Updates on some new-established Chinese-invested airlines

A Signing ceremony of corporation intention to establish Xishuangbanna Airlines was held in Jinghong, Yunnan on Aug 10th, which was addressed by Luo Hongjiang, Governer of the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, attended by guests from partnering companies including Sichuan Airlines Group, Yunnan Metropolitan Construction Investment Group, Sichuan Mingyu Group and local government of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.

 

During the ceremony, Mr. Li Haiying, Chairman of Sichuan Airlines Group outlined the development roadmap of establishing Xishuangbanna Airlines in his speech.

 

JC International Airlines, Cambodia’s newest airline owned by Yunan JC Group from Yunnan of China, held the inaugural flight ceremony in Phnum Penh on Mar 18th, attended by H.E.MAO HAVANNALL, Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Civil Aviation general director, Mr. Dong Lecheng, Chairman of Yunan JC Group and guests from Cambodia and China.

 

JC International Airlines was established in Oct of 2016 with its home-base in Phnom Penh, received its air operator’s certificate (AOC) in March this year. It now has 4 320 aircrafts in its fleet, expects to take delivery of another A320 later this year, with plans to introduce 7 more aircrafts in 2018 and A330 wide-bodies in 2019.

 

Its worthy mentioning that, the airline is closely affiliated with a Chinese budget airline, Ruili Airlines, which is also owned by Yunnan JC Group and flies domestic routes in the Chinese mainland. JC Airlines has plans to expand and offer flights to Macau, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and have dreams of operating even further in Asia, but it remains to be seen if that will happen.

 

Mr. Heping Ma, President of Tongcheng Tourism (LY.com) which is a leading OTA in China after Ctrip and Alitrip etc, made an unexpected appearance and spoke at a staff meeting of Hongtu Airlines last weekend, which indidates a solid progress on Tongcheng’s plans to make a strategic investment in the airline company as cross ownerships of airlines, ticketing platforms and online travel companies are increasingly prevalent.

 

Yunnan-based Hongtu Airlines was inaugurated in early 2014 with registered capital of RMB 600 million. The carrier was certified as a qualified airline operator in May 2016 and started to operate passenger transport as the sixth base airline company at Kunming Changshui International Airport.

 

The “tourism + airline” model has been proven viable as Spring Tour, one of the biggest tour operators in China, entered the airline business in 2005 and established low-cost carrier Spring Airlines.