CA*/CZ™/FM/HU/MF/MU™/ZH | Mainland China-Based Carriers

[hkskyline]

Source : http://pic.feeyo.com/posts/542/5420117.html

[hkskyline]

Source : http://pic.feeyo.com/posts/542/5424287.html

[Vicvin86]

image hosted on flickr

Jade 747-400F @ MAA by VinTN, on Flickr

image hosted on flickr

Cargo terminal 20th May 2011 by VinTN, on Flickr

[Vicvin86]

[hkskyline]

Airline adds nonstop from LAX
Updated: 2011-09-02 10:52
By Wang Jun (China Daily)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/epa...t_13604400.htm

LOS ANGELES - Liu Jiakun, an MBA student at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, didn't expect to be part of Air China's history making.

The airline launched its second daily nonstop flight between Beijing and Los Angeles on Thursday. Liu was one of the inaugural passengers, which he didn't know when he booked his ticket in July.

"I chose this flight because the time is convenient," Liu said. He had never taken Air China's existing nonstop flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport because it takes off at midnight.

"The new flight time is more humane" Liu commented. The new flight takes off in the early afternoon for Beijing.

Chi Zhihang, general manager of Air China North America, said at the inauguration ceremony held at LAX: "It is a momentous moment in Air China's history. It's the very first time we have launched a double daily flight to an international destination."

Air China is the only carrier operating nonstop flights between Los Angles and Beijing.

"Nonstop flights between Los Angles and Beijing is one of our most competitive products," said Yang Rui, deputy general manager of Air China's Los Angeles office.

Yang said as China's economy has been steadily growing for decades, the market size for Air China's international flights, especially those between China and the US, has tremendously expanded. More Chinese travel to the US as the country opened its gate wider to Chinese tourists and students.

"Though China and the US don't always see eye to eye with each other on political or ideological issues, the economic ties between them gets tighter," Yang said.

As famous as China is for its exports, it is buying more and more from the US. According to the US-China Business Council (USCBC), China is the third-largest US export market, ranking only behind US' two immediate neighbors. And, China as a buying market continues to expand rapidly.

"In 2010, exports to China rose 32 percent - faster than export growth to any of the US top five export destinations," USCBC reported in a recent study. "Taking a longer view, total US exports to China from 2000 to 2010 rose from $16.2 billion to $91.9 billion, up 468 percent. Total US exports to the rest of the world increased 55 percent during this period."

Economic exchange boosts the air traffic over the Pacific Ocean. In 2001, 7,058 nonstop flights traveled between 11 major cities in the US and three in China - Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou - according to the Air Transportation Association. These flights are operated by four US-based carriers and six China-based carriers, of which Air China plays a leading role.

Air China opened its route between Beijing and Los Angeles in 1982. Wang Yinxiang, vice-chairman of Air China, shared at the inauguration that it took 24 years to turn the flight to a daily one in 2006, but it only took five years to add another nonstop flight.

In 2008, Air China consolidated its North America offices and started a call center in Los Angeles, the airlines' North America headquarters. It's a milestone in the carrier's localization, which makes it more competitive in the US market.

Air China is proud of the call center because of the type of customer service it offers. "When customers call us, 80 percent of them don't need to wait more than 20 seconds," Yang said.

Beyond concrete statistics, the serving attitude is more impressive to Annie Ye, secretary-general of the Chinese Enterprise Council based in Los Angeles. Air China is one of its more-than-a-hundred members.

Ye recalled that Chi, the vice-president and general manager of Air China's North America operation, sometimes sees through issues reported by customers himself to make sure problems are solved. "Maybe not all of the problems can be solved, but the attitude is what matters more," said Ye, who used to be China Southern Airlines' general manager in North America.

During the inauguration, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said there is "good reason" to celebrate the new flight, from a local perspective. China is California's top trading partner. An average daily round-trip transoceanic flight at LAX contributes $623 million annually to the local economy and supports 3,120 jobs in Southern California, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.

