Return to Shanghai

Return to Shanghai
Return to Shanghai

10/05/2006, 15:17     [Aviation Week & Space Technology]    


After a 16-year hiatus, Cathay Pacific Airways is to resume daily services to Shanghai's Pudong International Airport in December. Cathay says Shanghai accounts for 35% of the passenger market between Hong Kong and mainland China and 68% of the freight market, which is why Cathay already flies 12 weekly freighter services between the two cities. Shanghai has been served from Hong Kong by Dragonair, which Cathay Pacific has acquired. Shanghai, China's financial center, has a mixed blessing in terms of local air services. Shanghai Airlines, which is owned by the municipal government, is prospering. But China Eastern Airlines, one of the Big Three airlines backed by the national government, is a money loser that Beijing had offered to sell to the local government in exchange for access to a port. The deal fell through, but had it succeeded, China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines would have merged, says Peter Harbison of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation.  

 Earlier, Singapore Airlines considered investing in China Eastern, but backed away from the deal.