BEIJING, July 23 -- Air China hopes to grow its market share in Beijing to 50 per cent from a current 44 per cent after it moves to Beijing Capital International Airport's new third terminal
next March.
The flag carrier planned to boost its market share by
increasing flights overseas as well as exploring untapped markets such as
Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, with the help of an expanded fleet of
aircraft to be delivered in the next three to four years, said vice-president
Zhang Lan.
Ms Zhang's comments came during a press briefing in
Beijing on Friday.
The new runway and terminal at Beijing's main airport
was built primarily for Air China and its code-share partners such as Lufthansa,
Dragonair and Cathay Pacific Airways.
Planners expect the expansion to boost traffic
capacity at the overloaded airport by one-third - a move designed to resolve the
overwhelming growth in airline traffic driven by the Beijing Olympics and the
buoyant economic growth in the mainland.
"We want to increase our service as much as possible,
growing our market share to 50 per cent at least," said Ms Zhang.
The airline operates 160 to 180 domestic flights and
60 to 80 international flights from Beijing daily.
"Inter-line passenger traffic will grow substantially
as we officially join the Star Alliance by the end of the year," added Ms Zhang.
Air China signed a memorandum of understanding with
Star Alliance last May, but some in the market believe the agreement may not
proceed, since Cathay, which holds a strategic stake in Air China, belongs to a
different alliance.
But Ms Zhang insisted the proposed alliance would
proceed. "We will definitely join Star Alliance by the end of the year. We want
to connect international passengers to every city in China and deliver Chinese
travellers to every destination in the world," she said.
So far, 40 of 57 Star Alliance entry requirements had
been fulfilled by Air China, and all the requirements would be fulfilled by
year-end, Ms Zhang said. In preparation for the alliance start-up, Air China had
begun briefing sessions with 30 domestic airports on luggage check-through
systems, she added.
Meanwhile, seven of the 20 Airbus 330s ordered by Air
China have been delivered and put into service on routes to Brazil, Sydney and
Munich. The three-class layout of the planes and their individual entertainment
systems had attracted better than expected sales on the Brazil route, said Ms
Zhang.
With 15 Boeing 787 Dreamliners coming on board
starting next year, Air China will increase flights to North America and Europe,
targeting destinations in Britain, France and Russia, and to San Francisco.
The airline had also lobbied the government for an
opening for one more carrier to fly to Pyongyang, the only access point from the
country to the outside world.
"We are pressing hard to enter this market since many
investors want to do business in North Korea," said He Li, vice-president of Air
China.
Currently, China Southern Airlines provides an
irregular service to Pyongyang due to low passenger load factor.
Air China says it will run a regular service if it
won permission and has high hopes that the government can win it access to
Pyongyang when the "six party talks" (between China, the United States, North
Korea, South Korea, Russia and Japan) resume in September.
Beijing Airport as well as the domestic carriers
serving it are currently notorious for delays. One to two-hour delays were seen
as normal and some domestic flights faced delays for up to 14 hours, said a
market observer.
Ms Zhang said Air China had received notification
from the airline regulator to cut Beijing flights by up to 9 per cent starting
September, in a bid to increase the on-time performance of Beijing flights.
But she said the impact on Air China would be minimal
since the policy would be in place for the winter-spring season and she believed
the on-time performance in Beijing would be better after the completion of the
third runway and terminal and the airline's relocation.
(Source: South China Morning Post)
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