Results tagged “aviation”

China Eastern's chairman Li Fenghua (李丰华) has been replaced by Liu Shaoyong (刘绍勇), chairman of rival China Southern Airlines in what's been described as a "government-orchestrated industry shake-up".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.

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.

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.

From an advert in Shanghai Airline's latest inflight magazine (a total waste of pulp and ink — don't ask us why we were reading the magazine!), we find that the flights are on the special offer of RMB3,100 (not incl. taxes) between Oct 29 and Nov 30 on www.shanghai-air.com and the sales hotline 10105858.

"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."

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.

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."

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.

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....