The next time you sit down for some good old mi fan, see if you can catch a hint of the hidden flavor that's long been lurking inside those beautiful puffy white pods -- the taste of SPACE. more ›

According to a forecast by Boeing, China is estimated to have, or rather will need, close to 6,000 planes by 2030. That is triple the number of aircraft in its fleet right now! Randy Tinseth, the vice president of marketing at Boeing's commercial airplane section says this is due to a growing economy, increasing personal wealth, and yadda yadda growth figures yadda yadda. 16% of the new planes are expected to be replacements for ageing aircraft, while the rest will just be "extra purchases." China air travel is booming - last year, a total of 267 million air passenger trips were recorded in the country, a 15.8% increase from the previous year. With this kind of continued growth, China is expected to be "the world's second-biggest aircraft market, after the U.S." more ›

And now the Truth has arrived in Shanghai and Beijing! Following news last week of a UFO being the reason why Chongqing's airport had to divert flights, an unexplained mass event occurred at approximately 9pm on Saturday night in Shanghai. A 'huge white ball' flying 10.7km (35,100 feet) high in the air was reported to the East China Air Traffic Control Bureau by civil aviation pilots, and apparently grew 'bigger and bigger' as time passed. more ›

Not unexpected: "China Eastern Airlines led share rallies of China's three air giants in the Hong Kong market by gaining 4.76 percent to close at HK$3.96 (51 US cents) yesterday. Air China rose 3.59 percent to HK$8.08 and China Southern Airlines rose 3.4 percent to HK$5.17. The increase bucked the downward trend of the Hang Seng Index, which closed down 0.7 percent at 22,293.3 points." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

If there's one homegrown business that we're proud of in Shanghai, it would have to be Spring Airlines. Since it was established in 2005, the airline has defied the odds to grow in a market that has been heavily regulated by the government in favour of the state-owned carriers. Wang Zhenhua, the founder of the airline, has been known to be so cost-conscious he shares hotel rooms and eats instant noodles with his staff while on business trips. And as you will see in this clip, his office looks rather spartan too. CNN's Stan Grant speaks to Wang and finds out his practise of taichi has had a deep impact on the way he runs his business:
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The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has announced the cancellation of the Wuhan-Nanjing flight route, beginning summer this year. The route is the first casualty of the onslaught by high-speed railway, which is now rapidly developing across China at breakneck speed. more ›

"CHINA Eastern Airlines will add five weekly flights linking Shanghai with Sydney and Melbourne in Australia from June 20. The Shanghai-based carrier will fly daily on the Shanghai-Sydney route after adding a flight every Tuesday and Sunday. It will also fly daily between Shanghai and Melbourne by adding a flight every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

With just about three months left to the launch of the much-anticipated Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, everybody just wants to know how much those damn tickets will cost. more ›

Woohoo. 2011 looks set to be a great year for budget travellers, especially those that are looking to get down to Southeast Asia. Australian budget airline Jetstar has announced a new flight that will connect its Singapore hub to Hangzhou from 22 March. The flight frequency will be increased from thrice- to four-times weekly by 27 March. more ›

The World Expo, which brought some 70 million visitors to Shanghai, coupled with solid growth in the Chinese aviation sector, have made 2010 a bumper year for the two passenger airlines that call Shanghai home. Boosted in part by its acquisition of Shanghai Airlines, China Eastern expects its 2010 to exceed its previous year's by almost ten times. Meanwhile, China's largest budget airline, Spring Airlines, also didn't do too shabbily, nearly tripling its 2009 net income. And here's some good news: In 2011, the carrier expects to open new routes to Japan, Taiwan, Macau and Southeast Asia. Yay for more cheap airfares! more ›

United Airlines has decided it also wants a piece of the Shanghai-Los Angeles route. Just a week after American Airlines received the okay to begin daily direct flights between Shanghai and Los Angeles, the US carrier swiftly announced it has applied for permission to fly the same route nonstop.So for those of us looking to visit the city of angels, there should be a myriad of options come spring. The AA flights are scheduled to begin April 5 and if United is also approved, their flights will commence May 20. China Eastern better step up their game. more ›

