Airlines Market Investment, China eyes greater global market share in airline industry
The Chinese airline industry is hoping to sign some profitable deals at Tuesday’s 7th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition.
Jin Zhuanglong, general manager of the newly-founded Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), said on Monday that he wished to sell short-haul passenger planes, ARJ21, to overseas clients at the forthcoming air show.
“One of our goals is to serialize and mass produce ARJ21 products for further growth,” said Jin. “We will do our best to expand business overseas, break into the international market for the first time and occupy a certain proportion of the global market share as early as possible.”
Li Yuhai, deputy general manager of China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC), also expressed his conglomerate’s determination to explore overseas markets and turn China-made planes into brand names.
AVIC was reorganized in October. The country’s two aviation industry conglomerates, AVIC-I (China Aviation Industry Corporation I) and AVIC-II (China Aviation Industry Corporation II) were merged in an effort to make a bigger impact internationally.
Miao Wei, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology, said on Monday that the Chinese government encourages development of export-oriented aviation products of civilian use either independently or through cooperative manner.
“The government will also encourage efforts designed to enlarge the size of production of civilian aviation components via subcontracts,” said Miao.
The 7th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China, will take place in Zhuhai, a port city in the Guangdong Province. It runs from Tuesday to Sunday. It is the largest air show of the kind, according to Zhou Lewei, deputy secretary-general for the Organizing Committee for Airshow China.
Some 600 business people from 35 countries and regions are expected to attend. Aviation giants Boeing of the United States, Airbus of France, Bombardier of Canada, and Embraer of Brazil included. More than 60 aircraft will be exhibited including China-made Jian10 strike fighter plane and Airbus 380.
Source: Xinhua
American Airlines to Launch Daily Flight From New York JFK Airport to Budapest
American Airlines is to launch a daily flight from New York JFK airport to Budapest: the first American Boeing 767-300 intercontinental aircraft is planned to land at Budapest Airport on 4 April 2011. This is part of the global flight development plan, the details of which and of the trans-Atlantic cooperation of American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia Airlines were announced in London.
American Airlines shall connect their hub in New York John F Kennedy airport to the capital of Hungary by a daily flight commencing in April 2011. As member of the One World airline association, American Airlines considers Budapest an important destination in Eastern Europe, as passengers may continue their journeys using the network of Malév, another member of One World, from here to further destinations. Reservations for the Budapest-New York flight may be made from next week on, while Malév is preparing the so-called code-share agreement also for this flight, thus its passengers can use the network of American Airlines directly and at favorable prices.
The new trans-Atlantic flights were announced in London following the decisions of both the American and the European Union competition authorities approving the trans-Atlantic business cooperation of American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia. This means a total of 91 flights a day under the flag of One World. This also means that a strong competitor will face the two other major airline associations, Sky Team (Air France/KLM, Delta, Aeroflot, CSA etc.) and Star Alliance (Lufthansa, SAS, Continental, United, Air Canada, Austrian, Swiss etc.) on their trans-Atlantic routes.
The Budapest Airport airline development team has been working hard to add new overseas flights to the routes of the Hungarian capital for more than two years. Jost Lammers, CEO of Budapest Airport welcomed the achievement after personally being involved in the negotiations and noted the contributions made to this success by the Hungarian National Tourism Organization and Malév. “The vision of just a few people in the alliance and network planning team at American Airlines lifted the profile of Budapest within their Fort Worth headquarters as being a One World hub with significant growth potential and we are delighted with their confirmation of this big step.”
Director Aviation Kam Jandu who has been working with his colleagues to realize this project since 2009 said, “Adding another long haul carrier is an achievement in itself under the present circumstances of aviation, but more than that, the appearance of a major One World carrier in Budapest further broadens the offer, and sends a strong indication to other airlines on the market that it is worth putting the Hungarian capital on their list of destinations.”
Based on their business data in the first six months of 2010, American Airlines is the fourth largest airline in the world, which, together with its American subsidiary, American Eagle, serves 250 destinations with a huge fleet of 851 aircraft. The base of the company is at Forth Worth, Texas, which is the eighth busiest airport globally (with 56 million passengers in 2009), but it also has important centers at JFK New York, Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles and Miami. Besides their inland flights in the US, American Airlines is traditionally very strong in the Caribbean and the Latin-American regions.
Volcanic Ash Cloud of Crisis Continues, Airlines Try to Serve Flights
Most tourists stranded by the volcanic ash crisis in Europe will be home by Monday although thousands could be stuck for nearly another week.
A week of airspace closures caused by ash spewed by Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano prompted the worst breakdown in civil aviation in Europe since World War II, with about 100,000 flights cancelled.
Mark Tanzer, chief executive of Britain’s ABTA, which represents British travel agents and tour operators, said about 100,000 stranded British travellers should have been returned home by Monday morning. About 35,000 more will remain marooned until Friday, the group said.
“While most flights are back to normal, and most stranded British passengers will be back by the end of this weekend, there is still quite a high level of disruption in some destinations. In some areas of the world, there is a significant lack of air capacity to enable British people to be returned quickly,” Tanzer said.
Airlines said about 2000 Belgians are stuck mainly in Egypt and Tunisia and 3000 French tourists in various destinations. Austrian Airlines say passengers stuck in Thailand would return home Sunday. German and Swiss airlines reported few problems with stranded travellers.
Many Icelandic airports are closed and though authorities say Eyjafjallajokull is now producing much less ash, they confirmed no signs of the eruption ending.
More than 100 volunteers joined Iceland’s Red Cross and other agencies over the weekend to help clear ash from farms and houses close to the volcano site, Iceland’s Civil Protection Agency said.
