Shenzhen Airport

SkyTeam's Greater China airline members to form regional alliance in high-yielding market

A proposed regional alliance amongst SkyTeam's Greater China members – Taiwan's China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern and Xiamen Airlines – may appear to be a niche strategic move in the small but highly profitable and expanding Taiwan-mainland China market.

Yet the alliance is also indicative of the growing trend for North Asian airlines to combine their strengths against imposing competitors, namely Air China and Cathay Pacific.

The alliance would account for about half of the capacity between China and Taiwan, a valuable market which is continuously expanding under tight control and route delegation. Its share on certain key business routes, like Taipei-Shanghai, would be even higher. Further airline strength and capacity will pressure Hong Kong-based carriers, which once had a healthy business of carrying passengers between China and Taiwan via their hub.

Hainan Airlines becomes a test bed for all-premium operations in domestic China

China's HNA Group continues to find it difficult to identify profitable markets for its three all-premium A330-200 configured with 116 seats, 34 in first class and 82 in business. The aircraft were acquired to fly between Hong Kong and London on subsidiary Hong Kong Airlines, but were removed in Sep-2012 after suffering losses on the route.

While a viable option may have been to reconfigure the aircraft with economy seats, the aircraft have instead been transferred to HNA's flagship investment, Hainan Airlines, and used on domestic sectors between Beijing and Shenzhen, the third busiest route in China and 24th in the world.

Hainan has reported initial load factors ranging between 80% and 94%, but yields have been a challenge. Premium travel in China is still developing, with fares booked in advance not much more expensive than economy. The problem is acute for Hainan's all-premium services, where premium fares are offered at less than half the price of competitors. Despite this, Hainan is considering expanding the service to Beijing-Guangzhou.

Profitability will continue to be a difficult goal, at least until market share and frequencies can be established.

Asia's LCCs increasingly see room to serve both Macau and Hong Kong in the booming Pearl River Delta

AirAsia Philippines' two new international routes launched on 19-Jul-2012 were notable in that the services were to Hong Kong and Macau, 20nm apart and previously considered too similar to warrant service to both. But regional Asian carriers, and LCCs especially, are increasingly finding they can support service to both cities. Also on 19-Jul-2012, Asiana LCC subsidiary Air Busan opened a route to Macau, complementing its Hong Kong service.

While Hong Kong and Macau may be geographically close, the division by the South China Sea dictates different catchment areas, with Hong Kong also serving Shenzhen in mainland China while Macau can serve the mainland's Zhuhai, whose airport is only for domestic flights. The regions are not equals, and only Thai AirAsia has more capacity into Macau than Hong Kong. But as Asia's population and economy continues to grow, the Pearl River Delta's airports will be Asia's equivalent to the London, New York City or Sao Paulo airport networks.

Chinese airlines' sixth freedom roles could challenge Middle East, Asian, European hubs this decade

Signs are now emerging of the enormous – and largely unanticipated – impact that China’s airline industry will have on the international network as this decade rolls out. It will significantly tilt the world airline system.

China’s airlines have expanded remarkably since 2000, but most of that growth has been in the domestic arena, responding to the country’s rapid economic rise. It is only more recently that the airlines, with Central Government encouragement, have begun to focus more on international routes.

There are obstacles to be overcome. Service quality is typically not at the standards expected of the Asia Pacific region carriers; marketing and distribution remains a problem; yield management systems have been inadequate; and limited networks still make achievement of critical mass a challenge.

Yet Chinese airlines have two great advantages when it comes to operating sixth freedom network roles: they have a massive and growing third and fourth freedom market; and they are geographically strategically placed to service traffic flows from all countries to the south, connecting with North America and Western Europe using the effective north Polar routing. Additionally, they have relatively low cost bases.

The world's top ten routes are in Asia Pacific

The world's busiest air route is...Tokyo Haneda-Sapporo Chitose. Indeed the top ten are all in the Asia Pacific region, which reflects its rise as the world's pre-eminent aviation market. Many of Asia's leading route pairs are in the established markets of Japan and Australia. But it is also interesting that among the airports represented as end points in the top 10 routes, ten of the airports fail to rank in the world's Top 30 airports. Though Sapporo has an enormous seat offer to Haneda, it has far less impact elsewhere.

Jetstar's new North Asia focus leaves room for Qantas Singapore expansion to Europe and India

Jetstar is planning to expand its Singapore-based fleet by 50% over the next six months as the low-cost carrier group looks to North Asia for the next phase of its dramatic expansion. As the largest low-cost airline group in the Asia-Pacific region continues to expand at a rate of about 20% per annum, additional capacity will not be directed west towards South Asia, the Middle East or Europe but primarily to North Asia, where Jetstar sees the most opportunities given North Asia’s very low LCC penetration rate. This strategy could signal growth for the Qantas brand in South Asia and Europe as the group looks at potentially announcing next month the launch of a new Singapore-based full-service carrier.