Any takers for this cool piece of shit? more ›

Imitation may well be the greatest form of flattery but China have failed to charm Russia with their new J11-B Fighter jet. Of course, it doesn't help that China rejected the Russian Sukhoi-Su-27 design, challenging its ability to meet their requirements. Good job the latest Chinese release looks nothing like the original Russian version then...
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China Eastern's chairman Li Fenghua (李丰华) has been replaced by Liu Shaoyong (刘绍勇), chairman of rival China Southern Airlines in what's been described as a "government-orchestrated industry shake-up". There is no news on where Li Fenghua is off to next but we're curious because this was the guy that had earlier bitterly vowed that China Eastern would "never consider Air China as a strategic investor" after Air China blocked Singapore Airline's proposed HK$7 billion bid for a 24% stake in China Eastern. The management shakeup has piqued the interest of the Chinese business press. Some have speculated that Li is moving on to some new position in the State Council but this remains quite unlikely. As an anonymous insider revealed to the Securities Daily 《证券日报》, Li presided over China Eastern's worst performance ever, and bears some responsibility for losses of up to RMB5 billion in fuel-hedging. For that, Li may be sent off to "idle" at some work unit for some time before being "audited and reviewed" for his performance. more ›

Shanghai-based China Eastern airlines has announced that it will increase its flights to Taipie from 3 times weekly to daily beginning next Monday. Also, whereas previously all flights had to bypass Hong Kong airspace, now flights are all going direct, ie., you can now get to Taipei in a little over an hour and for less than what you used to pay for! This is truly historic. A quick check with Elong.com indicate roundtrip flights to cost approximately RMB2100 plus tax of about RMB658. more ›

Beginning Oct 29, Shanghai Airlines will fly passengers to Mumbai (or Bombay), possibly the most exotic destination in its network yet. As far as we understand, the only other way to get to Mumbai previously is with Indian carrier Jet Airways which takes passengers from India via Shanghai to San Francisco. Xinhua offers details of the Shanghai-Mumbai schedule:

The airline will fly Boeing 767s on flight FM847, leaving Shanghai Pudong airport at 4:30 p.m. every Wednesday and Saturday and arriving at Bombay at 9:40 p.m. local time. Return flight FM848 will depart Bombay at 11:10 p.m. and reach Shanghai at 7:40 a.m. the next day.

"Coca-Cola Co plans to seek approval under China's antitrust law for its $2.5 billion bid for top domestic juice maker Huiyuan, the final obstacle to what would be the largest foreign takeover of a local firm." more ›

Frustration at mysterious delays and abrupt diversions and cancellations have at times boiled over into violence at Chinese airports, with passengers trying to storm grounded aircraft and police having to be brought in to keep the peace. Deputy head of the civil aviation regulator, Yang Guoqing said authorities will punish airlines whose passengers refuse to disembark or misbehave in protest over problems like delayed flights. "We will severely punish airlines which experience aircraft occupations and other incidents as a result of service reasons which originate with the airline," Yang told a news conference. "These measures include cancelling slots at corresponding busy airports."Customers must also be kept better informed about delays, especially those caused by bad weather, a big issue in China. more ›

The 60-seat China-made turboprop MA600 has been unveiled in Xi'an amid great fanfare. It is some 300 kilogrammes and 40 percent more fuel-efficient than its predecessor, the MA60, 122 orders of which have been received since it was introduced. While most of the foreign orders seem to be from African countries like Zimbabwe and Zambia — not the most exciting aviation markets — the China Aviation Industry Corporation has ambitious plans to take over its rivals, Canada's Bombardier and France's ATR, to become the world's leading provider of turbo-prop regional aircraft. Bombardier has since been quick to respond by saying it is not worried about increasing turboprop competition from China, adding that it is "the only aircraft manufacturer with three distinct families of products: turboprops for short haul, regional jets for mid-range and the proposed CSeries for longer-range and mainline carriers." more ›

All ye lucky yuletide souls whose employer's lack of the Scrooge gene has enabled ye to escape Shanghai over the Xmas break, rejoice! Those of you flying back into China after January 1 no longer need to fill in that pesky health declaration form. Although Shanghaiist kind of enjoyed the pre-landing self-diagnosis ritual. Just how many avian flu carrying fowl had we fraternized with over the past month? And could the hail of sputum from the guy sitting next to us develop into full-blown SARS? These questions, along with which fellow passenger to scrounge a pen off, took our thoughts away from the strip of tarmac hurtling at horrific speed towards our plunging aircraft. According to the national quarantine watchdog and civil aviation regulator (quoted in The Guardian), "The move aims to simplify immigration procedures and improve efficiency." Dunno how this would have any affect on queues, seeing as people fill out the forms in-flight, though apparently from from February 1, people with no goods to declare won't have to fill in customs forms when leaving or arriving in China, which may speed things up slightly, judging from the confusion over said forms we've witnessed at Pudong International. more ›

Do yourself a favour this morning and read James Fallows' latest post. You will be glad you did. Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Simply post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your photos to photos[at]shanghaiist.com.... more ›