Continental Airlines  will start daily direct flights between Shanghai and New York from March 26, 2009 as was planned.

Interior economy cabin Continental Airlines

The direct flights focus on businesspeople, aiming to adapt to the flexible arrangements of these passengers, who are able to fly to more than 60 cities in the US and Canada with the help of Continental Airlines’ aviation hinge in New York’s Newark Liberty International Airport.

Boeing 777-200 will be used for the route, and make one flight per day.

The company has already operated routes from New York to Hong Kong and Beijing.

The seat kilometer utilization of the two airlines is very high, about 80% to 90%. Continental Airlines will become the sole airway to operate daily direct flights between the world’s two important financial centers, as well as between China’s three largest cities and New York.
Source: Trading Markets

China's airline freeze

China’s aviation authorities are suspending applications for new airlines until 2010. This in order to prevent overheating of the nation’s airline industry.

A statement on the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) website said the move would check the overheated development of air transport, and ensure safety standards would be maintained.

The rapid development was threatening safety because of a shortage of pilots and the limited capacity of both airspace and domestic airports.

However, CAAC will still welcome applications for establishing cargo airlines that employ mostly foreign pilots and operate at night, as well as airlines that use China-made aircraft and operate in western and northeastern China.
Source: Ou Meng Jue Ding

Airbus A320

Airbus, the world’s leading aircraft manufacturer, will open an A320 family final assembly line in Tianjin at the end of this month, the company’s first final assembly line outside Europe.

As a joint venture between Airbus, Tianjin Free Trade Zone and China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC), the assembly line is based on the latest state-of-the-art Airbus single-aisle final assembly line in Hamburg, Germany.

According to Airbus the aircraft will be assembled and delivered in China to the same standards as those assembled and delivered in Europe.

The first aircraft will roll off the line in summer 2009 and will be delivered in the middle of the year. The assembly line will ramp up production to four aircraft a month by 2011.

There are now over 5,000 Airbus aircraft in operation in the world and over half of them are equipped with components and parts produced in China.
Source: China Daily

Wuxi

China Eastern Airlines has announced it will re-open the route between Wuxi and Hong Kong, state media reports.

The airline will resume the daily flights on 1 October using Airbus A320 aircraft.

The morning flight will leave Wuxi at 8.10am and the return flight will leave Hong Kong at 11.50am.

Wuxi (it can be translated as meaning ‘Without Tin’) is in Jiangsu province. It is split into halves by Lake Taihu. Wuxi borders Changzhou to the west and Suzhou to the east. The northern half looks across to Taizhou to the north over the Yangtze River, while the southern half also borders the province of Zhejiang to the south.
Source: China Travel View

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warns of a ’significant downward trend’ in travel growth, as the economic environment worsens.

The industry body added the sharp decline in premium travel — those are the poeple who sit in the pointy end of the plane — most likely reflects a fall in business travel driven by the increasing weakness of major economies.

1. According to IATA, the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy ‘underlines the shrinkage of M&A and other financial sector activity, leading of course to a reduced number of business travelers from financial services’, while falling air freight volumes and lower business confidence ’suggests that world trade and travel from the manufacturing sector is also in decline’.

Source: Centre for Aviation