CHINA Southern Airlines Co. plans to take advantage of its ties with American Airlines Group Inc. to help beef up its U.S. routes and close in on its domestic rivals, the carrier’s president Tan Wangeng said. A new airport in Beijing, once up and running in 2019, will serve as the Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed airline’s second hub flying almost 50 million passengers in and out of China, even more than the 30 million the carrier flew in 2016 from its home base of Guangzhou in southern China, Tan said. China Southern plans to operate 250 aircraft out of the new airport, and will introduce more U.S. flights along with American Air, he said. “The market between China and the United States is the biggest one,” Bloomberg Television quoted Tan as saying yesterday. “We now have flights to cities like New York and Los Angeles, but they are just not enough. We hope the frequency reaches a point where people can fly to Beijing for a conference and back to New York in a single day.” Tan’s ambition is part of an ongoing race among China’s top three carriers to fly profitable routes to the world’s major hubs ranging from New York and Los Angeles to London and Frankfurt. The second Beijing airport will free up more slots for members of the SkyTeam alliance such as China Southern, Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines Corp. and potentially break the dominance of Beijing-based flag carrier Air China Ltd. in international long-haul flights. China’s “big three” carriers have forged ties with their U.S. peers in the scramble for more market share. China Southern sold a small stake to American Air earlier this year for US$200 million, almost two years after Delta Air Lines Inc. bought 3.55 percent of China Eastern for US$450 million. Air China has a codeshare agreement with its Star Alliance partner United Continental Holdings. In July, China Eastern and Delta each bought 10 percent of Air France-KLM through capital increases. (SD-Agencies) |