Where have all the passengers gone?

American, Continental and Delta reported quarterly operating losses and are bracing themselves for a downward spiral in corporate travel activity, though the net effect of the financial crisis on business travel remains to be seen.

In addition to budget cuts and weakened travel levels Continental continues to see ‘typical behavior among most of our corporate customers in response to weaker economic conditions.’

Those include advance purchase requirements, greater use of lower-cost restricted fares, policies that encourage travelers to trade down from business class to coach and more stringent travel approval processes.

JPMorgan airline analyst Jamie Baker in a research note said ‘the industry hadn’t undertaken unprecedented capacity cuts, and demand had yet to reflect the most recent global malaise. As such, we broadly consider 3Q industry results to be irrelevant, offering little to no insight as to the industry’s 2009 profit potential.’ Which means that he, like almost everyone else, has no idea of what might happen. Certainly no one has a clear idea how it was affect China.
Source: BTOnline

China Eastern Airlines

Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines has received approval from the country’s aviation authority to resume two routes in Yunnan Province, after a half-year suspension due to a mid-air strike by its pilots.

Information on the two routes, from the Yunnan provincial capital Kunming City to Dali and Xishuangbanna, is available on China Eastern’s online booking system. Seven flights on each route are offered on Sunday, according to its Website.

Its other six routes in the province, from Kunming to Lijiang, Zhongdian, Mangshi, Lincang, Simao and Wenshan, which had the number of flights cut as punishment for the strike, will also resume normal operation, according to the aviation authority.

The resumption will coincide with the air authority’s new winter/spring flight schedule, which runs from now until March 28.

The suspension started on May 4 as a punishment by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. China Eastern was also fined RMB1.5 million ($219,507).

On March 31 and April 1, 21 China Eastern flights returned to departure points at Kunming after taking off as pilots protested pay and working conditions. It stranded about 1,500 passengers at the Kunming airport.
Source: Shanghai Daily

The Airbus A380

Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet, will be at the 7th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition for three days.

The exhibition takes place in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province starting November 4.

It will be the airplane’s second trip to China; it is coming from France. The A380 carried 2,000 tents this May for people left homeless by the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan.

The super-jumbo jet, which is scheduled to arrive in Zhuhai on Nov. 3, will be on static display and will also perform flying demonstrations. Some visitors will be invited aboard.

The double-deck jetliner, developed by French aircraft manufacturer Airbus, can seat 525 passengers. It boasts energy efficiency as less than three liters of fuel consumed to sustain 100 kilometers of flight per passenger.

Five of the planes will be delivered to China Southern Airlines in early 2009.
Source: China View

ARJ21-700

China will sell 25 jets to a US company in a ‘breakthrough’ deal that marks the country’s entry into the big-plane market dominated by European and US players.

China’s homegrown  ARJ21-700 regional jet, which rolled off the production line on December 21 last year will be exported to the US.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, which developed the ARJ21-700 regional aircraft independently, will sign a RMB5-billion ($735 million) contract on this week according to the Guangzhou Daily.

The deal, to be inked on the opening day of the 7th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, proves China’s homemade aircraft have won international recognition.

The ARJ21, an acronym for Advanced Regional Jet for the 21st Century, is China’s first homemade regional jet.

The ARJ21 can carry 70 to 110 passengers, and rolled out of a Shanghai factory in December last year. It has yet to take its maiden commercial flight and get a certificate from the US-based Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The ARJ21-700 has a maximum range of 2,000 nautical miles, and is scheduled to take its first commercial flight by the end of November
Source: China Daily

China Southern Airlines crew

China Southern Airlines, the country’s largest air carrier, is adding more flights and routes.

From now until March 28, 2009, the airline will have 18 new routes, such as Wuhan to Sanya, Shenzhen to Sanya, Harbin to Taiyuan to Shenzhen and others.

According to a company press release, the number of weekly flights will rise to 7,688, up 12.15% from the same period last year.

For the domestic market, new tourism routes will be opened, and more flights will be added from southern Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.

There are also changes to international flights. For example, Guangzhou to Sydney and Guangzhou to Melbourne will be changed to non-stop, direct flights this winter and spring.

In addition, one daily flight will now be available from Beijing to Seoul and Manila, from Guangzhou to Dubai and Delhi, and from Shenyang to Singapore.

