Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
Around two thirds of the total number of flights scheduled every day in February were cancelled, placing huge financial pressure on airlines and airports
China’s aviation industry has also been affected by a series of restrictions by other countries and airlines, with British Airways extending its suspension until mid-April
The cancellation of around 10,000 flights a day, or around two thirds of the total number of flights scheduled every day in February, has placed huge financial pressure on airlines and airports. Photo: Kyodo
A one-way air ticket from the coastal economic hub of Shanghai to the inland municipality of Chongqing, a journey of over 1,400km (870 miles), now costs less than a cup of coffee, with Chinese airlines slashing prices in a bid to boost weak domestic demand amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The cancellation of around 10,000 flights a day, or around two thirds of the total number of flights scheduled every day in February, has placed huge financial pressure on airlines and airports.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said in a notice on Tuesday that flights should resume gradually as part of the country’s efforts to return economic and social life back to normal, but passengers are still reluctant to fly with the deadly outbreak still not fully under control.
The one-way flight from Shanghai to Chongqing is being offered for just 29 yuan (US$4.10) by China’s biggest low-cost carrier, Spring Airlines, as a special offer for its frequent flyer club members, while a tall caffe latte at Starbucks in China costs 32 yuan (US$4.5).
Many Chinese carriers do receive subsidies for operating key domestic routes, so this also skews the economics as well Luya You
A one-way ticket from Shanghai to Harbin, the capital of the northern Heilongjiang province, a distance of over 1,600km (994 miles), costs just 69 yuan (US$9.80).
Shenzhen Airlines, a division of state-owned carrier Air China, is also running special offers to Chongqing, with a one-way ticket for the 1000km (621 miles) journey from Shenzhen costing just 100 yuan (US$14), around 5 per cent of the standard price of 1,940 yuan (US$276).
Chengdu Airlines, a unit of Sichuan Airlines, which counts China Southern Airlines as a shareholder, is also offering cheap one-way flights from Shenzhen to Chengdu, a distance of over 1,300km (808 miles), for just 100 yuan.
“Considering lower average costs of operating in mainland China, carriers could potentially offer deeper discounts while making slim profits or just breaking even,” said Luya You, an aviation analyst with Bank of Communication International. “As outbreak numbers stabilise or even decline, carriers will likely adjust their fares as well, so these low fares will not last if the situation quickly turns for the better.
“Many Chinese carriers do receive subsidies for operating key domestic routes, so this also skews the economics as well. If it is a key route, for example, the carrier may choose to continue operating regardless of fares or loads as the route constitutes a major link in the domestic network infrastructure.”
China’s aviation authority confirmed earlier this month that between January 25 and February 14, which included the Lunar New Year holiday, the average daily passenger traffic in China was just 470,000, representing a 75 per cent drop from the same period last year.
China’s aviation industry has also been affected by a series of restrictions by other countries and airlines, with British Airways last week extending its suspension of flights to China until after the Easter holiday in mid-April following travel advice from the British government.
The novel coronavirus, which causes the disease officially named Covid-19, has infected more than 78,000 people and killed 2,700 in China. In recent days, South Korea, Italy and Iran have all reported a surge in new cases, raising fears over the spread of the coronavirus.
“The flight suspensions will track the outbreaks, but not likely lead them. If there are more outbreaks, expect more flight suspensions,” said Andrew Charlton, managing director of Aviation Advocacy.
BEIJING (Reuters) – Beijing’s new $63 billion Daxing airport began its first scheduled international flights on Sunday as it ramped up operations to help relieve pressure on the city’s existing Capital airport.
Shaped like a phoenix – though to some observers it is more reminiscent of a starfish – the airport was designed by famed Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid, and formally opened in late September ahead of the Oct. 1 celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.
It boasts four runways and is expected to handle up to 72 million passengers a year by 2025, eventually reaching 100 million.
China Southern Airlines (600029.SS) and China Eastern Airlines (600115.SS) will be the main domestic carriers at Daxing, though Air China (601111.SS) will provide a small number of flights too.
An Air China flight to Bangkok was the first international flight to leave on Sunday, while British Airways (ICAG.L) will operate the first transcontinental flight, to London.
