Pilots flying for a subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines turned back midflight to southwestern Chinese airports, in a rare strike to protest lower pay and other conditions.

Seventeen flights returned to their departure airports in Yunnan Province in a protest by pilots of China Eastern subsidiary Yunnan Airlines.

The Yunnan Info Daily quoted an unnamed pilot as saying China Eastern flights departing from Kunming airport returned to the city after takeoff on Monday and Tuesday for reasons other than ‘weather conditions’ — the explanation given by the carrier.

The pilots’ complaints seen to be that they limited to domestic routes and therefore shorter flying hours and lower pay than counterparts in the parent company. There is also a question of tax on overtime pay.

State-run television reported the strike as well as passengers’ complaints

Leading financial magazine Caijing said that pilots would not be punished, citing an air administration official.

The return of the flights left at least 1,500 passengers stranded in Kunming airport.

This is the third incident in a month related to the disputes.

More than 40 Shanghai Airlines pilots asked for ’sick leave’ on March 14, while 11 East Star Airlines pilots ‘took a holiday’ last Friday.

This week’s incidents caught the attention of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC).

Beijing Times reported that in an emergency meeting, the CAAC said the pilot leading the move could face a lifelong ban on piloting.

The CAAC also asked China Eastern to settle the dispute as soon as possible to guarantee flight safety.

The newspaper quoted insiders as saying the root of problem lies in a national shortage of pilots, especially captains. The CAAC estimated at least 6,500 more pilots are needed by 2010, but only 600 to 800 are trained every year.
Source: China View and Reuters

Shanghai Airlines plans to increase its flights between the mainland and Thailand to cater to growing passenger and cargo traffic.

The carrier has started a new route, from China’s emerging economic province of Chongqing to Bangkok, and is looking to offer direct service between Shanghai and Bangkok by the end of the year.

It is the first airline to offer a direct Chongqing-Bangkok route. It operates a 184-seat Boeing 737-800 on the route which takes about two and a half hours.

Late last year, Shanghai Airlines doubled its number of flights between Shanghai and Phuket to four a week, using a similar aircraft. The airline started flying Shanghai-Phuket route, which takes five hours, two years ago on a ‘regular charter’ basis.

Shanghai Airlines has since 2006 offered all-freighter services between Bangkok and Shanghai at three flights Boeing 757 cargo planes that have 30 tonnes of capacity.

About one million Chinese tourists visited Thailand last year and the Tourism Authority of Thailand expects the number to reach 1.3 million this year.

Their favorite destinations are Pattaya, Phuket and Koh Samui.

Freight movements between the two countries have also been surging due to growing trade volume. A good portion of shipments from Thailand to China are IT components.
Source: Bangkok Post

Shanghai Airlines is considering an order for Airbus A330 medium-range aircraft as it speeds up the expansion of its international network.

Zhou Chi, chairman of Shanghai Airlines said the company is looking to buy 10 single-aisle A320 aircraft. He said the company is also considering buying A330 aircraft, but has yet to decide the size of the order, adding that the wide-body planes could be used to reinforce its flights to neighbouring markets.

Shanghai Airlines, which had earlier placed an order for nine of Boeing’s 787 or Dreamliner, is also scheduled to launch daily flights to the United States and the German city of Hamburg next year.

But the plan may be postponed because of the delayed delivery of the Boeing aircraft.

President Fan Hongxi said Shanghai Airlines has now joined Star Alliance, the world’s largest airline grouping. It plans to expand its international network on its own or via code-sharing with other members of the alliance.

He said international flights now make up less than 10% of the airline’s sales and the airline hopes to raise that ratio to roughly 30% in five years, adding that Star Alliance membership would be a big help.

Sales of the Shanghai-based carrier, which operates a fleet of 59 aircraft, rose 23% to US$1.2 billion from January to September.
Source: China Daily and Cargo News Asia

Shanghai Airlines is a likely focus for further consolidation of Chinese commercial aviation as larger carriers, especially Air China, look for greater access to the country’s biggest city.

An Air China takeover of the second-level carrier would be a big step toward creating the balanced nationwide operator that China still lacks in any of its big-three airlines—China Southern, Air China and China Eastern.

With a domestic network operated by 59 aircraft, Shanghai Airlines has also caught the eye of China Eastern.

In Shanghai’s airports China Eastern serves nearly 40% of travelers.
Shanghai Airlines comes second, with 18%.
Air China, a mere 12%.

Air China needs a stronger presence in southern mainland China, as well as Shanghai, but in that part of the country it already has a foothold, a 25% stake in Shenzhen Airlines.

The airlines of China live in interesting times. Read the quite long and well researched story by clicking on Source.

There has been a query as to why we normally illustrate these stories with cabin crew instead of aircraft. First cabin crew tend to be a damn sight more attractive. Second, our pictures tend to be more vertical than horizontal. Vertical aircraft worry passengers.
Source: Aviation Week

Newly inaugurated air services between Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (shown here) and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport are the second international air route from Haneda Airport, which generally has been dedicated to domestic routes.

The new service provides four round-trip flights a day, operated by Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines.

Narita is Tokyo’s international airport but is located far from central Tokyo (1 hour by the fastest train) and in a different prefecture. It opened in 1978 after riots which reached war-like proportions.
Haneda is technically called Tokyo International Airport and is located in Tokyo proper. It is the busiest airport in Japan and the fourth-busiest in the world, even though it handles very little international traffic.
Hongqiao is Shanghai’s second airport.
Pudong is Shanghai’s international airport.

Both Haneda and Hongqiao are closer to their respective city centers than the main international airports for Tokyo and Shanghai. So a link between these two airports would be great for passengers provided the timing of the flights was right. Gate to gate, a one-way trip to central Shanghai from central Tokyo using the new air route takes about four hours — about an hour less than it takes when using Narita and Shanghai’s Pudong international airports.

Trouble is Haneda has few spare arrival and departure slots.

Thus, current flight schedules on the route are not convenient enough for businesspeople on a theoretical day trip to Shanghai. Even if they depart from Haneda Airport on the day’s first flight at 9:10 a.m., they could only stay in central Shanghai for up to an hour because the last flight heading for Haneda departs at 1:30 p.m.

By contrast, the last flight from Pudong to Narita departs at 5:05 p.m., with about 14 round-trip flights a day on the route. If early-morning and late-night flights on the route become possible, it may boost demand for other international services from Haneda.
Source: Daily Yomuri Online