CHINA: Hainan Airlines Introduces Flights To Edinburgh

Hainan Airlines inaugurated the first-ever direct flights between Scotland and China today with HU749, the first service between Beijing and Edinburgh.

The four weekly flights to the Scottish capital is the country’s first connection to the Far-East.

Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport said: This is a momentous day as we connect not only Edinburgh and Beijing for the first time, but Scotland and China too.

It is a route which has immense opportunities for our countries, from tourism and business to culture, education and more.

We know Edinburgh is second only to London for Chinese tourists and we are eager to welcome more people to our fantastic capital city, but it’s also about connecting people from Scotland to Beijing and wider China thanks to Hainan’s hub network.

Hainan is one of the world’s most prestigious airlines and we are proud to be working with them. This is something the city has worked towards for a number of years and we are delighted to see this day finally arrive.

Minister for Business, Innovation, and Energy, Paul Wheelhouse, said: Securing direct links between Scotland and China is one of our key priorities for route development.

This new direct Beijing to Edinburgh route is an exciting first chapter indirect air connectivity between Scotland and China. It will enable China and Scotland to become closer in partnership and in travel time, building upon existing strong links for business and tourism.

The Scottish Government and our agencies look forward to working with Hainan Airlines and Edinburgh Airport to make this route a great success.

Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said: This first direct service from China to Edinburgh represents a gear change for Scottish tourism and further cement Scotland’s reputation as a world-class destination.

As the Chinese market has grown over the years so too has the Scottish capital’s popularity with Chinese visitors and it continues to be the top destination outside of London.

Through our ongoing work with key Chinese tour operators, we have seen visitor itineraries extending over the years.

Bringing visitors from China directly into the heart of Scotland will create greater opportunities for tourism businesses right across the country, as visitors stay longer and explore further.

Paul Lewis, managing director of Scottish Development International said: We’re working hard to ensure that more Scottish companies can take advantage of trade and investment opportunities in China, while at the same time trying to attract more Chinese companies to base their European operations here.

A direct air route is a significant enabler of both these goals and we welcome Hainan Airlines’ first ever route between Edinburgh Airport and Beijing Capital International Airport.

The flight currently includes a stopover in Dublin after its arrival in Edinburgh due to excessive demand interest at that airport for Chinese flight.

On Tuesdays and Saturdays, the aircraft will arrive into Edinburgh at 0600 and will then depart at 0800 to Dublin, to which it will carry on to Beijing after departure from Dublin.

On Thursdays and Sundays, the flight arrives into Edinburgh from Dublin at 0910 before departing for Beijing at 1110.

This flight continues the carrier’s continued expansion out of the UK, having launched their first Manchester route over two years ago this month.

As the carrier is slowly receiving the licensing from the CAAC - Civil Aviation Administration of China, it is becoming a little clearer into where the carrier wants to start their expansion.

With services from Capital Airlines out of Gatwick being operated on already, they are starting to cover all areas of the UK. The other airports of interest could potentially be those such as Glasgow, Birmingham and potentially Stansted if the demand appeals to HNA.

In terms of investment, the carrier is definitely putting money into the route developments they establish.

This comes following the news that the HNA board are looking to raise over $1 billion in capital to fund certain elements of the airline, placing worries into the security of these routes in case the airline has to downsize.

However, Hainan seems to be playing the UK market very strongly and are slowly, one by one, opening up China to most of the UK and beyond.

Especially with the Dublin connection point, where they can capture some of the Irish catchment areas on top of this, thus boosting their presence into Europe as well.


Tourism Observer

CHINA: 20 Million Passengers Went Through Changsha Airport in 2016

Changsha Huanghua International Airport handled 21.3 million passengers in 2016 according to CAAC statistics. This was an increase of close to 14% on the previous year and left the airport ranked 13th in China.

This was one place higher than in 2015 when it was still ranked below Wuhan Airport which it has now overtaken. Analysis of OAG Schedule Analyser data indicates that international traffic at the airport was around 7% of the total in 2015, increasing to about 9% in 2016.

Since 2007 passenger demand at the airport has grown by an average of over 11% per annum. Last year’s growth of almost 14% was the airport’s fastest increase in traffic since 2010. The year-on-year increase in passenger numbers was almost 2.6 million, the most in the airport’s history.

The airport finished building a second runway in 2016, which is expected to become operational during 2017. There are also plans to build a third runway in the medium-term.

