China’s New Plan: 5 years to make them the centre of global aviation

[NPR] Right at this moment, more than two-thirds of all airport construction in the world is happening in China.

82% of Chinese people will live within 100 kilometers of an airport by 2020.  Photo Wikipedia

The total number of airports in China will be 244 airports by 2020. . This means that by then, 82% of Chinese people will live within 100 kilometers of an airport.

The country is in the first full year of a five-year plan to eventually make China the center of global aviation, and the Chinese government is pumping a quarter-trillion dollars into the project.

“From the American perspective, the whole idea of five-year plans is preposterous,” says James Fallows, author of a new book about China’s aviation boom, called China Airborne. “If you think five-year plan, you think Soviet Union, you think economic failure.”

The new plan is hugely ambitious and not at all certain to succeed, he tells NPR’s Guy Raz, but it’s a window into whether China’s overall economic strategy is actually the model for the 21st century or a cautionary tale.

“Part of the genius of the Chinese economic boom over the last couple of decades,” Fallows says, “is they have combined this large-scale government direction, which actually is important there, with this whole infinity of private, uncontrolled, very entrepreneurial activity.”

He says China’s leaders feel that if the country is ever to attain real prosperity, it needs to succeed in areas like pharmaceuticals, information technology and aerospace. “And that’s what this next push is all about,” he says.

Fallows adds that the new…….

Read the full article at NPR.org……

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NPR Staff
May 19, 2012

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• Aviation in China: Soaring ambition (economist.com)

Gatwick Airport aims to rival Heathrow after signing Air China deal: Telegraph

[Telegraph] Gatwick Airport has laid bare its ambition to rival Heathrow after announcing it had struck a deal with Air China over direct flights to Beijing.

Air China, a national flag carrier, will operate four direct flights a week between Gatwick and Beijing Photo: Bloomberg News

Air China is the latest long-haul carrier to sign up to Gatwick, which is trying to build a reputation as an alternative gateway between the UK and emerging markets.

The airport has started flexing its muscles as Heathrow’s owner BAA battles with the Government over building a third runway.

Air China, a national flag carrier, will operate four direct flights a week between Gatwick and Beijing.

Guy Stephenson, chief commercial officer at Global Infrastructure Partners owned Gatwick, said the airport – the UK’s second largest – could serve London “just as effectively” as Heathrow, where take-off and landing slots are…….

Read the full story at The Telegraph…..

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By Nathalie Thomas
02 May 2012

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Related articles

• Vietnam PM passes new aviation transport pact between his country and the UK: VietnamNet (airportinformer.wordpress.com)
• Gatwick better under new owner, says ex-BAA chief (independent.co.uk)

China buys Boeing 777s, delays Airbus deal – sources: Reuters

[Reuters] China Eastern Airlines (0670.HK) is set to place a $6 billion (3.7 billion pounds) order for up to 20 Boeing 777 jets, while simultaneously emerging at the centre of an aviation row between China and the European Union by stalling a recent Airbus deal, people familiar with the matter said.

The order for wide-body 777s follows a fierce contest between Boeing and Airbus

The order for wide-body 777s follows a fierce but discreet contest between Boeing and Airbus and allows the U.S. planemaker to bounce back after China’s third-largest airline cancelled an order for 24 of its latest flagship 787 Dreamliners last year.

Besides handing the 777 order to Boeing, China Eastern is stalling on the completion of a $3 billion order for 15 Airbus A330 aircraft announced last October, two of the people said.

Boeing, Airbus and China Eastern declined to comment.

The deals took shape at different times and for different plane types, but together they highlight the stakes involved as planemakers court the world’s fastest-growing aviation market under the shadow of a recent trade dispute between China and Europe.

China and more than 20 nations oppose EU plans to force airlines to adopt a carbon emissions-capping scheme that they say will penalise foreign long-haul carriers and infringe sovereignty. Airbus has said some…..

Read the full story at Reuters….

 

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Reuters: 26th April, 2012
Reporting by Tim Hepher,
Kyle Peterson, Fang Yan

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Chinese carriers post losses despite passenger traffic increases

Chinese carriers reported a net loss of almost CNY200 million ($31.6 million) in March, reversed from a collective net profit of CNY1.71 billion in the year-ago month, due to high fuel prices and a decline in cargo traffic.

Chinese carriers at Beijing International. By Rob Finlayson

Passenger boardings increased 8.6% to 25.03 million, up 8.3% on domestic routes and 12.8% on international routes compared to the same month in 2011. Cargo traffic dipped 6.1%, up a slight 0.4% on domestic routes and plummeted 18.3% on international routes.

Industry analysts said market demand started to pick up in April with continuous domestic economic growth and slow global economic recovery but rising fuel expenses still remain a major challenge.

