China's first private airline of the communist era launched its maiden flight yesterday, taking off from the eastern city of Tianjin for Kunming in the southwest.
The launch of Okay Airways Co comes amid a revolution in China's airline industry as regulators try to build up modern carriers capable of competing with bigger, established foreign rivals.
Based in Tianjin, Okay will operate six Boeing 737 aircraft on domestic routes, focusing on charter flights, cargo and express delivery services, according to news reports.
The first flight took off midmorning yesterday carrying 81 people and with Okay's president, Sui Mingguang, at the controls, the airline said.
It said the plane on yesterday's flight, with the English letters "OK" painted in gold on its white fuselage, is leased from Korean Airlines.
Okay is owned by investors from Beijing and the southern financial center of Shenzhen, according to the state newspaper China Daily.
China began easing restrictions on private investment in airlines early last year.
Regulators have also approved the launch of three other privately owned carriers -- Shanghai-based Spring International Airlines; Eagle Airlines, in the southwestern city of Chengdu, and Huaxia Airlines in northwestern Gansu Province.
China's airline industry has gone through wrenching changes since the government broke up its monopoly carrier in the early 1990s, creating more than a dozen regional carriers.
Major state-owned carriers such as Shanghai-based China Eastern and China Southern in the southern business capital of Guangzhou have invested heavily in modern Boeing and Airbus jets, with frequent-flier programs, multilingual flight attendants and international route networks.
But overcapacity and intense competition drove many carriers to the brink of bankruptcy. Regulators in recent years have merged airlines into three large groups in an effort to create competitors big and strong enough to face foreign airlines.
Sharp cutbacks in routes flown by the Chinese carriers have created openings for Okay and other new competitors. No other airline flies on Okay's route from Tianjin to Kunming, a popular tourist spot in the mountainous southwest.
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