Airline News
China reports 57% international growth in Q1
June 8th 2015
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has released the combined first-quarter traffic figures for its carriers. In the domestic market, traffic was robust, increasing 11% year-on-year, while regional traffic, defined by the CAAC to include Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan only, slumped to 5%, less than half its growth in 2014. Read More » Although Taiwan remains a popular destination for Mainland tourists, it has lost market share to more “exotic” Thailand, Korea and Japan, while protests and the accelerated anti-graft campaign targeting casino visitors led to a decline in travel to Hong Kong and Macau, respectively. International traffic, which includes the whole world excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, has surged 57% year-on-year, equivalent to an additional 64 fully-loaded A380 flights a day.
Meanwhile, flag carrier Air China and United Airlines have announced an expansion of their codeshare partnership, covering another 22 routes in the Chinese and U.S. markets, intensifying competition among Asia-Pacific and U.S. carriers for travellers to Asia. Effective immediately, United added its code to ten additional domestic Air China routes, while Air China placed its designator on twelve U.S. domestic United services, increasing their partnership to cover a total 110 routes. To coincide with the expansion, Air China started deploying a newly delivered B747-8 on the daily Chongqing-Beijing-San Francisco route, and increased its Beijing-Los Angeles service to thrice-daily.
More good news for Air China came from Australia last week where Melbourne Airport chief executive, Chris Woodruff, “thanked Air China for [its] continued support” as the carrier launched four-weekly A330 operations to Beijing, the first direct air link to the Chinese capital. Meanwhile, Air China has cancelled its June 18 launch to Johannesburg due to “xenophobic attacks”, as well as stricter visa regulations for Chinese citizens visiting South Africa, a spokesperson said. South African Airways (SAA) stopped serving Beijing in May after incurring more than 1 billion rand ($815 million) in losses on the route.
In related news, HNA Group has increased its footprint in Africa by acquiring a $13 million, 6.2% stake in South Africa’s Comair, which operates a full-service British Airways franchise and a budget carrier, Kulula.
