Air China's - Orient Aviation

SPECIAL REPORTAirports“We are well prepared to welcome newairlines and additional routes from the Asia-Pacific region.”China and India are prime targets.“The number of destinations and frequenciesis already substantial, but there aremany more cities that should be linked toFrankfurt,” said Weil. Air China and CathayPacific Airways are current customers,China EasternAirlinesstarts servicesto Frankfurt thissummer. Dragonairand Shanghai Airlinesh ave f r eig htservices tothe Germancity. Fraport,the airport operator,is directly involved inairport projects in both Chinaand India, something which indirectlyserves to strengthen traffic links, saidWeil.Star Alliance and its founding memberLufthansa are also of prime importance atMunich where the A380 has been clearedfor landing and planning for a third runwayis in the works.Lufthansa has a 40% share of its newTerminal Two, with the airport holding theremainder. The German flag carrier is addingfour weekly connections to Beijing and two toHong Kong to its summer schedule this year.Air China will also fly from the Chinese capitaldaily from August 1. Lufthansa is stopping itsBangkok service, leaving that route to its alliancepartner, Thai Airways International.“Munich attaches a large amount ofimportance to our traffic to the Asia-Pacific region, as this segment is one of theairport’s fastest growing segments,” saida spokeswoman, who was unworried bycompetition from Middle Eastern facilities.“We are expanding our European anddomestic networks,” she said. “Theseunderscore the difference between a hublike Munich and a hub like Dubai – they areThe A380: European airportsare looking to welcome Asia’s‘superjumbo’ customerstwo different ‘hub’ profiles, if you like. Thismeans that Munich and a Middle Eastern hublike Dubai are going after different trafficand passengers.”Passenger flows from Munich to EasternEurope increased by 15% last year, showingthe importance of its proximity to that fastdevelopingregion for ongoing Asia-Pacificbusiness travellers.Figures from Amsterdam Schiphol,meanwhile, underline the importance ofbusiness traffic to major hub airports. Itaccounted for 43% of Asia-Pacific traffictotals, with vacationing passengers totalling39% and VFR (visiting friends and relatives)taking the remaining 18%.China, India, Japan and Korea are theareas of focus for Schiphol’s marketers forboth passenger and freight. In 2005, passengersto and from China topped its Asia-Pacific list at 782,000. Japan provided600,000 and Thailand 388,000. Singaporeand Malaysia completed the top five for theregion with 343,000 and 342,000 respectively.Figures forIndia were notavailable.A s i a -Pacific flightsare showing asteady increase at an airportthat makes the mostof a one-terminal conceptthat allows for ease oftransfer. Home carrier KLMbegan a three-times-a-week serviceto Hyderabad in India last year and willbegin twice-weekly flights to Chengdu inChina in May. Korean Air began servicesbetween Seoul and Schiphol last year andCathay Pacific Airways recently made itsHong Kong-Schiphol service daily. ChinaSouthern Airlines is also switching itsGuangzhou/Beijing service from four-timesa week to daily this summer.Amsterdam now provides airportguides in Chinese and Japanese – itscustomers include China Airlines, EVAAir, Singapore Airlines and Japan Airlines.It also understands that the way to the Asianheart can often be through the stomach andhas provided Asian food and beverage outletsto keep its Eastern customers satisfied.AIRPORT NEWSLandmark pacts forkey Indian airportsThe control of two of India’s largestairports, in Delhi and Mumbai, ismoving into private hands openingthe way for the rundown facilities to betransformed into world class operations.In early April, the Airports Authority ofIndia signed “operations, maintenance anddevelopment agreements”, which effectivelygave the companies who made winning bidsto modernise the airports in February, a 74%stake in Dehli’s Indira Gandhi Airport andMumbai’s Chatrapati Shivaji Airport.The government will retain the remaining26%.The Delhi airport will be run by a jointventure of Hyderabad construction company,GMR Industries and Germany’s Fraport.India’s GVK group, partnered by the SouthAfrican Airport Authority, will upgrade andoperate the Mumbai facility.The present airports have a reputationfor congestion, poor passenger amenities andlittle duty-free shopping.T he cost of moder n isi ng t he t wocomplexes, which handle twice as manytake-offs and landings they were designedto do, is put at 54 billion rupees (US$1.25billion).The privatisation of the airports wasopposed by airport workers.BAA refreshesinterest in ChinaAfter years pursuing expansion inother parts of the world, the BritishAirports Authority (BAA) hasexpressed interest in investing in China.But, according to BAA’s internationalmanaging director, Andrew Jurenko, “notat any cost”. Jurenko told the South ChinaMorning Post BAA was looking to investin secondary airports. However, it wouldonly proceed with a deal if the airport hadat least five million passengers a year and itcould manage the airport. “For us control isa fundamental issue,” he said.54 ORIENT AVIATION MAY 2006