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April 16, 2016

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Carrier eyes US with more jets

CHINA Eastern Airlines plans to expand its fleet of aircraft to more than 800 by 2020, up from 561 as of the end of 2015, its President Ma Xulun said in an interview yesterday.

The plans to acquire hundreds of new planes come as China Eastern seeks to boost long-haul traffic to and from the United States after a US$450 million equity deal with Delta Air Lines Inc last year. Delta agreed to buy 3.55 percent of China Eastern, becoming the first US carrier to own part of a Chinese airline.

Code-share routes between the two carriers have now topped 400, compared with about 300 previously, including routes in respective domestic markets, according to Ma.

Spurred by growing demand for overseas travel, Chinese airlines are adding flights to New York, Paris and Sydney from inland cities and flying to smaller cities in North America, Europe and Australia.

Seats offered by Chinese carriers exceeded those offered by American carriers last year for the first time, fueling worries about overcapacity and falling yields.

Ma said he is not worried about overcapacity on the US-China route.

More than 2.6 million Chinese went to the US last year and the number is estimated to top 3 million this year. Many customers in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia are also heading to US cities via Pudong airport in Shanghai where China Eastern is based.

Spring Airlines to double fleet to 100 planes by 2018

Spring Airlines, China’s largest budget carrier, seeks to double its fleet size to 100 aircraft by 2018, its chairman said yesterday.

The airline has no plan to introduce long-haul routes and buy wide-body aircraft, Wang Zhenghua told a group of reporters in Shanghai.

Surging air travel demand from Chinese tourists has prompted budget airlines to buy more jets.

In December, Spring Airlines signed a US$6.3 billion deal to buy 60 A320neo jets from Airbus Group.




 

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