Low-cost Airlines Face China Barriers

2004/06/01

Beijing exerts a tight grip on its state-dominated airline industry, controlling prices for jet fuel and tickets and handling aircraft purchases. That, combined with low Internet and credit card usage and opposition from bloated state carriers, means low-cost airlines will have to be content to circle the fringes of the worlds fastest-growing aviation market for the foreseeable future.

Executives at China s airlines seem unfazed by the potential no-frills threat. Flying is still for the elite in China. said Zeng Zixiang, Director of R&D Department of China Southern Airlines.

Air travel was once out of the reach of millions of lower-income Asians, but the emergence of no-frills carriers such as Malaysia-based AirAsia and Singapores ValuAir is making air travel more accessible.



	Article featured in Beijing This Month, June 2004 Publication sponsored by Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Tourism