Airline News
Mainland luggage rules revised
November 4th 2014
Authorities in mainland China are set on improving market conditions for the country’s burgeoning LCCs by removing restrictions on luggage allowances. Read More »
Until now, all mainland carriers must offer passengers a complimentary one-piece allowance of at least 20kg. The only notable exception is Spring Airlines, which gained regulatory approval in 2005 to provide 15kg instead of 20kg.
If revised, China’s emerging budget carriers could start charging for check-in baggage and other ancillary services, adopting important elements of the low-cost model.
"We are revising luggage rules and plan to remove the requirements related to luggage size, weight and allowance for passengers … in order to give airlines the power to set fares conditions," said Liu Feng, a deputy director-general of the department of transport at the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
The regulatory body declined to provide a time frame on when it might lift the restrictions, or introduce other relaxation.
Spring Airlines and 9 Air, a Guangzhou-based LCC that has yet to begin operations, are so far the only two mainland carriers that had been allowed the so-called "differentiated service" (a.k.a. being allowed to provide 15kg), while West Air and other budget carriers were applying for the same, said Liu.
LCCs in China are said to have a golden future, given the potential to increase their current 5% market share to the global 30% average, if not more.
