There are so many different criteria you can use. But Singapore would certainly be in the top three. Now some of that magic may come to an airline in China. Which is most excellent news.
Source: China.org.cn

According to the civil aviation regulator passengers carried by Chinese airlines rose 16.7% over the same period last year to 86.7 million in the first half of 2007.

The General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) reported domestic passengers increased by 16.2% to 78.8 million while international passengers reached 7.9 million, up 21.8%.

Cargo traffic carried by Chinese airlines rose 15.3% to 1.83 million tons with domestic cargo growing by 11.3% to 1.32 million tons and that for international routes of 508,000 tons, up 27.2%.

During the period, revenues generated by China’s civil aviation sector rose 18.3% to RMB121.8 billion while net profit reached RMB4.62 billion, up RMB4.97 billion from the same period last year.

Registered aircraft in the civil aviation sector in China totaled 1,054 at the end of June, an increase of 56% over six months ago.
Source: China View

China Southern Airlines, the country’s biggest carrier, has agreed to buy 55 more Boeing planes to enlarge its fleet and replace old aircraft. (Our illustration is of a model plane, not a real one although in the right colors.)

The new Boeing B737-700 and B737-800 planes are scheduled for delivery between May 2011 and October 2013. China Southern is adding aircraft in part to replace aging planes to improve its competitiveness.

China’s air-passenger numbers rose 17% in the first half and it is to be expected that passengers will soon be demanding a better inflight — as well as a better onground — service. As it stands there is some way to go in these areas.

At catalog rates, the planes would cost more than $3 billion, according to calculations by the Bloomberg news service.

China Southern will pay ’significantly lower’ prices although what those prices will be has not been stated.

The acquisition will be funded partly in cash through internal sources and partly through loans to be obtained from commercial banks, it said.

China Southern has acquired 37 Boeing B737-800 planes, six Boeing B777F freighters and 20 Airbus A320 series planes in the last 12 months.
Source: Chicago Tribune

China’s aviation regulator has stopped accepting applications to set up new airlines until 2010. This, like the new restrictions on flights into Beijing, is part of effort to ease manpower and airspace shortages. These have been caused by the massive growth in air travel. However, it may be worth mentioning that the major airlines are, in effect and in fact, owned by the government.

And the move also has a protectionist flavor, with the government making an exception for the establishment of airlines that use Chinese-made regional jets, the first of which are expected to begin test flights this year.

Further exemptions will be made for freight airlines and carriers that use mostly foreign pilots, promise to fly at night, or which fly to impoverished regions in China’s west and north-east.

However, there is no doubt that there are many overly optimistic aspirant carriers who want to get into the airline industry ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

This, as stated, is an addition, an extension, to the cut in the number of flights in and out of Beijing Capital International Airport. The initial step is a cut of 48 a day but more flight cuts are planned for major cities including Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Mainland Chinese airlines carried 45.81 million passengers in the second quarter of this year, up 17.5% from the same period a year earlier. Six major airlines — China Southern Airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines and Hainan Airlines — account for more than 90% of passengers carried in China.

China has so far approved the establishment of just three private airlines: Beijing-based Okay Airways, Chengdu-based United Eagle Airlines and Shanghai-based Air Spring.
Sources: CargoNews Asia and The Financial Times

A total of 336 domestic flights to and from Beijing will be scrapped from August 15 to October 27. This is because of the poor on time performance due, mainly, to a shortage of technicians and other professionals and the limited capacity of domestic airports. It will lower the number of peak hour flights from more than 60 to 58 per hour.

In a second phase of cuts, from November to March, the number of peak hour flights at Beijing will fall to 55 per hour.

According to the CAAC, most flights to be canceled are operated by the nation’s three leading carriers: Air China, China Southern and China Eastern.

Airlines had been warned over almost 120 flights since the CAAC launched a campaign in June to reduce delays at Beijing airport. The CAAC named the 20 most-delayed flights every 10 days. Flights were cancelled after two warnings.

The campaign should prevent long delays next August when Beijing hosts the 2008 Olympic Games.

The CAAC saw the flight cuts as concrete steps to cool the overheating development of air transport. Sources said 18 airports, including Beijing, Shanghai Hongqiao, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Dalian and Urumqi, had been operating at their maximum capacity.

China’s air transport is growing at an average annual rate of more than 16%. Beijing handled 26 million passengers in the first half of 2007, and the number for the whole year will far exceed its designed annual capacity of 35 million passengers.
Source: People’s Daily Online