About 50 foreign airlines, including Finnair (FIA1S.HE), plan to move all or part of their China operations to the airport in the coming quarters.
The relocation of all the airlines which will use Daxing is to due to be completed by the winter of 2021. Air China and its Star Alliance partners will remain mostly at Capital airport.
The airport, roughly the size of 100 football fields and expected to become one of the world’s busiest, has come in for some criticism due to its distance from central Beijing.
By public transport it takes over an hour to reach it from Beijing’s central business district, more than double the time needed to reach Capital airport, which strains at the seams and is often hit by delays.
Officials say Daxing airport is not only designed to serve Beijing, but also the surrounding province of Hebei and next-door city of Tianjin, to boost regional development.
Visually spectacular and with the latest technology, the Chinese capital’s second international airport is open for business
The terminal building at Beijing Daxing International Airport, which has officially opened. Photo: Xinhua
At 4.23pm on Wednesday a China Southern Airlines A380 left Beijing for Guangzhou – on the first commercial flight out of the world’s latest and largest airport terminal at Daxing, five years after construction began on the ambitious project.
The 80 billion yuan (US$11 billion) Beijing Daxing International Airport was officially opened by Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday morning.
China Southern Airlines, the mainland’s largest carrier, has 40 per cent of the flight slots at the new airport. It is one of 16 airlines which will be operating out of Beijing Daxing International Airport, the visually spectacular new facility at the southern end of the Chinese capital.
Six other flights, including China Eastern Airlines for Shanghai and Air China for Chengdu, took off before 5pm in the afternoon. These domestic airlines will have part of their operations moving to Daxing for the upcoming winter-spring season, according to the mainland’s aviation authority. No Hong Kong airlines were listed.
British Airways has announced its whole operation will be moved to Daxing, while some foreign airlines, such as Ethiopian Airlines, Polish Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Air Maroc and Finnair, will operate at both airports.
Spanning 47 sq km (18 square miles) – almost 50 per cent larger than the city of Macau – Daxing, with its 700,000 square metre (7.5 million sq ft) terminal is a spectacular sight. Its futuristic shape, resembling a giant hexagonal starfish or – as some internet users have dubbed it – an alien base, not only handles more aircraft, it also keeps passengers’ walks
From the centre of the security check to the furthest end gate in each wing is about 600 metres (1,970 feet), or less than an eight-minute walk.
Beijing’s new 7-runway, star-shaped Daxing airport opened by Xi Jinping
According to Xinhua, more than 70 restaurants, tea shops and coffee houses will operate in the airport, along with 36 international brands, including Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Bottega Veneta.
Daxing is designed to take pressure off the overcrowded Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) and, by 2021, is expected to handle 45 million passengers a year, rising to 72 million by 2025.
Located at the south of the capital, 46km (28.5 miles) from the central Tiananmen Square, the airport was once frowned upon for its less than optimal location, with its southern end at the border with Hebei province. But it may not be as time-consuming for travellers as originally thought.
The design of the airport means passengers will walk a much shorter distance to the check-in and security check.Hu Haiqing, China Southern Airlines
Hu Haiqing, deputy general manager of China Southern Airlines’ operation control centre, told Global Times that “although Daxing is further away from downtown Beijing than the Capital airport, there are still some advantages, especially for our airline”.
With most of its bases in the south of the country, China Southern Airlines flights to Daxing will be 10 to 15 minutes shorter than to the Capital airport. A further 15 to 20 minutes taxiing time will also be saved, thanks to its position in the new airport.
“The design of the airport also means passengers, once they leave their car or train, will walk a much shorter distance to the check-in and security check,” Hu said.
According to Xinhua, Daxing’s design also makes transit much quicker, with transfers between international and domestic flights up to 90 minutes shorter than from the Capital airport.
The futuristic shape of Daxing airport not only handles more aircraft, it also keeps passengers’ walks to a minimum. Photo: Xinhua
Public transport will be the quickest way to reach the new airport from downtown Beijing – 20 minutes from West Beijing railway station once the Beijing-Xiongan high-speed rail officially opens. The airport express service will also take passengers from Caoqiao station to the airport in 19 minutes.