Zhang Yesui, China's ambassador to the US, sees beyond the economic point of view.

"It is our hope that this will also serve to promote a closer exchange between the US and China, not only in trade but also among its people."

Chinese travelers now make up the majority of Air China's customer pool. To enlarge the group, the carrier has been seeking high-end, non-Chinese speaking passengers. It will fly a trade and investment mission team from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation to Shanghai later this month. The 16 members of the team are "top notch experts and business leaders" in a variety of industries.

Yang said that hardware improvement will be a focus for next year. They will replace the four-engine Boeing 747s for Boeing 777-300ERs for its cross-Pacific flights. The new two-engine aircrafts will further reduce the operation fees of Air China, which continues to make profits while many other airlines are struggling to survive.

[hkskyline]

Source : http://pic.feeyo.com/posts/543/5433648.html

[hkskyline]

Source : http://pic.feeyo.com/posts/543/5436688.html

[Equario]

hkskyline, thanks for pictures!
As always, they are impressive

[Equario]

http://www.airliners.net/photo/SkyTe...642/1991696/L/

[hkskyline]

China to 'become key market' for aviation industry
Updated: 2011-10-15 20:53
Xinhua

TOULOUSE, France - China will take center stage in the development of the global aviation industry, Airbus President and CEO Thomas Enders said here Friday.

The global aviation industry would expand at an annual rate of over 5 percent in the next 20 years, Enders said at a ceremony at the Airbus Delivery Center in Toulouse marking the company's delivery of the first A380 aircraft to China Southern Airlines.

The Asian market, especially the Chinese market, might grow even faster, Enders said, adding that Airbus remains optimistic about the prospects of the industry.

The European aircraft manufacturer plans to deliver more than 110 passenger planes to China this year, accounting for one-fifth of the company's total deliveries worldwide.

Enders said the A380 was designed to suit the needs of the East Asian and Middle Eastern markets, especially the fast-growing Chinese market.

With a typical capacity for 525 passengers in a three-class layout, the super jumbo's spacious cabin could play a big role in handling the large amount of air passengers in those countries.

Airbus attaches great importance to the Chinese market, as can be seen from its having built a major final assembly line in the northern Chinese costal city of Tianjin, Enders said.

The Tianjin plant, which opened in 2008, is a joint venture between Airbus and a Chinese consortium, and is now producing around 10 percent of Airbus' A320 aircraft.

The A380 aircraft handed over Friday is the first out of five to be delivered by Airbus to China Southern Airlines, making the Chinese airlines the first operator of A380 in China and the seventh globally.

[hkskyline]

Airline flees after 4 flights
- Exit, Hong Kong on Hainan
SANJAY MANDAL
http://www.telegraphindia.com/111101...y_14603722.jsp
Monday , October 10 , 2011

Chinese carrier Hainan has decided to pull out of Calcutta after just four flights, citing low advance bookings for its biweekly flight to Shenzhen and a free 45-minute coach transfer to holiday hotspot Hong Kong.

Hainan is not the first international airline to exit the city, but a pullout after less than a fortnight in business makes this the shortest stint by any carrier operating here. The last Calcutta-Shenzhen flight is scheduled for October 11, exactly 10 days after the inaugural one.

“Advance bookings have been extremely low, forcing us to suspend services from Calcutta,” Li Li, the general manager of Hainan Airlines in Calcutta told Metro.

So does it mean Calcutta isn’t a long-term market for international airlines despite recent signs of a resurgence?

“Hainan should have waited a few months before taking a call on whether to stay or leave. East India is a late-booking market, which means the bulk of bookings are made seven to 12 days prior to departure,” said a senior official of an international airline operating in the city.

In airline parlance, two types of fliers — VFR (visiting friends and relatives) and FIT (free individual travellers) — make advance bookings to get fare deals. “The number of such travellers to and from Calcutta is 50 per cent less than Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore’s. So we basically bank on late bookings by corporate and group travellers,” the official said.

