First of all what is RNP? It stands for Required Navigation Performance which uses GPS (global positioning system) and sophisticated avionics to ensure that aircraft stay on precise, pre-programmed paths. Air China A319s will use this capability to guide its planes through Himalayan mountain valleys when arriving and departing the airport at Lhasa. The illustration shows the runway there and the fact you need all the help you can get.

It has already been used this month making it the world’s first Airbus plane to use RNP in revenue service. Now it is being extended through the Airbus A319 fleet.

Naverus makes the system and has worked with Airbus, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Air China to make this new safety measure work.

In addition to providing navigation solutions for terrain challenged airports, RNP can also be used to increase safety and operational efficiency while minimizing aircraft emissions and noise at any airport.

There is a further benefit which is not widely understood. It is possible, using meteorological information, to plan a flight path to use the minimum of fuel to get from A to B. As the price of fuel rises and as the protests against the so-called greenhouse effect become louder so it will be important for a commercial aircraft to use the least possible amount of fuel. Systems to fly aircraft in this way to some extent have been in use with some airlines for several years. Now RNP takes it to a new level.
Source: Aero-News.net

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