Beijing - Xia Lili, marketing chief at a privately owned Shanghai software firm, switched to flying with Spring Airlines after China’s first low-cost carrier took off in 2010.
Her company has since made it mandatory for staff to use budget airlines when available, and has cut its travel costs by a fifth.
Xia and her colleagues are among an increasing number of Chinese who are fuelling fast growth in what is often called the “last” big market ripe for low-cost carrier penetration.
Since late 2013, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has encouraged budget airlines as Beijing has seen how they have taken off elsewhere. Freeing up new routes for low-cost carriers also helps develop economic growth in western China.
Low-cost carriers account for seven percent of China’s domestic air travel market, and that’s expected to more than double by 2020, according to OAG, an aviation data and analytics company.
China, the fastest-growing major air travel market, has overall passenger volume of 392 million, rising at more than 10 percent a year, according to official data, and planemaker Airbus predicts it will leapfrog the US as the world’s largest domestic air traffic market within 10 years.
As Europe’s pioneer no-frills airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet move more upmarket they are attracting business travellers.
China’s four budget airlines offer sharply discounted air fares to full-service carriers.
For example, West Air, a subsidiary of Hainan Airlines’ parent HNA Group, offers a round trip from Chongqing to the popular southern resort of Sanya and a three-night stay in a five-star hotel for just 999 yuan (about R2 300), for bookings made well in advance. That compares with 770 yuan for the cheapest one-way ticket offered by full-service carriers, according to Ctrip.com
All of China’s low-cost carriers, except newest entrant 9 Air, are profitable. Much of that is down to severe paring of their costs.
At China United, flight attendants clean up inside the plane between flights. The airline has squeezed more seats into its fleet of Boeing 737 planes.
Spring Air, China’s first and largest budget carrier, took out nearly all the light bulbs on the corridor to chairperson Wang Zhenghua’s office, and staff must turn off the lights when they leave for the day.
Both the chairperson and president eat at the staff cafeteria, and flight attendants share hotel rooms on trips.
The carrier said it signed a $6.3-billion deal to buy 60 A320neo jets from Airbus to help it meet rising demand, tap new markets and improve fleet fuel efficiency.
Attracted by the sector’s growth potential, some state airlines have converted to low-cost carriers.
China Eastern Airlines converted its China United unit into a budget carrier, and Juneyao Airlines set up a low-cost subsidiary in Guangzhou.
Spring Air, which also flies to popular Asian leisure destinations, started flights in late October to Dongyin, an oil-rich city in eastern China whose only connection to Shanghai was previously by a lengthy bus trip and then by high-speed rail.
Reuters