China's fledgling private airline industry could take off in the first half of this year, using busy holiday travel seasons to launch their services, state media said yesterday.
The first group of private airlines could begin operations in the next few months, for example during the week-long May Day public holiday, the China Business Weekly reported, citing unnamed industry observers.
New rules by civil aviation authorities that took effect last week have set the bar low for entrants into the industry, allowing anyone with three planes to run an airline.
The rules, as reported earlier by the China News Service, also permit foreigners to have up to 25 percent ownership in the companies.
At least three private-sector airline operators have received approval from civil aviation authorities and plan to offer low-cost, no-frills services, the China Business Weekly said.
They include United Eagle Airlines (鷹聯航空) in the southwestern city of Chengdu, Air Spring (春秋航空) in the eastern city of Shanghai, and Okay Airways (奧凱航空), based in the Beijing area, according to the paper.
The paper quoted Hu Wenbin (胡文彬), a United Eagle spokesman, as saying the company's first three planes, all leased, could be in place before the end of the month.
Also suggesting an early start for the company, it placed an order of 350,000 tonnes of aviation fuel with China Aviation Oil (
United Eagle is likely to focus on offering cheap flights for China's western frontier region, it said.
The main business for Shanghai-based Air Spring will be chartered flights and regional services within China, according to the report.
Okay Airways will operate out of Binhai International Airport about 200km from the Chinese capital, and will probably seek to carve out a niche for itself in the cargo business, the paper reported.
The paper cited unconfirmed reports that a fourth company, Huaxia Airlines (華夏航空) headquartered in southwestern Chongqing municipality, had also obtained approval to operate.
No-frill carriers are spreading rapidly across Asia, with names such as Singapore's Tiger Airways, Malaysia's AirAsia and Thailand's Nok Air offering their services.
Concerns have emerged in China that the industry will be crowded with large numbers of more or less qualified would-be entrants, the China Business Weekly said.
The opening offered by the new rules could mean that eventually "every man and woman with deep pockets or financial backing from abroad" will want to set up an airline, it said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last