Last year saw the airport welcome a number of new high-profile international services with Hainan Airlines, with the carrier beginning direct flights to Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, as well as Los Angeles in California.

Hainan Airlines drives growth but China Southern Airlines still #1

China Southern Airlines is the busiest carrier at the airport, accounting for just under 22% of annual scheduled seat capacity. A total of 39 airlines served Changsha in 2016 with the top 15 accounting for 89% of the airport’s capacity.

While China Southern and China Eastern Airlines appear to have both reduced capacity marginally at the airport in 2016, other carriers grew their presence at the airport considerably.

Hainan Airlines has jumped from fourth place in 2015 to second place in 2016 thanks to a 46% increase in seat capacity at the airport. Beijing Capital Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Tianjin Airlines all grew their capacity at the airport by more than 40% last year.

Beijing is #1 Changsha route; high-speed rail may impact some routes in 2017

The busiest route from Changsha is the 1,355-kilometre sector to Beijing. Capacity on the route is provided by Air China, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Xiamen Airlines.

Between them these four carriers offer 116 weekly flights, equivalent to around 17 flights per day. The fastest-growing domestic route in 2016 was Tianjin, where capacity was up almost 40%.

At the end of last year the opening of a new high-speed rail link to Kunming reduced travel time from Changsha from 19 hours to just five. This may have an impact on air travel demand on the 1,099-kilometre route in 2017.

As a result Haikou may become the airport’s second busiest route in 2017.

Currently the airport offers non-stop service to 20 international destinations in 13 countries. The leading international country markets currently are Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia.

There are non-stop flights to Europe, with China Southern Airlines operating a three times weekly service to Frankfurt. North America is now also served directly since Hainan Airlines began twice-weekly flights to Los Angeles in January 2016.

On 21 January 2016 Hainan Airlines celebrated the launch of the first non-stop service between Changsha and an airport in North America. Los Angeles was the lucky destination with the Chinese carrier offering twice-weekly (Mondays and Thursdays) flights using its 787s.

CANADA: British Columbia International Tourists Shoot Up

British Columbia saw a huge increase in international tourists for the first half of 2016, up just over 12 per cent from the year before.

Statistics Canada tracked the number of overnight visitors to the province between January and June, counting over 2.3 million people.

It’s a 12.4 per cent increase from the same period in 2015.

The biggest increases came from the United States, China, and Mexico. Visitors from south of the border increased by 12.4 per cent, from China by 22 per cent, and from Mexico by 38.6 per cent.

“Tourism is off to a spectacular start this summer,” said Destination B.C. CEO Marsha Walden in a statement.

“With particulary high numbers from China and Mexico, and steady increases from the rest of our key markets, we expect international visitor arrivals to remain strong. Tourism businesses around the province are having a great season and are reporting strong bookings into the next. Our international visitors are discovering something we already know-it’s a great time to #exploreBC!”

June was one of the biggest months for tourism with 656,676 visitors in total, up over 8 per cent from June 2015.

The tourism agency thanks the low Canadian dollar, increased air service to Vancouver, and Destination B.C.’s new marketing strategy, for the rise in visitors.

A new Aeromexico route between Mexico City and Vancouver that began in December 2015, alongside Air Canada’s service to the region, likely helped boost travel from Mexico. Vancouver Airport also added new service to Osaka, Japan and Kunming, China, and increased service to Taipei, Taiwan and Soeul, South Korea.

A sixth mainland China-based airline, Capital Airlines, also just announced they would begin to service Vancouver in December.

All these new international routes were made possible in part due to the government’s elimination of an international jet-fuel tax in 2012, said a release from the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training.

The ministry says tourism in B.C. has supported 127,500 employees and 19,000 businesses in the province.

Meanwhile, YVR is hoping to hit a record year with an expected 21-million passengers passing through the airport by year’s end.

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is on track to break another passenger number record by the end of 2016 with 10.5 million visitors so far this year.

It’s an 8.1 per cent increase over the January to June period last year, largely thanks to a surge in traffic from Latin America, according to numbers released by YVR.

Visitors from Central and South America increased by 20 per cent, marking the strongest year-over-year growth for all international destinations into and out of YVR.

It’s in part due to a new Aeromexico route between Mexico City and Vancouver that began in December 2015, alongside Air Canada’s service to the region.

