MONGOLIA: Genghis Khan Airlines To Commence Flights 2019

Genghis Khan Airlines a new start-up in the Inner Mongolia region of China. However, unlike some airline start-ups, which start seamlessly, Genghis Khan has had a few problems along its route to the sky.

Genghis Khan Airlines was originally marketed as Tianjiao airlines. However, that name was dropped for a more iconic name, which is based on the famed historic Mongolian figure Genghis Khan.

The airline originally planned to start operations with Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft in March, but it was unable to secure production slots with Bombardier.

Then, in May, the airline was said to be negotiating with Embraer for E190 aircraft to launch operations. The airline was not able to secure production slots or maintenance contracting with Embraer either.

Finally, the airline announced a large order for up to 50 Comac ARJ21 aircraft, including 25 firm orders and options for an additional 25.

The airline plans to receive its first two aircraft in December 2018, with the remaining 23 in the next five years.

Genghis Khan Airlines has also entered into an agreement with Comac in order to establish a flight school for its pilots as well as a maintenance and overhaul facility for the airline’s operations.

The airline’s investors are mostly the Inner Mongolian government, which has invested USD$438 million US dollars into the airline.

The Inner Mongolian government is hoping to increase tourism to the region, which has increased already 12% over 2017, to 202,600 tourists in the first half of 2018.

The airline will be run by a mix of executives who have left various other Chinese airlines, such as Air China, 9 Air, China Southern Airlines, and Qingdao Airlines.

The former chairman of Qingdao Airlines will be in charge of preparing the airline for its commercial operations, and the chairman of the airline will be Hao Yutao.

Genghis Khan Airlines will be the second airline to operate the Comac ARJ21 after the Comac-owned Chengdu Airlines.

Genghis Khan will also be the second-largest operator of the ARJ21 should they exercise their options; Genghis Khan Airlines will follow Henan Airlines and tie with Joy Air.

Should the new carrier choose to do so, the 25 additional aircraft will be delivered 3 years after the original 25 aircraft.

After starting operations, Genghis Khan Airlines plans to launch into the international market once they have received their 25th aircraft.

The airline plans to be operating to 40 destinations with 25 aircraft in 5 years, and then to 80 destinations with 50 aircraft in 8 years. While these plans are ambitious, the airline’s wide investor pool will be able to help finance their expansion plans.

Genghis Khan Airlines yet released its plans for seating configurations on the ARJ21. However, the aircraft is typically equipped with between 78 and 90 seats depending on the number of classes, allowing for some flexibility on the airline’s part.

The aircraft also has a range of up to 3,700 km, which will allow for great flexibility when the airline is considering new routes.

The airline also plans to operate extensive flights within Inner Mongolia from its base at the capital of Hohhot, as there are 20 transport-class airports within the region prepared for the airline to serve them.

Genghis Khan Airlines says that it has completed acquiring the personnel required, including executives, maintenance personnel, pilots, cabin crew, and more.

Genghis Khan airlines look like it has a good chance at being successful in an under served region of China, and although their plans may be ambitious, they have a strong team behind the plans to help see them through.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has approved Genghis Khan Airlines to start operations. The brand-new carrier may commence the flight operations as early as early 2019.

Genghis Khan Airlines was established in 2015 and selected Hohhot Airport as their main hub. Hohhot is the capital city of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, which is located at northwest of Beijing and is just a short 90-minute flight away.

Inner Mongolia has an area of 1.183 million kilometers squared. In recent years, an improvement in airport facilities has not attracted carriers as originally planned.

According to the company proposal, the airline will use Chinese-manufactured Comac ARJ21 aircraft and hope to operate a fleet of 25 the type.

It plans to fly 40 destinations and 60 routes within the first five years. In the next eight years, a fleet of 50 aircraft are expected and the airline has set a goal to reach 80 destinations and 150 routes, the route map will be covering the country’s major cities, Mongolia and Russia.

Inner Mongolia has 28 civil airports, the most airports in a region of China. In 2017, 58 airlines served across the region, reaching 116 destinations and 426 routes, including 37 international route and 21 destinations.