There is no underground rail service or airport express connecting the Capital airport in the north with Daxing, but passengers can change trains at Caoqiao for downtown Beijing or other stations which connect with BCIA’s airport express service.
Waiting times at the new airport will be greatly reduced by the use of facial recognition technology for self-service check-in and smart security checks, according to Wang Hui, manager of Daxing’s terminal management department.
The technology does away with the need for a paper boarding pass and passengers can check-in, with or without luggage, and go through the security check by themselves.
Beijing is the window for China to go global … Daxing airport makes it possible to open more global routes.China Eastern Airlines pilot
“The airport has more than 400 self-service check-in kiosks, which means more than 80 per cent of check-ins will be self-service. That shortens each passenger’s queuing time to no more than 10 minutes,” Wang told Global Times.
“The smart security check channels are able to handle 260 passengers per hour, 40 per cent faster than using traditional means,” he said.
The opening of Daxing Airport could be a great boost for the mainland – and even the global – aviation industry by easing pressure on the Capital airport and making new routes possible, said a veteran China Eastern Airlines pilot who declined to be named.
5 things we know about Beijing’s new Daxing International Airport
Opening new flight routes from BCIA was almost impossible, he pointed out, because the centre of Beijing was a no-fly zone for security reasons. Daxing airport’s location at the southern end of the city, however, avoided the problem of planes having to bypass the restricted space, leaving room to open more routes for domestic and international flights.
“Beijing is the window for China to go global but the Capital airport’s schedule is saturated and unable to open new routes. Daxing airport makes it possible to open more global routes,” the pilot said.
He said the runway design at Daxing also meant fewer delays, because the four runways of phase one – more than any other airport in China – included one which was perpendicular to the other three, allowing flights to land and take off regardless of wind direction.
National outrage sparked when high-profile traveller Li Yaling shares details of incident on social media
Employee on long-term sick leave disrupts flight to Beijing but airline says she is a private traveller
Air China has flown into an internet storm after a flight attendant on long-term sick leave scolded business class passengers. Photo: Shutterstock
National flag carrier Air China has come under fire after an employee made a scene during a flight and accused three business class passengers of attacking her, leading to them being held and questioned for seven hours last Friday after their arrival in Beijing.
Playwright Li Yaling, who was travelling business class on flight CA4107 from Chengdu uploaded a video and lengthy post detailing the incident to her nearly 1.3 million followers on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging platform.
Li’s video showed a female passenger, who claimed to be an Air China supervisor, scolding passengers for using their phones while the plane was on the runway at Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, southwest China.
The scolding lasted half an hour, according to Li, even after the passengers stopped using their phones and explained they had been switched to flight mode. Air China permits smartphones in flight mode to be used during its flights.
A screenshot of the video filmed during the Air China flight, and later posted to Weibo, of the incident in business class. Photo: Weibo
The woman paced about the cabin as the plane taxied down the runway and continued to make a scene until the flight approached Beijing. She was seen making a call, asking for the police to be notified that the passengers had “attacked” her and “endangered aviation safety” and to come and take them away.
The passengers were stopped by the crew and removed by the police, who took them to the airport police station where they were held for seven hours before being released with a warning, according to Li’s post.
“I want to ask Air China what the position of the Air China supervisor is,” Li wrote on Weibo. “Is she independent or your employee? What legal rights does she have? Has she abused her power, if any?”
Li’s post shocked internet users who reacted with sympathy. Some posted video clips or their own accounts of the same woman making similar false accusations on buses, subway trains and other flights, leading to similar problems for individual passengers, as well as travel delays.
Li later said on Weibo she was contacted by the airline on Saturday afternoon and told the woman was a former flight attendant who had been on sick leave since pouring hot water on a passenger more than 10 years before and had subsequently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Unlucky coin toss lands another Chinese airline passenger in trouble
In a public statement on Monday, Air China said the dispute had involved an employee who was on leave for health reasons and had been on a private trip. The airline said three passengers and four crew members had been taken to the airport police station to help with an investigation into the incident.
Li followed up her Weibo posting on Monday, meeting several senior officials at Air China’s headquarters, where she was told the situation was a dispute between passengers and the airline had fulfilled its responsibilities.
Air China said it could not stop the employee from boarding its flights.