Traffic to and from Asia also saw a boost of 12.9 per cent with new service to Osaka, Japan and Kunming, China, and increased service to Taipei, Taiwan and Soeul, South Korea.

The airport also expects the new non-stop service to Brisbane, Australia and Delhi, India will lift numbers even further by the end of the year.

Like Asia, traffic from Europe also increased 12.9 per cent thanks to new flights to Rome and Dublin and increased service to London.

Despite the low Canadian dollar – an incentive from American travellers to head up north – U.S. traffic only increased 3.8 per cent year-over-year. YVR says it was the new non-stop service from Air Canada to San Jose, San Diego, and Chicago, and new WestJet service to Orlando and San Diego, that bumped up the passenger numbers.

They expect the new 787-7 Dreamliner service between Vancouver and Newark, New Jersey that started in June will grow the U.S. market further by year end.

While not making a huge impact on U.S. traffic, the Canadian Dollar might be keeping people at home. Domestic numbers moved up 7.6 per cent.

President and CEO of Vancouver Airport Authority, Craig Richmond says YVR is expecting to surpass a record 21 million passengers in 2016, slightly up from the record-smashing 20 million counted in 2015.

“We have an ambitious goal of 25 million passengers by 2020. We will achieve this by working together to support new and existing services, connecting British Columbia proudly to the world,” said Richmond in a release.

According to the airport, reaching 25 million passengers by 2020 would add 5,000 to 7,000 more jobs at YVR, generate $2.7 billion in GDP, and add more than $800 million in tax revenue to all three levels of government.

CHINA: Chinese Tourists Slap And Throw Food At Airline Employee

Photographs that reportedly show Chinese passengers beating up a member of an airline’s check-in staff after becoming irritated by a flight delay have triggered heated online discussion on the mainland.

Capital Airlines’ flight from Beijing to Changsha was delayed on Sunday night because of bad weather.

Several passengers became angry about the delay and reportedly humiliated a women working for the airline at Beijing Capital International Airport after their demand to meet the airline’s representative was rejected, the article said.

One angry woman reportedly threw the contents of her takeaway meal box over the employee while a man was said to have slapped the employee’s face, the article said.

The man then shouted, “What’s wrong with beating you up?”, and then smashed a few objects at the entrance to the airport boarding gate, the report said.

The newspaper did not say whether police had been called to investigate the matter.

The report aroused much debate on weibo, the mainland microblogging website, with many people’s comments suggesting that both the airline and passengers were to blame.

“Airlines always use the weather as an excuse,” one weibo blogger said. “In fact, there can be many reasons such as the malfunction of the aircraft, or the flight paths being occupied, poor organisation, and sometimes even waiting for senior officials to arrive.”

Another person wrote: “The passengers should really apologise. The airline’s poor service doesn’t mean staff deserve such humiliation.”

CHINA: Capital Airlines Applies For Australia Routes

Capital Airlines (China)
Type Scheduled Carrier
Base Beijing Capital
Aircraft 59
Destinations 64
Routes 162
Daily Flights 165

Capital Airlines (China) (JD, Beijing Capital) has applied to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for permission to start scheduled passenger flights to Australia during Summer 2016.

In its application, the Hainan Airlines (HU, Haikou) subsidiary said it was looking to connect Qingdao with Melbourne Tullamarine from July 1 of next year using its sole A330-200. It did not mention what frequencies the airline had requested.

Capital Airlines began long haul operations earlier this year with flights from Beijing Capital and Hangzhou to Copenhagen Kastrup. Other routes under consideration include a possible Hangzhou-Madrid Barajas which could launch in December of this year.

CHINA: Tianjin Airlines Applies For Long Flights From Chongqing To Vancouver

Tianjin Airlines
Type Scheduled Carrier
Base Tianjin
Aircraft 91
Destinations 101
Routes 257
Daily Flights 409

Tianjin Airlines (GS, Tianjin) has applied to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for permission to begin longhaul flights from Chongqing to Vancouver Int'l, Canada via Tianjin in June next year.

The carrier plans to operate the route 4x weekly using A330 plane. Should it secure the official greenlight, it would become the second Hainan Airlines (HU, Haikou) subsidiary to operate intercontinental services after Capital Airlines (China) (JD, Beijing Capital) which launched flights to Europe this past summer.