The agency said scientists flew over the eruption site late Saturday as part of work to monitor Eyjafjallajokull’s activity. “The quantity of the volcanic plume is slowly decreasing,” the agency said in a statement. But it added that there are “no indications that the eruption is coming to an end.”
Scientists said this weekend the volcano is unlikely at present to cause further disruption to European airspace, as the ash plume is now too small to reach jet streams and because winds have changed direction.
Austrian Airlines says passengers still waiting for flights at long haul destinations including Bangkok would be home within days. “We are confident that by Monday all passengers will be returned to Europe,” Austrian spokeswoman Pia Stradiot said. “The situation is fully under control.”
In Belgium, foreign affairs spokesman Patrick Deboeck said most travellers should be on the way on Monday at the latest. “There are still some problems in Bangkok and the United States but we expect a lot of departures today and Monday,” he said. “We hope that everything within the coming week will be back to normal.”
Elisabeth Manzi, spokeswoman at Scandinavian airline operator SAS, said it is aiming to bring back all stranded passengers over the weekend, but that “a few” may still be left on Monday.
Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman Barbro Elm said an estimated 250 Swedes were still stuck in Bangkok as of Friday – including about 150 who are waiting at Bangkok airport.
France’s foreign ministry said a small number of French passengers remain grounded in Nepal and about 300 in New Delhi. The Environment Ministry said that as of Sunday evening fewer than 1000 people were waiting for a flight back home – out of 150,000 French initially stranded when air traffic came to a stop.
Budget carrier easyJet, which operates services across Europe and North Africa, said airlines were attempting to move 200,000 people back home. “Bringing 200,000 passengers home has required a massive airlift,” said chief executive Andy Harrison.
UK Airlines to Increase Flights Extra Services After Disruption of Volcanic Ash
UK airlines are continuing in their efforts to bring back passengers stranded after volcanic ash disruption.
British Airways (BA) said it was continuing to put on extra flights and that its operation was ongoing.
Virgin said it hoped to have all passengers back from areas such as the Caribbean by the end of the week.
Both airlines said their schemes asking people already booked on long haul flights to give up their seats to stranded passengers were going well.
British airspace reopened on Tuesday following almost a week of grounded flights.
A BA spokesperson said: “This is a fast moving situation, and we need to make sure get them home as quickly as we can.”
She said the operation to repatriate passengers would continue on a “rolling basis”.
Easyjet said it was setting up stand-by desks in airports to process waiting passengers, while Ryanair said it had cleared its backlog.
Travel journalist Simon Calder said holiday firm Thomson aimed to bring all its stranded customers back by Monday.
Emirates said it was putting on extra flights, and that it had repatriated 6,000 passengers so far. The airline said the vast majority would be back home in the next week or so.
American Airlines said it was “very close to finishing the repatriation”.
Teacher Marc Davis said he spent an extra £1,000 as he battled to get home to Devon from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
He said he had to pay for an unexpected hotel stay and then had to sleep overnight at the airport to secure a place on one of the few extra flights out.
“As well as the expense in Malaysia, I had to pay for the extra days my car was parked at Heathrow Airport, the additional time my dog was in the kennel and essential calls on my mobile phone,” he said.
Meanwhile, the closure of UK airspace is estimated to have cost London more than £100m in lost tourist spending.
According to London’s mayor and Visit London, hotel occupancy was down as much as 25%, and theatre, restaurants and shops have all seen a fall in visitors.
Vietnam Aviation Industry: VietJet Air Plans Joint Venture With AirAsia
“Vietnam is developing its airline industry, and policies have been created to attract capital sources, including foreign investment,” Thanh said in an interview published by Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper on Tuesday.
VietJet Air is one of the private airlines in Vietnam. These airlines will be a joint venture with AirAsia airlines.
According to Vietnam Airlines, AirAsia’s acquisition of 30 per cent stake in Air local VietJet last month just moved to help foreign airlines offer domestic flights, foreign companies are currently prohibited by law from doing. National airlines asked the government to prevent the joint-venture between VietJet Air and AirAsia.
However, the Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration deputy head Lai Xuan Thanh said AirAsia’s move was illegal as the government allows foreign investors to buy shares in a local airline.
Thanh said as the stake purchase complied with the law, there was no legal basis to roll it back as requested by Vietnam Airlines, Thanh said.
VietJet Air, the first private airline to be licensed in Vietnam, said its joint venture with AirAsia will be named VietJet AirAsia.
Nguyen Duc Tam, VietJet Air CEO, told Thanh Nien with only 30 percent stake, AirAsia will hardly be able to control VietJet Air’s business.
“We have our own strengths and strategies and there is no way VietJet Air can be taken over by foreign investors,” Tam said.
“VietJet Air managers have a lot of experience in working with foreign investors and we understand that AirAsia is an international company. As a result, we have already made clear and transparent agreements to ensure VietJet Air can operate independently on equality and mutual interest principles.”
Foreign investment
The government has set a 30 percent cap on foreign ownership in a local airline. However, Vietnam Airlines said, the regulation does not distinguish foreign airlines from other foreign investors. As a result, foreign carriers like Jetstar and now AirAsia have entered the domestic flights segment in Vietnam, which they are technically not allowed to do. This trend is bound to harm the local industry, the national carrier said.
Vietnam Airlines proposed that the government fix the “loophole.”
“The law on aviation was created many years ago, so there can be some regulations that are no longer up-to-date,” Thanh said. “Businesses usually propose changes to laws in accordance with the development.”
But Thanh said he didn’t agree with Vietnam Airlines’ assertion that selling stake to a foreign airline was a way of selling the rights to start domestic flights at a cheap price.
“The local airline sector is protected by the 30 percent cap on foreign ownership of a single investor and the 49 percent cap on total foreign investment,” he said in the interview.
