Hainan Airlines, China’s fourth-largest carrier, begins nonstop service from Seattle (in our illustration on the left) to Beijing on June 9. Northwest Airlines will follow with a daily nonstop service between Seattle and Beijing in March 2009. These are moves which will make a lot of Microsoft executives very happy.

The new Northwest Airlines service will use Airbus A330-200s equipped with 32 business-class seats and 211 economy-class seats.

Joel Chusid, North American general manager for Hainan Airlines, whose new Seattle-Beijing service begins next month, said, ‘This just validates the fact that Seattle has become a major gateway to the Pacific. Competition is competition, but we understand it. It just speaks to the vibrancy of the market.’

Last year, about 69,000 passengers flew between Seattle and China, not including passengers connecting through Seattle from other cities. By 2009, that number is expected to nearly double.
Source: The Seattle Times

Air Berlin launched its long-haul routes to China on May 1, with five flights a week from Düsseldorf toBeijing and Shanghai. Air Berlin will offer connecting flights from Germany — including from Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. From Switzerland by way of from Zurich and and from Austria by, but of course, by way of Vienna.

Air Berlin will operate the routes with Airbus A330s equipment.

Air Berlin stated that after the Olympic Games, the carrier will be focusing on business travelers, upgrading the existing Business Class to Premium Business Class from November 8.

Furthermore, the partnership arrangement with Hainan Airlines means that Air Berlin passengers will be able to book connecting flights to all major Chinese airports.

From Beijing alone, Hainan Airlines operates to 50 cities in China. In return, Hainan Airlines will be operating non-stop flights from Beijing to Berlin from September 5, with Air Berlin providing the feeder and connecting flights in Germany and Europe.
Source: Peanuts Online

Airbus China has called on its partners, suppliers and other key players in the aviation industry in China to share its vision to jointly build a green aviation industry. While this is not a PR exercise it is very much preaching to the converted for the aviation industry, in a sense, has led the field in this area. Still a further declaration of intent will do no harm.

Rainer Ohler, Airbus senior vice president for public affairs and communications (think of him as the Airbus PR), addressing the China Eco-efficiency Conference, said a green industry must be the vision for the future of aviation. He said this will be conducive to the long-term and sustainable growth of the industry and China’s economy.

Rainer Ohler said, ‘There is not one simple solution but cross-industry and international cooperation are the way forward.’

Airbus is preparing to meet the ISO 14001 environment management systems in Airbus China soon. Airbus China has also been awarded a prize by the government of Beijing’s Shunyi district for its achievements in water saving in 2007.

Feng Yan, an official with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said, ‘We fully support Airbus’ efforts and encourage Chinese aviation enterprises to contribute to an eco-efficient aviation industry.’

China has set goals of reducing energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20%, and cutting total emissions of major pollutants by 10% by 2010.

This is not an impossible target to reach and, indeed, in some areas of the aviation industry has been met year after year from more than a decade.

Source: People’s Daily Online

The Chinese government has officially approved the launch of China Commercial Aircrafts, which will manufacture large passenger planes. The plan is to have jets designed and built in China rolling off an assembly line by 2020.

Asian airlines are expected to buy nearly 10,000 new planes by 2025, with more than 2,200 of those going to Chinese airlines.

China has acquired the needed technical expertise by cooperating with Boeing and Airbus. China Aviation Industries Corporation (AVIC-I) produces components for Boeing’s 747 and 787 wide-bodies and operates a final assembly line for the Airbus A320.

China has already received more than 100 0rders for the 70-passenger regional jet ARJ21 and will set up a sales subsidiary for the ARJ21 in the United States.

True, Chinese aircraft must meet the Department of Transportation’s stringent safety criteria before they’ll be allowed to fly in the United States, and there is some question as to how long it will take China to meet these standards although every manufacturer in the world has had to go through this process and, although lengthy, it can be done.

The biggest problem remaining is the issue of consumer perception.

Chinese airlines are still well below world standard in running their airlines, mo matter who the manufacturer. Worldwide there would be resistance, initially at least, from passengers who simply would not wish to fly on an aircraft built in China in exactly the same way such resistance exists against aircraft built in Russia.
Source: Wired

Starting at the end of this month Air China will have a new non-stop service from Shanghai to Milan. In Milan you can get some of the world’s finest tailoring and view great architecture like Il Duomo as shown in our illustration.

The new service will operate on an Airbus 340 with newly built premium-cabin services, ‘Forbidden Pavilion’ as First Class and ‘Capital Pavilion’ for Business Class. There will be four flights a week both arriving at their destinations quite early in the morning.

Mrs. Zhang Lan, Senior Vice President of Air China, said, ‘The new connection will fly more passengers between Shanghai, the most modern city in Eastern China, and Milan, the famous fashion city in Italy. It will also create many growth potentials and open up a channel for traveling and trading. The upgraded premium-cabin service on the Airbus 340 integrated the typical Chinese elements — “Forbidden City” and “Capital City” — have spacious seats, various on-board entertainments and catering, aiming to bring a superior on-board experience for European passengers.’

Currently, Air China is one of the most frequent airlines on Sino-Europe routes, flying up to 14 flights per week from Beijing or Shanghai to Milan or Rome. Air China’s strategic cooperation with some Italian airlines such as Alitalia and Air One gives connections through the partner airlines to other Italian cities.

At the same time Air China is going to increase the frequency on the Beijing-Paris route and provide two flights every day during peak times. The updated service will take care of the extra flow of passengers in the summer.

Air China’s fleet is now more than somewhat impressive:

213 Boeing and Airbus aircraft.
230 routes within 28 countries and regions.
71 domestic cities and 43 overseas cities.
5,000 flights and 900,000 seats every week.
Code-sharing alliance with 20 airlines globally.
Source: Air China