Tianjin Airlines currently operates a fleet of eighteen A320-200s, fifty EMB-190s, and twenty-two ERJ-145s on flights across China as well as to Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Russia, and Taiwan.

CHINA: Government To Merge Sectors Of 3 Largest Carriers

China Southern Airlines
Type Scheduled Carrier
Base Guangzhou
Aircraft 516
Destinations 208
Routes 867
Daily Flights 1732

The Chinese government is considering merging certain sectors of the country's three largest carriers - Air China (CA, Beijing Capital), China Southern Airlines (CZ, Guangzhou), and China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao) - into one, informed sources have revealed.

As part of the country's 13th Five-Year Plan covering 2016 to 2020, China's Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) last month unveiled far-reaching reforms which aim, through the consolidation of state-owned companies, to create globally-competitive multinational corporations capable of turning a profit by 2020.

As such, the merger of the three airlines' passenger operations is only one aspect of consolidation under review with others said to include combining only two of three's passenger operations. In June, the deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) Zhou Laizhen alluded to the creation of Asia's largest air-freight transport company through the proposed merger of China Eastern's China Cargo Airlines (CK, Shanghai Hongqiao), Air China Cargo (CAO, Beijing Capital), and the cargo division of China Southern Airlines.

Historically, all three carriers stemmed from China's previous, de-facto state enterprise - CAAC (Beijing Capital) - which Beijing unbundled into six trunk operators - Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, China Northern Airlines (CJ, Shenyang), China Southwest Airlines (SZ, Chengdu), and China Northwest Airlines (WH, Xi'an Xiguan) - in 1987 as part of Deng Xiaoping's market reforms. However, to better streamline operational efficiencies, China Southwest was eventually merged into Air China in 2002, China Northwest into China Eastern also in 2002, while China Northern was absorbed by China Southern in 2004.

The privately-owned HNA Group has unveiled a similar policy with plans to transfer control of four carriers - Tianjin Airlines (GS, Tianjin), West Air (China) (PN, Chongqing), Capital Airlines (China) (JD, Beijing Capital), and Hong Kong Airlines (HX, Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok) - to Hainan Airlines (HU, Haikou) in a bid to improve profitability, boardroom excellence, and avoid horizontal competition among its subsidiaries.

CHINA: Hainan Airlines Parent To Buy Swissport

Hainan Airlines 5-Star cabin staff

HNA Group, owner of the Chinese 5-Star Airline, Hainan Airlines, has agreed to buy airport luggage handler Swissport International Ltd from PAI Partners SAS for USD $2.81 billion.

HNA will operate Swissport as a stand-alone business within the group. Swissport has approximately 60,000 employees, operating in 48 countries, and is the world´s largest ground and cargo handling company, providing service for about 224 million passengers and handles more than 4.1 million tonnes of cargo a year.

Under HNA ownership, Swissport will continue to expand its global footprint and continue to deliver the highest quality and value added services to existing and future customers. On announcement of the sale, Swissport Chairman Dr Thomas Staehelin commented: “We are pleased to become part of HNA Group and to continue to further strengthening our service offering and global network.”

Adam Tan, President of HNA Group, said: “HNA is excited to support Swissport’s world class management team as they continue to provide the highest quality service to the airline industry and their passengers. HNA is committed to Swissport’s future success in the global aviation market”.
About the HNA Group

HNA Group was founded in 1993, and is a Chinese conglomerate encompassing core divisions of aviation, holdings, capital, tourism and logistics, and has 11 listed companies.

In 2014, HNA Group had more than 110,000 employees worldwide, it is one of the Top 4 in China’s aviation industry, ranking the 120th in China Top 500 Enterprises, and HNA Group entered Fortune Global 500 in 2015 for the first Time, ranking No. 464 with annual revenue of approximately US $25.6 billion.

As at December 2014, HNA Aviation has a fleet of 528 aircraft, serving over 640 Chinese domestic and international routes, flying to over 250 cities, and carrying 72 million passengers annually.

It operates and manages Hainan Airlines, Tianjin Airlines, Deer Jet, Lucky Air, Capital Airlines, West Air, Fuzhou Airlines, Urumqi Air, Yangtze River Express, My CARGO, Africa World Airlines, and Aigle Azur. The aviation division has been maintaining a high level of operation standard and quality. The flagship airline, Hainan Airlines, is a SKYTRAX 5-Star Airline.