The chairman of Spring Airlines requires his employees to use both sides of a sheet of paper before throwing it away and even removed most of the bulbs lighting the corridor to his office – all part of his quest to save money.
China’s first low-cost airline has been profitable since 2006, its first full year of operation, but the budget aviation market is about to get a lot more competitive as the government moves to promote low-cost travel to meet a surge in demand from an increasingly wealthier population.
Over the last 18 months, Spring has been joined by two new competitors. China’s big state-backed carriers are also looking at launching budget carriers, a strategy industry executives say would be an additional boon to plane makers Airbus Group (AIR.PA) and Boeing Co. (BA.N).
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) plans to add nearly 80 new airports by 2020, including a $14.5 billion second airport in the capital Beijing, and is urging other airports to build new terminals and convert existing facilities to handle budget airlines.
The initiative, industry observers say, would usher in a new era for low-cost carriers (LCCs) in a country where one in four people travelled by air in 2013. That number is set to rise to almost the whole population in the next two decades, according to Airbus executives, with China to replace the United States as the world’s largest aviation market during the same period.
via China’s soaring potential a springboard for budget airlines | Reuters.
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