News
China revises domestic slot allocation rules but international carriers still at its mercy
December 11th 2015
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is making allocation of new domestic departure slots at some of the country’s major gateways a competitive process by the drawing of lots, or accepting bids for payment, Read More » a move that could give private airlines a fairer opportunity to win more desirable slots compared with the state-owned carriers that so far have been favoured, a CAAC official has told Reuters.
As part of a trial run, slots for additional domestic flights in 2016 at Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport were put up for sale from this week, the official said. At Shanghai’s overcrowded Pudong, slots will be decided by drawing lots, CAAC said on its website. Industry executives, such as Wang Zhenghua, the chairman of China's largest budget carrier, Spring Airlines, said the previous system was unfair to private carriers because state-owned airlines were allocated the best time slots. Of a total of 196 additional landing and take-off slots that will be available each week in 2016 at the two airports, half will be for international routes and still be assigned by the CAAC.
On Monday, HNA Group’s Hainan Airlines announced it would adjust its private placement, released in April, by reducing the upper limit of total funds from 24 billion yuan to 16.55 billion yuan. However, following the adjustment, Hainan would still assign 11 billion yuan to fund 37 new Airbus and Boeing aircraft, including 14 B787-9s, 11 B737-800s, seven B737-8 MAXs, and five A330-300s. The additional 5.55 billion yuan will be used for acquiring a 48.21% stake in Tianjin Airlines, the airline group said.
HNA subsidiary, Yangtze River Express, will commence scheduled B737-800 passenger operations on December 15 with flights from Pudong to Sanya.
In other Mainland news, Colorful Guizhou Airlines took delivery this week of the first of seven-on-order E190s from Embraer. A joint-venture between Guizhou Industrial Investment Group (95%) and Weining County Construction Investment Group (5%), Colorful Guizhou hopes to begin commercial operations by the end of the year. Initial operations will cover scheduled domestic passenger flights out of its Guiyang hub.
Mainland carriers took delivery of 37 new aircraft in November, including 16 B737s, 13 A320 Family aircraft, three A330s, two B757-200Fs, one B777-300ER, one B737-300F and a COMAC ARJ21-700, according to CARNOC’s fleet data base.
Air service provider dnata, a subsidiary of Dubai's Emirates Group, on Monday signed an agreement with Xiamen Airlines to provide full ground services for the carrier's new B787-8 flights to Sydney. Under the three-year agreement, it will provide passenger, ramp and cargo services for 260 Xiamen flights a year in and out of Sydney’s Kingsford Smith international airport, dnata said, including Xiamen’s services to Fuzhou (three times a week) and Xiamen twice weekly. dnata is also the major supplier of ground handling services to China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Sichuan Airlines in Sydney.
Meanwhile, the Fujian-province carrier has confirmed plans to add the larger B787-9 variant to its fleet to launch non-stop services to Melbourne, Vancouver and New York in 2016, although no orders have been placed with the manufacturer.
