According to the China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation two Xinzhou-60 passenger planes will soon fly to Bolivia and operate under a local air carrier.

Huang Bin, a vice president of the company, said the Xinzhou-60 aircraft will be the first batch of China-made planes in commercial flights in South America.

The turboprop can accommodate 52 to 60 passengers. This model, known outside China as the MA60, has a maximum range of 1,600 km.

China exported seven Xinzhou-60s in 2007. So far 12 such planes have been delivered to Zimbabwe, Laos, Zambia, Congo and Angola.

The plane is manufactured by Xi’an Aircraft Industry (Group) Co., Ltd.
Source: Jongo News

Lufthansa’s Cargo unit has established a joint venture company for the handling of airfreight in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin with Tianjin Airport Hua Yu Air Cargo Terminal (HYACT).

Lufthansa Cargo holds 46% in HYACT, Taiwanese investor Hwa-Hsia International Holding Ltd has 49% and Tianjin Airport International Logistics Joint Stock holds 5%.

Lufthansa Cargo head Carsten Spohr said in a statement, ‘Tianjin will develop into the most important airfreight hub in the north of China within the next few years’.

In China, Lufthansa Cargo already holds 29% in Shanghai Pudong International Airport Cargo Terminal, 50% in the International Cargo Centre Shenzhen, as well as 25% in freight company Jade Cargo International.

Source: Forbes

China plans to build 97 new airports by 2020. China’s General Administration of Civil Aviation said the $89 billion undertaking over the next 12 years will bring the total number of civilian airports in China to 244, up from 147 in 2006.

The new airports will be built in five main regions of the country — north, east, south-central, south-western and north-western.

When the expansion is complete, it would mean that 82 percent of China’s population — expected to hit 1.45 billion people by 2020 — would be living within 100km — or a 90-minute drive — of an airport.

Currently, about 60% of the popularion lives with this range.
China’s air passenger volume rose by 15.3% to 51.9 million in the third quarter of 2007, and air freight volume increased by 11.5% to 1.05 million tons.
Source: CargoNews Asia and
Bloomberg

While the back and forth nonsense about Singapore Airlines continues — China Eastern Airlines chairman Li Fenghua said China Eastern wants to hold another shareholder meeting to discuss the planned sale — business continues. In the middle of the other negotiation China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines have agreed on a framework agreement to cooperate in areas such as sales and procurement.

The agreement provides for the airlines to help each other in sales, aircraft procurement, ground service, sharing facilities and other areas.

China Eastern chairman Li Fenghua said it would not affect his firm’s effort to attract investment and find a strategic partner.

Liu Shaoyong, chairman of China Southern, the country’s largest airline by fleet size, said talks on the agreement had begun more than a year ago, and that the pact did not exclude cooperation with other carriers such as flag carrier Air China.

Meanwhile China Eastern has insisted it will not accept the Air China group as a strategic investor, and China Eastern’s parent group has refused to consider the proposal, saying it is incomplete and lacks legal validity. Eventually it will all be sorted out.
Source: CargoNews Asia

This is getting to be like a bad soap opera. Air China managed to intervene and keep China Eastern being partly owned by Singapore Airlines. It did this by raising on the SIA offer so that SIA withdrew.

Technically it was Air China’s parent company, CNAC, which approached China Eastern Airlines offering to buy up to 30% of its smaller, less profitable rival in a bid that was 30% higher than that made by SIA.

At which point that battle appeared to be over. It was not.

China Eastern responded to the approach by publicly questioning its validity and sincerity and saying it did not regard the offer as a formal proposal.
China National Aviation, Air China’s parent, said its ’suggestion letter’ had all the necessary ingredients of a formal proposal and that it was a legal quibble. Each side accused the other of game playing and manipulation.

Both China Eastern and Air China’s shares dropped by the 10% limit in Shanghai while in Hong Kong China Eastern’s fell almost 12% and Air China’s 20%.

Since when Air China has regained some of those losses but China Eastern’s shares have falled more than 6%.

Air China’s parent company, CNAC maintains it just wants to sit down and talk to China Eastern, which says it still wants a deal with SIA, which says it will not raise its bid.

Stay tuned to this station.
Source: Financial Times