In the first seven months of 2018, the total passengers volume of the airports in Inner Mongolia was 14.28 million, an increase of 17.6 percent over the same period last year.

Expecting rapid economic growth, the number of airports will 50 by 2030. At that point, Hohhot will become a major hub for the region.The airline has already employed maintenance personal, safety regulators, safety management teams and customer services agents.

Hao Yutao, the chairman of Genghis Khan, said, the airline has reached an agreement with Commercial Aircraft Cooperation Of China Ltd (COMAC). The company is going to setup Aero institute, aircraft maintenance center and training center in the region and support surrounding airports.

As a result of the rapid economic growth in China, the airline network of Inner Mongolia can’t meet popular demand. Genghis Khan Airlines commencing service may solve the region’s problems.

The airline has to face competition with the high speed train in the long run, meaning the future is cautiously optimistic.


Tourism Observer

CHINA: Henan Airlines Flight 8387

Henan Airlines Flight 8387 (VD8387/KPA8387) was a domestic flight operated by Henan Airlines from Harbin Taiping International Airport to the new Yichun Lindu Airport, both located in Heilongjiang province, China. On the night of August 24, 2010, the Embraer E-190-100 LR operating the route crashed on approach to Yichun Lindu with 91 passengers and 5 crew members on board. This was the first hull-loss and the first accident with fatalities involving an Embraer E-190.

The final report,released in June, 2012 by Chinese State Security Agency for Work Safety (CSAWS) concluded that there was a failure of the crew for not observing the safety rules for landing under fog.

Flight 8387 departed Harbin Airport at 20:51, at 21:10 the aircraft obtained the weather from Yichun Airport and they were told the visibility was 2,800 m (9,200 ft) . At 21:16 the crew were alerted to dense fog at the airport and within the next ten minutes they confirmed a decision height of 440 m (1,440 ft) for a VOR/DME approach to Runway 30. At 21:28:19 the airport controller told the Flight 8387 that although the vertical visibility was ok the horizontal visibility was bad. At 21:28:38 the aircraft overflew the airport and was seen by the airport controller. At 21:33 they completed a procedural turn for the approach, at 21:36 the autopilot was disengaged. At 21:37 the aircraft had descended to the 440 m (1,440 ft) decision height but the pilot could not see the runway. At 21:38 the aural height warning started, although the crew could not see the runway and had passed the decision height they did not do a missed approach procedure and the aircraft hit the ground.

According to Yichun officials preliminary observations, the aircraft broke apart while it was in the process of landing at around 21:36 local time (13:36 UTC), while the airport was enclosed with fog. The aircraft touched down around 1.5 km (0.93 mi) short of the runway, then caught fire. The wreckage of the fuselage came to a rest 700 m (2,300 ft) from the runway. Some passengers escaped through gaps in the fuselage of the cabin.

Details surrounding the crash were unclear in the immediate aftermath of the incident; a local official reported that the aircraft broke in two as it was landing, and that passengers were thrown from the aircraft, though some survivors said that it remained intact until it came to a rest away from the runway.

Subsequent investigations concluded that the first impact was with trees, 1,100 m (3,600 ft) from the runway threshold, at 21:38:08. Thereafter, the aircraft hit the ground with the wheels of main landing gear, 1,080 m (3,540 ft) from the landing runway threshold, running on the ground a distance of 870 m (2,850 ft), when the engines collided with the ground. With this impact, the wing fuel tanks ruptured, spilling fuel and causing the fire. The survivors left aircraft by the door behind the cockpit and through openings in the fuselage. Due to the impact, emergency exits could not be opened, and a large amount of smoke accumulated in the cabin. The pilot, who survived the accident, could not organize nor conduct the passengers evacuation.

The aircraft was in a two-class configuration with six business seats and 92 economy seats but at the time of accident had only 91 passengers. As well as the passengers the aircraft had five crew (two flight crew, a purser, flight attendant and security officer), a total of 96 on-board.

