Profitability of Chinese Carriers

China is projected to be one of the largest domestic air travel markets after the United States in the next 20 years, and its traffic is set to exceed 1 billion passengers by 2029, according to Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA)’s latest Current Market Outlook (CMO) released in 2010.
Yet the shareholding structure of major Chinese carriers has been a topic whose understanding is little or limited amid the relatively lack of transparency of Chinese carriers. Aspire Aviation’s report provides a clear picture of major Chinese airline groups, their subsidiaries and their respective shareholding structures, and is a must-have for airline industry personnel who want to reap the potential benefits of this huge market.
Importantly, Chinese carriers have arguably got rid of their poor reputation of operating gas-guzzling, unreliable Russian-built turboprops several decades ago and have developed into mega carriers that focus on their respective hubs in the biggest cities in the most populous country in the world.
Boosted by different kinds of state supports which include the financial injection during the unprecedented 2007-2009 global financial crisis, the “Big Three” – Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines have managed to keep their heads above water and have been playing leadership roles in consolidating struggling unprofitable domestic carriers to help make the air transportation system in China a leaner
one, such as the now defunct East Star Airlines and Shanghai Airlines, which has become part of the China Eastern Airlines Group.
With 80% of the country’s air space still under control by the military, it is apparent that structural inefficiencies and bureaucracies regrettably exist, coupled with incompatibility with international accounting standards and an ever-worsening delay problem owing to the lack of air space, these are impediments hampering Chinese airlines from realizing their fullest potentials and become one of the world’s most profitable ones.

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Delta Air Lines’ Widebody Operations

Over a year has passed since Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines completed
their merger on January 31st 2010, and the airline systems were fully integrated. In the past year and a half, the new Delta Air Lines has begun to cross-fleet aircraft across their route network; Atlanta sees roughly 86 flights per day on former Northwest Airbus A320 family equipment, and Minneapolis St. Paul gets 82 flights a day on pre-merger Delta McDonnell Douglas MD-90s. Within that context, Delta has also begun to spread wide bodied twin-aisle aircraft across the route network, better matching seat capacity to
demand. Former Northwest A330s and 747s operate from pre-merger Delta hubs,  and 767/777 family aircraft from pre-merger Northwest hubs. The following analysis takes a look at the aircraft utilization and placement of twin-aisle aircraft across the Delta Air Lines’ route network, which is one of the world’s largest.

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