Calcutta has been logging impressive flying miles in the international sector of late, prompting new entrant Qatar Airways to consider introducing larger aircraft and increasing its flight frequency. SilkAir started its four-days-a-week service to and from Singapore on August 1 and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific is set to resume services in the city after 41 years.

For Hainan, morning apparently showed the day. Li Li said bookings for the Calcutta-Shenzhen flights in October were around 10 per cent of the total number of seats. Going by a circular issued by Hainan for travel operators, the decision to withdraw was taken even before the first flight took off.

“Our head office has taken a decision that it will not be commercially viable to operate flights during the off-season…. Hainan Airlines will operate flights to Calcutta only on October 1, 4, 8 and 11 and suspend operations thereafter indefinitely,” the circular states.

According to tour operators, around 20,000 fliers from the city visit Hong Kong every year. “The number would have increased had Hainan stayed put,” said Anil Punjabi, the chairman (east) of the Travel Agents’ Federation of India.

[hkskyline]

Source : http://pic.feeyo.com/posts/546/5466496.html

[hkskyline]

First-class seats of Airbus A380 sold out
Updated: 2011-10-20 19:20
Xinhua

GUANGZHOU - All of this month's first-class seats on China's Southern Airlines' Airbus A380 sold out within just three days of the superjumbo jet's first flight, indicating that the Chinese public is eager to try out a luxurious flight experience.

The airline said in a statement that other seats have also been popular, with more than 80 percent of the seats on some of the jet's routes already sold.

China's first A380 has 506 seats: eight first-class, 70 business and 428 economy-class seats, the airline said. A first-class ticket from Beijing to Shanghai costs 4,760 yuan ($749), about three times the price of an economy-class ticket.

The aircraft's cabin comforts and spacious interior have impressed many customers, with pictures of passengers sprawled out on spacious seats and holding glasses of champagne on the front pages of several local newspapers.

The airline said its first A380 jumbo is scheduled to fly between Beijing and Guangzhou until October 26, when it will start traveling between Beijing and Shanghai until October 29. The plane will be used on an international route after October.

China Southern, the seventh company in the world to fly an Airbus superjumbo, has ordered five more A380s, the airline said.

[hkskyline]

Air China Q3 profits down 26.5%
Updated: 2011-10-28 15:00
Xinhua

BEIJING -- Air China Ltd, China's largest airliner, said on Thursday that its net profits in the third quarter decreased 26.46 percent year-on-year due to weak international demand and investment losses.

Its Q3 net profits totaled 3.8 billion yuan ($590 million). In the first nine months its profits slumped 20.26 percent year-on-year to 7.86 billion yuan.

Its sales revenue in the third quarter rose 13.36 percent year-on-year to 28.14 billion yuan.

The company said its profits were dragged down by lower contributions from its associate airline, Hong Kong-based Cathy Pacific, following a global air traffic recession this year.

The company also suffered a decrease in its fair value of 1.02 billion yuan in the third quarter due to losses in aviation fuel hedge trading.

[AsianDragons]

i thought china southern was the largest airliner

[Vicvin86]

Source:self

[Vicvin86]

[hkskyline]

China conducts its first jet biofuel trial
Updated: 2011-10-29 08:33
China Daily





BEIJING - China conducted its first demonstration flight powered partly by a biofuel on Friday, possibly paving the way for future biofuel use on commercial flights in the country.

The one-hour trial used 13.1 tons of biofuel blend - half conventional jet fuel and half China-grown, jatropha-based biofuel - to power one of four engines on an Air China 747-400 jet.

Each of the jet's other three engines was powered by conventional jet fuel to guarantee safety, said Li Jun, an expert with Air China.

The plane took off from Beijing Capital International Airport at 8:32 am and returned at 9:30 am. Six performance tests were conducted at various altitudes, with the highest at 11,900 meters.

"Everything went smoothly," Zheng Weimin, the captain of the flight, said. "I detected no obvious difference in engines powered by the biofuel blend and conventional jet fuel."