Li said she felt sympathy for mental health patients but not for the woman, who she said had apparently endangered public safety on flights several times. Li also demanded compensation for paying a high price to travel in business class, only to suffer two hours of verbal abuse.
Rush to emergency exit lands Chinese first-time flier in detention
The situation angered many on social media, who felt the airline had not taken enough responsibility for the incident. Some said they would not choose Air China again.
“The incident is not about passengers switching off their phones, it is about how your airline’s employee caused a row in business class,” one Weibo user wrote.
“This is a serious threat to flight order and safety, yet Air China can’t handle it. I will not consider flying with Air China again. Safety comes first after all,” said another.
Online news portal Ifeng.com ran a survey on the incident, with nearly 88 per cent of the 160,000 who took part agreeing that the airline should take responsibility for the incident. A total of 84 per cent said Air China had mishandled the incident and some 58 per cent said they would consider other carriers ahead of Air China in future.
Influential party newspaper People’s Daily also weighed in, criticising the airline for evading the crucial point in its public statement posted to Weibo on Monday night.
“The public does not question the significance of caring for patients with special diseases, but showing humane care does not mean inaction and to maintain the company image does not [mean] blindly protecting its employee,” the newspaper said.
“After all, the travel rights of all passengers and public safety are more important.”
Article 34 of China’s civil aviation rules for domestic transportation of passengers and baggage stipulates mentally ill patients or passengers whose health conditions may endanger themselves or affect the safety of other passengers shall not be carried.
However, in the eyes of the psychiatric profession mental health patients have the same right to fly as anyone else, as long as they are not posing any threat to others.
“The law on mental health protects some basic rights of mental patients and they are entitled to all rights of citizens, as long as they are not in an acute onset of mental illness,” said Ye Minjie vice-president of Kangning Hospital, which is affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University
“We can’t treat them as if they were secondary citizens or deprive them of basic rights just because they have had episodes before,” he said.
China’s three biggest airlines are demanding compensation from Boeing over its grounded 737 Max fleet.
Air China, China Southern and China Eastern have filed claims for payouts, according to state media reports.
China’s regulator was the first to ground the fleet in the wake of two deadly crashes involving the US-made aircraft.
It comes on the eve of a meeting of global aviation regulators that will provide an update on the troubled jets.
The Chinese airlines are seeking compensation for losses incurred by the grounded fleet, as well as delayed deliveries of the 737 Max jets, according to reports.
China operates the largest fleet of Boeing 737 Max aircraft and was the first country to take the jets out of service after the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 crash in March.
The disaster killed all 157 people on board. In October, 189 people were killed in a Lion Air crash involving the same model.
Both crashes were linked to the jet’s Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System, a new feature on 737 Max planes, which was designed to improve the handling of the jet and to stop it pitching up at too high an angle.
The planemaker’s entire global fleet of 737 Max aircraft has been grounded since March and the firm is anxious to prove it is safe to return to the skies.
The move by China’s top airlines to seek compensation comes ahead of a closely watched summit of aviation regulators in Texas on Thursday.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is due to provide an update on reviews of Boeing’s software fix and new pilot training.
The meeting in Texas will involve 57 agencies from 33 countries, including China, France, Germany and the UK, as well as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.
But it is unclear if the planes will be back in the air before the end of the critical summer travel season.
BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) — Beijing Daxing International Airport completed its first test flight of passenger planes as four aircraft landed safely on the runway Monday morning.
China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Air China and Xiamen Airlines sent their flagship models A380, A350-900, B747-8 and B787-9, respectively, for the test.
“The test shows that the new airport has now turned its focus from infrastructure construction to operation preparations,” said Wan Xiangdong, chief pilot of Civil Aviation Administration of China.
The test followed the airport’s first flight of verification planes on Jan. 22 this year. The airport is scheduled to take low-visibility flight test in August and go into operation before Sept. 30.
Located 46 km south of downtown Beijing, the new airport is aimed at taking pressure off the overcrowded Beijing Capital International Airport in the northeastern suburbs. It sits at the junction of Beijing’s Daxing District and Langfang, a city of neighboring Hebei Province.
It is expected to handle 45 million passengers annually by 2021 and 72 million by 2025.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 