A Brief Introduction of Chinese Airlines

In 2002, the CAAC set up three major aviation groups, which ensured that the three state owned airlines would function as a government entity and not as an economic entity. Since then, Chinese airlines have formed a three-layer structure for state-owned, local-government-owned, and private-owned airlines. With the global economic crisis of 2008 seriously affecting the aviation industry worldwide, China’s aviation industry has carried out some much needed restructuring. The weaker, private airlines, have been restuctured, and the three major state-owned airlines have all been improved significantly due to increases in the states’ funding. Under the guidance of the government, a new round of restructuring started with the state-owned airlines mergering with the local airlines. By the end of 2010, China had 43 transport airlines.: 35 of the transport airlines are state-owned holding companies and the remaining 8 are private and private holding companies. 11 of the airlines are all-cargo airlines, with 16 being foreign joint venture airlines, and 5 are listed companies. In 2010, the CNAC (China National Aviation Holding Company) completed 1.467 million flight hours with a total transport turnover of 17.53 billion ton-km, an increase of 23.2% over the previous year. The passenger volume in 2010 was 72 million people, which is a 15.2% increase over the previous year; and had accomplished 1.801 million tons of cargo & mail transporation for a 28.0% growth over 2009. In 2010, the CEAH (China Eastern Air Holding Company) had completed 1.214 million flight hours with a total transport turnover of 13.6 billion ton-km, an increase of 24.0% over the previous year. The CEAH finished 2010 with a passenger volume of 65 million people for a 15.5% increase over the previous year; and accomplished 1.648 million tons of cargo and mail transporation for 20.6% of growth over the previous year. In 2010, the CSAH (China Southern Air Holding Company) had completed 1.392 million flight hours with a total transport turnover of 13.1 billion ton-km, an increase of 30.2% over the previous year. The passenger volume for 2010 was 76 million people, which is a 15.3% increase over the previous year. The CSAH transported 1.117 million tons of cargo and mail transporation in 2010, for a 29.6% growth increase over the previous year. In 2010, HNA (Hainan Airlines) Group had completed 602,000 flight hours with a total transport turnover of 5.71 billion ton-km. This is an increase of 26.8% over the previous year. They finished the year with a passenger volume of 31 million people, for a 15.4% increase over 2009. In 2010, HNA Group had transported 522,000 tons of cargo and mail transporation, which is a 29.1% increase over 2009. In 2010, all of the other airlines combined had completed 434,000 flight hours with a total transport turnover of 3.9 billion ton-km, which is an increase of 32.6% over the previous year. The total passenger volume of 2010 was 23 million people, for a 24.8% increase over 2009. A total of 542,000 tons of cargo and mail transportation was transported for a total of 30.6% growth increase over the previous year. By the end of 2010, the total number of registered aircraft was 1,597, which is 180 more aircraft than the previous year. On May 9, 2011, the CAAC published its “Twelfth Five-Year Plan for China’s Civil Aviation Development (2011-2015)”, and said it would actively expand air cargo and general aviation for the next five years through the support of the expansion of international air routes, to help Air China and others to become internationally competitive large-scale networking airlines. According to the CAAC’s 12th Five-Year Plan, the CAAC is planning to encourage low-cost airlines to gradually enter the major trunk transport market by giving them the necessary resources and support of air routes, flights and schedules. According to the Plan, in 2015, the total transport turnover will reach 99 billion ton-km, the passenger volume will reach 450 million people, and the cargo & mail transporation will reach 9 million tons, for an annual increase of 13%, 11% & 10% respectively. The on-schedule flight rate will be higher than 80%. The transport airports will be more than 230, covering 94% of the national economy, 83% of the population and 81% of county-level adminstrative units, and securing 10.4 million take-offs & landings.