Air New Zealand will have a new twice weekly direct Auckland-Beijing service. Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe and said the direct service would operate from July 18.

The service, subject to all necessary Chinese regulatory and operating approvals, would operate out of Auckland on Wednesday and Friday and out of Beijing on Thursday and Saturday using the airline’s new Boeing 777-200ER aircraft.

Rob Fyfe said the new service would build on the success of the airline’s Auckland-Shanghai service which was launched in November 2006.

He said, ‘Chinese visitor numbers to New Zealand continue to boom, increasing approximately 14% year-on-year, and its rapidly developing economy offers significant potential for both Air New Zealand and the broader New Zealand tourism industry.’

To provide sufficient capacity for the Beijing flights, the airline will cut its Auckland Shanghai service to three times a week until November 2008.

Rob Fyfe said from November next year the airline planned to operate five services a week to Shanghai, plus the two Beijing flights.

Group general manager international airline Ed Sims said, ‘Our direct Shanghai service was primarily aimed to serve its 17 million citizens. By offering a direct service to Beijing, we expect to gain a greater number of customers looking to travel to New Zealand from other parts of China, and from Europe. It will also provide Kiwis with an easy and convenient way to travel deeper into China.’
Source: Stuff

BOC Aviation, Bank of China’s aircraft-leasing unit, aims to buy up to $2 billion worth of aircraft that airlines have ordered and are unable to finance with bank loans because of the global credit squeeze.

Chief Executive Officer Robert Martin said Asia’s biggest lessor plans to more than double aircraft purchases from airlines next year from the $700 million it bought in 2007. The Singapore-based company received a $1 billion credit facility, its largest loan, from Bank of China this month at a rate lower than it would get from other banks.

He said, ‘With issues that are hitting financiers in Europe and US related to subprime, we are now seeing a slowing down of liquidity growth in Asia as well, With a financing market that is going to be tighter, this is the right time for us to go back to the sale and leaseback market.’

According to Frost & Sullivan, a New York-based research company, the global market for leased aircraft will be worth $144 billion by 2008, from $115 billion in 2004. Growth has attracted new entrants such as DAE Capital, the leasing unit of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, and lenders including Standard Chartered and Macquarie Bank.

Borrowing costs jumped in mid-August as banks, including Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch started reporting losses on securities tied to U.S. subprime mortgages. The global credit slump may force banks, brokerages and hedge funds to cut lending by $2 trillion.

The loan from Bank of China, which bought the BOC Aviation leasing unit last year, will be at an interest margin lower than the rate BOC Aviation has been getting from other banks.

Robert Martin said, ‘That positioned us very well to be able to assist our airline customers in financing their aircraft.’

The International Air Transport Association said this week airline earnings will fall 11% next year because of higher oil prices and an expected slump in demand in the U.S.
Source: Bloomberg

European aircraft producer Airbus has authorized a Shenzhen company to be its first maintenance center in Asia.

Lufthansa Technik Shenzhen , not a name that rolls off the tongue, will provide repair and overhaul services in line with Airbus’ requirements, according to an agreement signed by the two companies.

The Shenzhen company has started serving Chinese Airbus operators, helping to cut costs and increase efficiency as they no longer need to send aircraft parts to Europe for repair. It is also expected to provide maintenance services to other customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

The company has received approval from Airbus and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to join the Airbus Spares repair station network. Airbus is trying to set up a comprehensive after-sales service network in China. It has built customer service and technical support stations in 20 cities.

In 1997, it invested US$80 million in an advanced training center in Beijing to help domestic airlines train more than 14,000 pilots, crew members and maintenance technicians.

China’s northern port city Tianjin was selected as the first Airbus overseas assembly plant this year and is expected to turn out its first aircraft at the end of 2008.

Airbus announced last year that it would renew cooperation with the China Aviation Suppliers Import and Export Group on training and support services for another 20 years.
Source: People’s Daily Online

A pilot shortage is affecting China’s aviation industry, leaving hundreds of new Boeing and Airbus jetliners on order without pilots to fly them.

China will need an average of 2,500 pilots each year for the next two twenty years and it is nowhere near set up to meet the demand.

So foreign pilots are taking command of some Chinese airliners. Aviation Minister Yang Yuanyuan recently declared that the industry is growing ‘too fast.’ He’s cut back daily flights, slowed the launches of start-up airlines and warned that safety must prevail over growth.

China isn’t the only country with a pilot shortage. It is a worldwide problem.

William R. Voss, chief executive of the Flight Safety Foundation said, ‘It’s something that is sneaking up on the industry overall because there have always been pilots in the wings.’

Chinese aviation regulators say the nation will need an additional 9,000 or more pilots by 2010, as national airlines add jetliners at the rate of up to 150 a year.

Gao Hongfeng, the deputy head of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China said, ‘But speaking truthfully, we only have the capacity to train about 7,000, leaving us short 2,000 pilots. The shortage of pilots has become an important factor constraining civil aviation’s development.’

Pierre Steffen, vice president of customer services for Airbus China said, ‘We’ve had two occasions with two Chinese airlines where sales deals were accompanied by requests for foreign pilots.

China’s Big Three airlines — Air China, China Eastern and China Southern — are working hard to deal with the pilot shortage.

Air China has reserved land to build a training center in Beijing that’s likely to be the biggest in the world, with 30 full flight simulators. That is one in our illustration.

Nearly 20 start-up airlines wait for approval to operate, and a green light may not come soon. One reason: The start-ups don’t have pilots. Pierre Steffen said, ‘Where do they get their pilots? They can only get them from existing local airlines.’
Source: Kansas City.com

China is upgrading several standby airports near Beijing for next year’s Olympics by renovating terminals, enlarging tarmacs, lengthening runways and improving services.

At Zhengding Airport, seen in our illustration, about 30 kilometers northeast of Shijiazhuang, capital of north China’s Hebei Province the air traffic control building has been extended and the terminal building doubled in size and renovated.

Earlier this year, workers enlarged the Zhengding tarmac by 35,000 square meters and built two new taxiways. The new, improved terminal will be able to handle 2.3 million passengers annually.

Zhengding is one of three standby airports for the Beijing Capital International Airport during the Olympic Games when the volume is expected to reach up to 1,500 flights daily.

Since the beginning of last year, an RMB1.5 billion renovation has been going on at Wusu International Airport about 15 km south of Taiyuan, capital of north China’s Shanxi Province.

There will be a new terminal building with a floor space of 55,000 square meters as well as the renovated original terminal. When it is all completed, the airport is expected to handle 6 million passengers annually.

In addition, the airport runway will be stretched from its current 3,200 meters to 3,600 meters to accommodate alternate landings for the Airbus A380, the world’s largest aircraft.

The Baita International Airport, about 10 kilometers east of Hohhot, capital of north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has had a major renovation.

The two year, RMB1.5 billion project has a new terminal building with a floor space of 55,000 square meters that can handle 3 million passengers annually.

Workers have also built a new tarmac covering 374,000 square meters and doubled the aircraft parking bays to 32.
Source: People’s Daily Online