The country's civil aviation industry should provide services to
a wider range of people with the development of regional and
low-cost airlines, an expert has said.
Li Xiaojin, a professor at the Civil Aviation University of
China, said the expansion of low-cost airlines will enable the
masses, not just the wealthy, to travel by air.
Regional airlines, offering commuter flights between non-hub
cities over distances less than 600 km, have huge development
potential, Li said.
"The existence of regional airlines will satisfy both market
demand and the public interest," Hu Xiaojun, chairman and general
manager of China Express Airlines, a regional carrier based in
Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province, said.
The domestic aviation market has been held back by inadequate
regional airlines and small- or medium-sized airports.
Regional carriers currently have just 60 planes, or 7 percent of
the country's total fleet, Hu said. This compares with 36 percent
in Europe and 43 percent in the United States.
Guan Dongyuan, managing director of Embraer, a Brazilian airline
company, predicted huge business opportunities in the coming
years.
He forecast the number of regional airplanes in China would be
280 by 2016, and there would be 630 jets by 2026.
Embraer supplies jets to China's largest regional aviation
carrier, Grand China Express, which is a subsidiary of HNA
Group.
Last year, there were 896 regular civil aviation routes in
China. Of those, however, only 206 routes were busy while the rest
flying no more than one plane per day, Li said.
And of the total 1.3 million flights last year, 36 percent
carried less than 100 passengers, which indicates a considerable
amount of waste, he said.
(China Daily October 25, 2007)