Initial reports suggested that 53 people survived the crash, while 43 were found dead at the scene; later reports corrected the death toll to 42 because the body of one victim was torn apart. Most of the dead were seated in the rear of the aircraft.Of the 54 survivors, 17 had only minor injuries but two were seriously burned and died in hospital.

Many passengers were participants of a national conference on human resources and employment, including vice minister Sun Baoshu and other officials of the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Two participants from Chengdu were among the fatalities.

The pilot survived the accident, though he sustained heavy facial injuries.

Some survivors said that they escaped through a hole in the front of the plane.

On August 31, Henan Airlines announced that it would pay 960,000 yuan (around $140,000 USD) to the relatives of each person killed in the crash. The payment was required under PRC civil aviation law.

Crews immediately began searching for survivors, although the efforts were hampered by fog. This phase of the rescue operation lasted for around eight hours before personnel at the scene began clearing the wreckage the morning after the accident.

Henan Airlines cancelled all flights in the days after the incident and fired the airline's general manager. Nationally, Chinese airlines performed increased safety checks in response to the crash.

The Administration for Industry and Commerce of Henan Province announced days after the incident that it had rescinded the enterprise name registration of Henan Airlines, and demanded that the airline operator restore its original name of Kunpeng Airlines. The administration cited as reasons for its decision that the name Henan Airlines had caused public misunderstanding and greatly damaged the image of the province, which holds no stake in the airline operator. This move was immediately met with media criticism, which questioned the validity of the administration's interference with Henan Airlines' rights to choice of name. It was also revealed that the province had offered favorable conditions to attract the airline operator to adopt its current name, and celebrated the renaming afterwards.

Both the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the aircraft's manufacturer, Embraer, sent teams of investigators to the crash site. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board appointed an accredited representative, as the aircraft's General Electric CF34 engines were made in the U.S. The flight recorders were recovered at the scene and sent to Beijing for analysis.

Early in the investigation, the qualifications of the pilot were focused on, as it emerged that upwards of a hundred pilots flying for Shenzhen Airlines, Henan Airlines' parent company, had falsified their claims of flying experience.

Investigators from the State Administration of Work Safety concluded that the captain, on his first flight into Yichun, switched off the autopilot and approached the runway covered by radiation fog despite the fact that visibility of 2,800 m (9,200 ft) was below the minimum of 3,600 m (11,800 ft).

The crew descended below minimum descent altitude although visual contact with the runway had not been established.

The crew also failed to initiate a missed approach when the radio altimeter callouts indicated that the airplane was near the ground and the communication and cooperation within the crew was insufficient, despite the known safety risks at that airport.

The Embraer E-190AR was a twin-engined jet airliner registered in China as B-3130. It was built in Brazil in 2008, with manufactures serial number 19000223, and delivered to the airline on 4 December 2008. At the time of accident the aircraft had flown 5,109.6 hours and had completed 4,712 flight cycles.

Yichun Lindu Airport is located in Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province, has a runway 2.3 km (1.4 mi) long, 45 m (148 ft) width, qualified to operate with single-aisle airliners like Airbus A320 and Boeing 737. The airport started operations on 26 August 2009, one year before accident. On the day of the accident the airport had two flight controllers, they were both in good health conditions and qualified, the final report also confirmed that all safety procedures had been done correctly, the airfield navigation and communications equipment was working correctly and the runway was serviceable.

The airport is located in a valley, with about 90% relative humidity, especially in the afternoon, from 17:00 until 21:00. As the temperature drops rapidly in this period with little wind it is common for a rapid condensation of water vapor, the basic condition for a fog formation known as radiation fog, which characteristic is a thick and low fog, significantly impacting operations. In September 2009, one month after the start of Yichun airport operations, China Southern Airlines decided not to operate at night at that airport due to concerns with the safety of operations.

On the night of the accident, the airport meteorological observatory issued bulletins stating visibility conditions. At 19:00, the visibility was 1.0 km (0.62 mi), by 21:00 it was 8.0 km (5.0 mi). At 21:08 the airport issued a special bulletin reporting that visibility was reduced to 2.8 km (1.7 mi) and decreasing rapidly.