Full-service Juneyao Airlines to establish low cost Jiu Yuan Airlines while growing partnerships

Privately-owned Shanghai carrier Juneyao Airlines is looking to capture growth across multiple segments. Complementing its full-service brand with an increasing array of partnerships is a pending new low-cost carrier, Jiu Yuan Airlines, which will offer "jiu yuan fares" (CNY9/USD1.48) in China's domestic market.

Jiu Yuan will be based in Guangzhou, well away from Juneyao's base, and is a by-product of recent change in China that supports new private carriers, the LCC model and deregulation of minimum fare pricing. It is early days for this more relaxed - but still restricted - environment, so Juneyao's Jiu Yuan strategy may change. For now the intent is to keep the two carriers separate, which should be easy as Juneyao's only service from Guangzhou is to Shanghai. A shakeup could occur if, or when, there is the emergence of an LCC subsidiary from China's largest domestic carrier: China Southern, whose fortress hub is at Guangzhou.

In its first year of pursuing partnerships, Juneyao has secured 15 interline agreements and two domestic codeshare partners. It now awaits its first international codeshare.