The trial was part of a Sino-US energy cooperation program and marked a milestone in the two countries' joint efforts regarding biofuel and high technology, said William Zarit, minister counselor for commercial affairs at the US embassy.

In the project, PetroChina Co Ltd, China's largest oil producer, worked with UOP LLC, a subsidiary of Honeywell's special materials section, to source and refine the biofuel. Boeing and Pratt & Whitney provided aircraft and engine technical support.

For China, the demonstration flight was a significant step in the development of the jet biofuels industry, said Shen Diancheng, deputy general manager of China National Petroleum Corporation. PetroChina is the corporation's listed arm.

However, airlines said wider use of biofuels on commercial flights in China was still a few years away.

He Li, vice-president of Air China, said that using biofuels on commercial flights required large-scale production to make the price acceptable.

Zhang Yufeng, vice-president of Honeywell's specialty materials section, said raw materials were a big problem.

"The material cost means that the price of biofuel is much higher than traditional fuel," he said.

The material cost for biofuel was about two or three times that of conventional fuel, he said.

Shen said PetroChina has grown 80,000 hectares of jatropha, a shrub, on low-quality farmland in Southwest China's Sichuan and Yunnan provinces since 2007. Oil from the seed of the shrub is extracted for the biofuel.

The company was planning to build a refinery by 2014 to produce 60,000 tons of the biofuel annually. But that amount is trivial compared to the estimated 28 million tons of biofuel China will use annually by 2015.

The company was looking for more places to grow the plant and increase output, Shen said.

Before China's first trial flight using a biofuel, airlines including Virgin Atlantic Airways, Air New Zealand, Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines, have conducted similar trials since 2008, using a variety of biofuels, including those made from coconuts, algae, waste cooking oil and jatropha.

This year, carriers including KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa and Mexico's Interjet carried out commercial flights powered by biofuel blends.

Airlines began seriously looking at potential new fuel sources because of increasing environmental concerns and rising crude oil prices, industry observers said.

Aviation's share of greenhouse gas emissions is poised to grow, as air travel increases and ground vehicles use more alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. Aviation contributes 2 percent of global emissions.

Compared to fossil fuels, biofuels can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 85 percent, according to statistics provided by Honeywell's UOP.

The Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology and Boeing Co have established a joint research lab studying sustainable aviation biofuels based on algae.

On Friday, China's National Energy Administration and Boeing signed an agreement for further study of regional biofuel development. The results will help support future efforts to establish a sustainable aviation biofuels industry in China.

[hkskyline]

Source : http://pic.feeyo.com/posts/547/5476730.html

[hkskyline]

Tibet Airlines starts Lhasa-Lanzhou flight
Updated: 2011-11-01 17:34
China Daily

Tibet Airlines started operating flights from Lhasa to Gansu's capital city Lanzhou on Tuesday, opening a direct winter air connection between the two cities for the first time, People's Daily Online reported.

The first 140-minute flight, a Tibet Airlines Airbus A319, landed at Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport at 11:10 am.

The round-trip direct flight TV9827/8 will operate every Tuesday and Saturday departing Lhasa at 8:50 am and returning from Lanzhou at noon.

Tibet Airlines is the only carrier that flies this route in winter. The full-price economy class ticket of this flight is 1,560 yuan ($246).

Established in June 2010, Tibet Airlines is the first and only local airline company of the Tibet autonomous region. Its maiden flight was on July 26 this year.

The carrier's fleet includes three Airbus A319 airplanes and it operates nine domestic destinations with Lhasa and Chengdu as the main hubs. The company plans to expand the fleet size to 10 aircraft and operate flights to all civil airports in Tibet.

Following the country's efforts in recent years to promote civil aviation in Tibet, the number of civil airports in the region increased to five: Lhasa, Qamdo, Nyingchi, Xigaze and Ngari. The newest two, Xigaze and Ngari airports were just opened last year.

The country has also invested 1.8 billion yuan ($283 million) to build an airport in Tibet's Nagqu prefecture, which will be the highest airport in the world – 4,436 meters above sea level.