There will also be one more flight added to routes, such as Guangzhou to Seoul and from Guangzhou to Bangkok.
Source: China View

The global financial crisis failed to cast a shadow over British Airways’ performance in the Chinese market as the carrier plans to raise its flight frequencies on the Shanghai-London route to tap booming demand, an official of the airline said yesterday.

Self check-in at Terminal 5.

BA plans to operate six weekly flights on the route by the end of this year from the five weekly now.

Robert Xia, trade sales manager of BA China, said, ‘We have submitted our proposal to add a weekly flight on the route to the aviation regulator and expect the new service to start by the end of this year.’

With the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and the 2012 London Olympic Games looming, the carrier also intends to operate daily on the profitable route in the near future.

Xia said BA started to make money from the three-year-old route last year and has seen sales rise more than 10% so far this year, with average load factor exceeding 90%.

BA has started to operate the route out of Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport, which is exclusively used by the airline. This is more important than you think. Flying from Terminal 4 gives you a foretaste of hell.
Source: China Trade Information

From now on, China Southern Airlines will use the large luxurious Airbus A330 passenger aircraft for all six of its Beijing-Shenzhen flights. All departure times from Beijing will be rescheduled to leave exactly at the top of the hour.

A330 in business class

Zhao Fengsheng, vice general manager of China Southern’s Beijing branch, said that the Airbus A330 was used on only two Beijing-Shenzhen flights previously. China Southern Airlines has now launched the A330 for the other four flights due to the arrival of new planes.

According to news from Ctrip.com there are currently 19 flights on the Beijing-Shenzhen route each day. China Southern Airlines boasts six of them, Air China handles eight, Shenzhen Airlines operates three and Hainan Airlines has two.

The Beijing-Shenzhen flights will be very attractive to business passengers after being upgraded to express flights by China Southern Airlines.
Source: English People’s Daily.com

Alongside Tianjin airport in the north-eastern coastal Chinese city is the Tianjin Free Trade Zone, a sprawling area of flat vacant land, industrial estates and the new home of Airbus’s first assembly plant outside Europe.

Two buildings, for housing Airbus aircraft parts, have been completed, as has the main assembly plant. Within that plant sits what will be the first Airbus aircraft assembled in China.

The A320 sits at one end of the plant and is undergoing stage one of what is a four-stage process inside the final assembly plant.

This first aircraft is due to be completed June next year. Sichuan Airlines will lease the aircraft, manufacturer’s serial number 3591, from Chinese lessor Dragon Aviation Leasing.

Having an assembly line for its A320 family of twinjets in China puts Airbus on a stronger commercial footing in the country and gives the European aircraft-maker the potential to produce aircraft more profitably.

For China, having an Airbus factory demonstrates to the world the country can produce aircraft to an international standard. Airbus’s plant will also attract investment from Airbus suppliers and other foreign aerospace companies.

Read much, much more HERE.
Source: FlightGlobal

Air Tanzania hostess

The Tanzanian government has plans to team up with the China airline (CSIL) in a joint venture aimed at better managing Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL). It is suggested negotiations between the two governments are at an advanced stage: the second time for ATCL to go into partnership after a soured deal with South African Airways two years ago.

Speaking to reporters in Dar es Salaam, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Infrastructure, Mohamed Missanga, said ATC had precious little option for its survival than entering into partnership with other airlines.

He said that government attempts at injecting some capital into ATC shortly after it parted ways with the South African Airways had done little to turn the airline around, saying it had since ‘failed to deliver’ on its earlier promises.
More on this HERE.
Source: Daily News On Line

Embraer Express Jet

The world’s third-largest aircraft manufacturer, Embraer, said the mainland will need a further 883 regional aircraft over the next 20 years. Embraer vice president Guan Dongyuan told reporters,’China has an undeveloped market for regional and corporate jets given that they account for just a fraction of the total number of aircraft in the country.’

He added that Embraer would post US$400 million in sales in China this year compared to US$150 million last year. There are currently 70 jets serving regional destinations in China.

Larger rivals Boeing and Airbus have previously estimated that China will require more than 3,000 large aircraft over the next two decades.
Source: South China Morning Post (Subscription required)