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

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

Grand China Airlines, the nation’s fourth-biggest, is flying. It comes after the merger of four air carriers, including Shanghai-listed Hainan Airlines, in a bid to compete with the top three national players in a market that continues to boom.

Grand China has started flights from Beijing with the first from the northeastern port city of Dalian. It plans to add flights gradually ahead of next year’s Beijing Olympic Games in August.

Preparations for the new carrier started in July, 2004, by consolidating operations of Hainan Airlines, Xinhua Airlines, Chang’an Airlines and Shanxi Airlines under a newly established parent group called Grand China Airlines.

The parent company is 48.6% held by the Hainan provincial government. United States financier George Soros owns 18.6% of the venture, while HNA Group, parent of Hainan Airlines, holds 32.8%.

Grand China is planning to use Beijing Capital International Airport as its base and perform both international and domestic passenger and cargo air transport business. The air carrier will also lease three Boeing 737-800 aircraft from Hainan Airlines,

The number of Chinese mainland airline passengers is expected to grow by an average of 14.5% per year to reach 270 million in 2010.

Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines are the biggest three airlines on the Chinese mainland. Air China has nearly half of the air-travel market in Beijing. Grand China Airlines is in with a chance but it has major competition. (Note our illustration shows a hostess on Hainan Airlines but as that is part of the new airline its use is excusable.)
Source: Shanghai Daily

Representatives of foreign airlines have agreed to make every effort to ensure that visitors to the Beijing Olympics enjoy the smoothest possible arrival in the Chinese capital.

Li Jiangmin, director of the Department of International Affairs & Cooperation under the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), speaking to some 110 representatives from 58 overseas passenger airline carriers, said, ‘Thousands of athletes, journalists and visitors will begin their Olympics journey by getting on board your and our airlines.’ This after guiding them through the just-finished Terminal Three, which greatly increases the airport’s handling capacity.

The foreign airlines have each agreed to select a chief representative as ‘first person responsible for the Olympic project in China and whould have a special envoy for the Olympics in the company.’

The airport will see some 1,400 flights arrive and depart every day when the Games begin next August.

At the moment, before the airport’s new Terminal Three becomes operational, the airport is on a ’slim flight plan’, cutting some 100 domestic flights to ensure flight safety and ease congestion. It aims to handle 1,000 flights a day by October. The new red-roofed terminal is set to open on a trial basis next February.
Source: China.org.cn

Air China and Qantas will increase capacity between China and Australia over the next year.

According to Air China’s GM for Australia and New Zealand, Ms Ling Ma, a stronger than anticipated first quarter this year will see Air China not only expand its Australian operations with increased services, but will also see the airline upgrade carriers, products and facilities on Australia-China routes. (The illustration shows Air China in Olympic colors so it is possible to guess where some of the extra passengers will be coming from.)

Ling Ma said starting October 2007, Air China would introduce three additional weekly A330-200 services from China to Australia, bringing total flights to 10 per week. The additional services are planned on the Beijing - Shanghai - Melbourne route, which now operates as a continuation of the Sydney service.

Air China may also convert some of its Beijing-Shanghai-Sydney flights to direct services between Beijing and Sydney, and has earmarked its new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners for the route as of mid-2008.

Meanwhile, Qantas has announced it will offer new twice-weekly direct flights between Melbourne and Shanghai from March 2008. This will take Qantas flights to ten return services a week to China, five between Sydney and Shanghai, two between Melbourne and Shanghai, and three between Sydney and Beijing.
Source: TTG Travel Hub