Results tagged “singaporeairlines”

After a successful month running at reduced capacity, the new Terminal 2 at Pudong Airport took another 18 airlines under its wing today.

Air Asia, Asia's first budget airline, has just announced its latest China destination. From now on, you can fly from Hangzhou (which is just a stone's throw from Shanghai) to Kuala Lumpur at a fraction of the price! We just did a quick check on their system and if you plan ahead of time, you can expect to pay around RMB1,115 (taxes included) for the flight. You can even select your own seats on the website if you pay an additional RMB48! Kuala Lumpur being Air Asia headquarters, you can fly onward to a host of other exciting Southeast Asian destinations for that much-needed break. Other Chinese destinations currently served by Air Asia are Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Macau.

77% of China Eastern shareholders have voted against Singapore Airline's proposed HK$7 billion bid for a 24% stake in it. Disappointed by the results of the vote, China Eastern chairman Li Fenghua has vowed not to ally with Air China:

"We will never consider Air China as a strategic investor. The most important thing is not the price. The most important thing is to improve China Eastern Airlines' brand and management."

Continue reading "China Eastern vote update"

Looks like the much talked-about HK$7 billion bid by Singapore Airlines and its parent Temasek Holdings for a 24% stake in Shanghai's loss-making and debt-laden China Eastern Airlines may not happen just yet. Blocking the bid is its arch-rival and shareholder, Air China, as well as its parent China National Aviation Corp. (CNAC), which has now upped the ante by saying it would bid no less than HK$5 per share if shareholders vote against Singapore Airlines' HK$3.8 offer.

Air transport AFP: Air China, Shanghai Airlines join Star Alliance XFN: China Eastern says partnership with Singapore Airlines, Temasek 'only option' AFP: Singapore Airlines says won't raise China Eastern bid Finance Reuters: U.S. says China recognises need for stronger yuan NYT: Little Headway With China on Finance FT: Beijing lectures US on effect of weak dollar Drugs, drugs and drugs AP: China Shuts Down Leukemia Drug Maker Xinhua: China issues new drug recall method...

Cathay Pacific and Air China's parent company abandoned an attempt to block Singapore Airlines from buying a stake in China Eastern, as the battle for the lucrative Chinese market heats up.

As Malaysia celebrates its 50th birthday, the unity of the nation has shown cracks along racial and religious divides. Meanwhile, former premier Mahathir Mohammed is recovering after heart surgery

Lost Laowai brings our attention to the following soundbyte of a conversation between an Air China pilot and the control tower of the JFK Airport in New York. In it, the pilot fails to understand anything that the traffic controller was saying and his English was so garbled that he might as well have been speaking in Esperanto -- a language that is deemed so important that China Radio International's website has a version in it!

Not content with making cars and computers for the world, China is now on to its next big thing -- aircraft. The long-awaited ARJ-21 (pictured here) is China's very first homegrown commercial aircraft and has been launched amid much fanfare by the aircraft maker AVIC I. Now only a name is lacking, and if you can come up with a creative Chinese name of between two and four Chinese characters before September 28, RMB50,000 will be yours! (Sorry apparently English names are worth nothing).

Sri Lanka is fighting against the threatened beheading of a teen maid in Saudi Arabia over the death of an infant. Saving her from beheading has become one of the most urgent issues in a country where nearly everyone has worked abroad or had a relative employed overseas.

Even while Shanghaiist is waiting with bated breath for direct flights to the east coast, China Eastern Airlines is set to sell a 25 percent stake to Singapore Airlines, the world's largest carrier by market capitalisation, for HK$7.9 billion (US$1 billion) worth of new shares. In the meanwhile, Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore's state-owned investment arm with $85 billion of assets, may join Singapore Airlines in its bid for a stake. China Eastern suffered a net loss of 2.8 billion yuan in 2006, thereby gaining the dubious honour of becoming the only one of China's three state-owned airlines to report a loss last year. Whatever it is, one can only hope this means better inflight service, better food, fewer delays and fewer cancellations for passengers.

They pretty much roll like your average rap star. The Hurun Report surveyed 600 of Mainland China's wealthiest, those with at least RMB 10 million in the bank or under their mattresses. The results aren't really too surprising, but Shanghai's rich search the Internet with Google, while the rest of the country prefers Baidu. And Shanghai's wealthy like to travel to Europe, while Beijing's like to jet to the United States. We have reproduced the Shanghai survey findings below. For the other lists, follow these links: Nationwide, Beijing, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Northeast, Shandong, Sichuan/Chongqing. There is also a China Daily story about the list.