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BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
22 July, 2005: Shanghai-based private budget carrier Spring Airlines,the latest entrant into the China's burgeoning aviation market, commenced its services by launching flights on Monday. The airline started its operations with an Airbus A320 jet, which flew from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport with 180 passengers to the eastern coastal city of Yantai in Shandong Province.
Spring International, a leading travel agency, backs the airline and is one of several privately owned carriers which have begun operations in China.
Spring Airlines is a budget carrier and has fares tailored to meet the needs of most of its travellers, the company said in a statement released to the press.
Spring Airlines avoids more heavily travelled routes like the Beijing-Shanghai, focusing on niche markets for tourists and business travellers.
To keep operating costs low, Spring Airlines sells tickets only through its website and offers only bottled water instead of onboard meals.
Besides reducing costs, Spring Airlines also expects to draw on the large pool of customers from its parent company to achieve efficiency by keeping its flights as full as possible.
"We expect the load factor can be maintained above 85 per cent, compared with the industry average of about 68 per cent," said the company's spokesman Li Weimin.
BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
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