Spring Airlines increased capacity by 30.7% in the first half of the year, as it added seven Airbus A320s to its fleet.
The majority of the added capacity went to its domestic network, which saw ASKs rise 43.6%. Capacity on services to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau meanwhile climbed 16.1%, while international capacity received a 10.9% boost.
In its first half financials, the Chinese low-cost carrier says that the majority of its domestic capacity increase went to its second tier bases at Shenyang, Shijiazhuang and Yangzhou. This is since there are slot constraints at its main bases of Shanghai Pudong and Hongqiao International airports, as well as in Shenzhen.
Spring added that it stopped poor-yield domestic services out of some second and third tier cities during the period. It did not name the routes. RPKs on its domestic services rose 41.9% during the six months.
On the international front, Spring says its services to Japan, South Korea and Thailand have been under pressure since 2016 due to stiff competition. To optimise its international network, the carrier has also cut the number of Chinese departure cities from 28 to 20, while the number of arrival destinations remains at 19. RPKs on its international services climbed 8.8%.
Of the airline's 162 routes at current, 101 are domestic. During the period, yields for its domestic services also climbed 4.3%, while that for its international services fell 2.6%.
Spring has 73 A320 family aircraft in service, and will induct another four jets by the end of 2017. Its Spring Airlines Japan unit, meanwhile, has six Boeing 737-800s, with no plans for more aircraft this year.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
