Hainan Airlines has applied to operate a non-stop flight between Beijing and Seattle in the United States starting next June. After the application is approved, the airline will become the fourth Chinese carrier for flights between China and the United States. The other three are Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines.

(The privately-owned Hainan Airlines did a pretty good job garnering publicity for its flight to Lhasa from northwest China’s Xi’an. The 137 passengers on the inaugural flight received iconic Tibetan welcomes featuring butter tea and Hada. The flight attendants entered into the spirit of the act as seen in our illustration.)

The application follows a recent agreement between China and the United States on doubling the number of passenger flights between the two countries by 2012. Hainan Airlines, China’s fourth largest carrier, has applied to operate the Beijing-Seattle route using Airbus A330 planes.

As an interim measure the Airbus airplanes will probably be leased until Hainan Airlines takes delivery of new Boeing widebody jets. In 2005, the company ordered eight 787 Dreamliners and the first plane is scheduled to be delivered in June 2008. Currently there are no non-stop flights between Seattle and Beijing.

The transportation agreement allows 23 daily round-trip flights between China and the United States by 2012, up from the 10 flights at present. There is a mad stampede on among the American airlines to take up their share. This is not true in China.

The problem is that the profitable percentage of passengers will mainly be American and, by and large, Americans prefer to fly on their own carriers. It can be debated whether an American airline provides a better flight experience than a Chinese airline. Many frequent fliers who do have allegiance to either country think a plague on both their houses. Neither American nor Chinese airlines are up to the standards set by, say, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Emirates or even Qantas.

In 2010, the two countries are set to begin negotiations on an ‘open skies’ agreement, which will lift restrictions on commercial air traffic. Unless China’s airlines have lifted their game so that they offer a passenger experience the equivalent to, say, Cathay Pacific, then that agreement will mainly benefit the airlines of the United States rather than the airlines of China.
Source: China Daily

Shenzhen Airlines now flies from Shenzhen to Lhasa in a bid to get a slice of the booming tourism industry in the Tibet Autonomous Region. With a stopover in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, it will take about five-and-a-half hours to fly from Shenzhen to Lhasa.

Liu Jianping, vice-president of Shenzhen Airlines said, ‘As the first air route to link Tibet and Shenzhen, the new route will greatly promote the exchanges in economy, culture and tourism between Lhasa, Chongqing and Shenzhen.

‘It will also play a positive role for Tibet in attracting outside investment and tourists from the Pearl River Delta areas.’

The carrier will have four flights every week. Tibet’s tourist arrivals are expected to pass three million by the end of this year and double that by 2010 according to a forecast by the tourism authority.
Source: China Daily

For Cathay Pacific the seriously competitive market is cargo, not passengers. It reported a 55% increase in profit — net income $330 million compared to the $281 million median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of four analysts — and overall sales climbed 28% to $4.4 billion.

Cathay Pacific and its Dragonair unit carried 11 million passengers in the first half, 1.3% more than a year earlier. The two airlines filled 78.1% of seats, compared with 77.7% a year earlier.

But Cathay Pacific said its cargo yield, or average rate per shipment, fell 8.3% in the first half. The drop came amid increasing competition from Deutsche Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and other carriers that have set up ventures in China. Cargo revenue accounted for 21% of the airline’s revenue in the first half.

Everything else seemed pretty rosy. Cathay Pacific added 21 routes into China, the world’s second-largest aviation market, with the purchase of Hong Kong Dragon Airlines.

Back to freight. Cathay aims to add at least 11 more freighters by the end of 2009 and to form a Shanghai cargo venture with Air China by the end of the year.

The Shanghai-based venture would let Cathay Pacific fly cargo from China directly to the United States and Europe instead of via Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific ranked behind only Korean Air Lines, Lufthansa and Singapore Air in terms of international cargo traffic in 2005, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Chief Executive Officer Tony Tyler said at a press conference, ‘To get the yield up in cargo is a difficult task. We are in a very competitive market. We are very confident in the long run about cargo as an element of our business.”
Sources: International Herald Tribune and Bloomberg

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has bought a 20% stake in Air Asia X. This is a new Malaysian airline offering budget long-haul flights. The airline has been given permission to fly from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur to China as well as other destinations.

Air Asia X is controlled by Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes. Virgin confirmed that it had bought a fifth of the shares in Fly Asian Xpress, the holding company for the airline.

Richard Branson said he expected the new airline to enjoy the ’same success’ as its short-haul counterpart had in the past six years.

It is reported that Air Asia X will begin its first services to China next month. Other services are expected to follow. The airline has ordered 15 planes from Airbus.
Source: BBC

Polish flag air carrier PLL LOT will, after nearly 10 years, resume flights to China as of March 30, 2008. Ticket sales start immediately.

LOT hopes the re-opening of the route, with four scheduled flights a week, will allow the firm to expand its long-distance network and profit from increased air travel between Europe and Asia.

LOT CEO Piotr Siennicki said in a published statement, ‘The beginning of flights to Beijing is a first step towards enlargement of the long-distance destination network in the eastern direction. Due to stronger economic contacts between the Asian states and Poland and the whole of Europe and more tourist travel to that area, the Far East is a natural direction for LOT.’

LOT also hopes that the route will help Warsaw airport become a regional hub.
LOT will offer four flights a week: on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Warsaw and on Mondays Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from Beijing.

LOT plans to operate mainly Boeing 767 on the route, although these will be replaced with B787 Dreamliner from the fall of 2008.
Source: Virtualna Polska