Fuel costs rose 16% in March, an increase of CNY1.64 billion over the same period last year. Analysts said that fuel surcharges revenue, which was CNY1.17 billion, was not enough to offset rising fuel expenses.

Earlier this month the Chinese government has raised domestic jet fuel prices to CNY8,061 ($1,275) per ton, up 4.35% from CNY7,725 per ton (ATW Daily News, April 6).

Read the original story here at Air Transport World….

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By Katie Cantle
April 13, 2012

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Boeing Posts Order Loss After China Eastern Cancels Dreamliner

Boeing posted a net order loss for the 787 Dreamliner this year after the Chinese government approved a carrier’s plan to scrap an order for 24 of the composite-plastic airliners in favor of 45 single-aisle 737s.

Boeing has lost nine orders since the start of the year

The move by China Eastern Airlines Corp. (670) means Boeing has lost nine orders since the start of the year, according to a weekly update on its website. The airline, China’s second- largest, said in October it would switch to the smaller 737s because of delivery delays and slowing demand for long-haul international travel.

“This has been in the works for some time,” Doug Alder, a Boeing spokesman, said today in a telephone interview. “It was just waiting for Chinese government approval.”

Boeing’s Dreamliner was about three years behind schedule when it was delivered to its first customer in September, following struggles with new production techniques and materials. The Chicago-based planemaker delivered no 787s in February while performing inspections after finding a manufacturing error related to fuselage lamination.

Alder couldn’t immediately say how the decision by China Eastern will affect Boeing’s order backlog. Boeing had 868 Dreamliner orders outstanding at the end of February after delivering five of the planes.

The planemaker also reported two new Dreamliner orders today from Air New Zealand. The aircraft has an average list price of $210.7 million, though airlines typically negotiate discounts….

Read the full story at Bloomberg Business Week….

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By Frederic Tomesco
BloombergBusinessweek

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Breaking News: Landing Etihad Flight Halts To Avoid Angry Passengers Invading Taxiway

Shanghai Airport: An Etihad Airways aircraft that landed at 11:28am from the United Arab Emirates was heading for the terminal and had to stop because of a group of more than 20 angry passengers.

Angry passengers stop Etihad plane in Shanghai

The passengers refused to board an plane at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai then took their protest onto the taxiway to demand compensation for their delayed flight, airport and airline officials said.

Shanghai airport authority said that airport officials quickly managed to persuade the passengers to leave the taxiway and took them back to the terminal. The whole process lasted about five minutes and the incident didn’t otherwise affect flights at the airport.

The airport said the passengers, who are now under investigation, were among 161 people whose flight from Shenzhen, in southern China’s Guangdong Province,  to Nanjing was delayed by poor weather on Tuesday evening.

The Shenzhen Airlines’ Flight ZH9817 had been scheduled to land in the eastern city of Nanjing at 6:50pm and then fly on to Harbin in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province at 10pm, said Li Weiqi, an airline spokeswoman. But on the way to Nanjing, the Airbus 320 encountered a thunderstorm and had to land at the Pudong airport at around 8pm.

The airline put the passengers up at a nearby hotel and agreed to arrange other flights the next day to take them to Nanjing or Harbin when the weather cleared, Li said.

“The airline officials have done all that they should do when encountering bad weather,” she said.

Most passengers took another flight to Harbin, while the remaining 40 were due to leave for Nanjing at 11am yesterday, but more than 20 of them refused to board the plane and demanded the company compensate them for the delay, according to the airport. “Since no one was coming up to solve our problem, we decided to rush to the runway,” a man who said he was one of the passengers wrote on his microblog.

He uploaded pictures showing the passengers, carrying their luggage, walking on the taxiway. There were a number of online replies to his post urging the passengers to get back to the terminal, but he responded:

“No way, we are going toward the airplane.” Then he wrote: “Seems like an international airplane has to suffer. We stopped it from moving.”

The passengers’ behavior stirred public anger online with accusations that by acting selfishly the group had put other passengers’ lives in danger. “Trying to block other airplanes just to get some compensation for flight delayed by poor weather?

Shenzhen Airlines later agreed to pay compensation of 1,000 yuan (US$158.5) to each of the passengers on the delayed flight. But the protesters’ victory could be costly. The passengers who went onto the tarmac could be detained for five to 10 days with fines and might face criminal penalties of up to five years in prison under Chinese law, said Liu Chunquan, a senior lawyer with the Panocean Law Firm in Shanghai.

“The passengers should be punished because they have threatened the safety of hundreds of other passengers by rushing onto the runway,” Liu said. The airport should also take some responsibility because its staff failed to stop the passengers from leaving the terminal and entering the taxiway….

Read the full story at ShanghaiDaily.com….

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ShanghaiDaily.com
By Xu Chi and Yang Jian | 2012-4-12

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