Ein sehr interessanter Bericht aus....

[dymocks]

dem "Weekend Standard"(Hongkong) von gestern.

Ich zitiere wörtlich

"Red tape grounds no-frills airlines

No-frills airlines are lifting off all over Southeast Asia, but the average Zhou in China is unlikely to take to the skies on cut-rate carriers anytime soon.

Beijings exerts a thight 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 world´s fastest-growing aviation market for the forseeable future.

"There still needs to be certain regulatory advances can be set up. I think it won´t be an easy thing to achieve, but I think they have a future in China," Yang Yuanyuan, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China( CAAC), said at an aviation forum in Shanghai.

Executives at China´s airlines seem unfazed by the potential no-frills threat.

"Flying is still for the elite in China. People expect good service, food, something to drink and pretty air hostesses. It will take a while for these expectations to change," Zheng Zixiang, director of the research and development departement of China Southern Airlines, said.

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 Air Asia and Singapore´s ValuAir is making air travel more accessible.

Offering one-way fares as cheap as USD 25( HKD 195), these upstarts have also unsettled the stock prices of establishment foes such as Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways International.

Low-cost airlines are already encroaching China.

Singapore-based ValuAir begann flying to Hong Kong last week, offering return flights for 1388 HKD. Air Asia will start flying to Macau in June.

Mainland media have reported on plans by a Guangzhou-based telecoms firm to start a low-cost carrier, and what would be the country´s first private airline, in Chengdu.

The CAAC has said two firms - one in Macau and the other in Hong Kong - have applied to start budget airlines in China.

Thailand´s Nok Air, the no-frills offshoot of Thai Airways, and Air Asia said they want to fly to China.

"We want to dominate our domestic market but our future plan is to expand in North Asia. Kunming, Shanghai, Macau, Hong Kong are all possibilities," Patee Sarasin, Nok Air´s CEO, said recently at an aviation conference in Macau.

Air Macau said last month that it was talking to Air Asia about cooperating on routes to China.

Despite some widening of fare price bands, the state has a stranglehold on jet fuel and ticket prices and aircraft purchases, providing little room for individual carriers to cut costs.

China has about 100 airports that could handle the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 planes favoured by low-cost carriers. But landing fees are set by the government, providing little room for secondary airports to lure discount carriers. Such discounts proved to be a catalyst for the emergence of low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet in Europe.

Low internet penetration rates in a country where well-thumbed wads of cash are still the preferred payment method could also prove a stumbling block for budding budget carriers.

Online credit card bookings have enabled carriers elsewhere to save on agent commissions and distribution costs.

"We don´t think Internet penetration would be a problem, especially in southern China, but not many people have credit cards. We´d have to look at some form of pre-paid direct debit," Tony Fernandes, chief executive of Air Asia, said in Hong Kong recently.

He added that any expansion in China would be "years" away.

 

Ich hab den Beitrag mal ungekürzt hier übernommen, da doch einige Aspekte angesprochen werden über die so manch einer noch gar nicht nachgedacht hat. Alles in allem kommt trotz doch einiger großer Probleme auch im "großen Reich" der Markt in Bewegung.

Grüß( diesmal aus Dtl.), Kay

 

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<font size=-1>[ Diese Nachricht wurde geändert von: dymocks am 2004-05-17 21:50 ]</font>

 

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[ Diese Nachricht wurde geändert von: dymocks am 2004-05-17 22:13 ]