Leithen Francis / Shanghai
Shanghai Airlines is planning a June launch for Shanghai International Cargo Airlines, which it is establishing with Taiwan’s Evergreen Group.
The chairman of Shanghai Airlines, Zhou Chi, says the new cargo carrier is currently applying for its air operator’s certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China and expects to receive the approval in June.
Shanghai Airlines will have 55% equity and companies associated with Taiwan’s Evergreen Group will have 45%. Evergreen Group is one of the world’s largest container shipping companies and owns Taiwan’s second largest airline, EVA Air.
Zhou says Shanghai Airlines wanted to team with Evergreen because “it has a lot of [cargo] experience, especially in the USA and Europe”. He says, for example, Shanghai International Cargo Airlines can use EVA Air’s cargo sales offices in these markets.
“In 2010 the [Shanghai International Cargo Airlines] fleet will exceed 10 freighter aircraft …and we need Boeing 747-400 freighters,” says Zhou. This year the carrier will also take over Shanghai Airlines’ current fleet of freighters, which includes one Boeing MD-11.
Next month Shanghai Airlines will also launch its first freighter service to the USA. Zhou says it will use a wet-leased Boeing 747-200F from an undisclosed carrier in the USA and the service will go from Shanghai to Los Angeles via Anchorage.
Meanwhile, a group of Chinese companies is working to establish a cargo airline called Datang Qili Airlines in Beijing’s port city of Tianjin. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) says Datang Qili Airlines has applied for permission to operate and plans to provide domestic and international “air cargo and express operations”.
The Tianjin-based airline says it intends to lease 10 freighters – two Boeing 737-300s, two Boeing 747s, four Shaanxi Y-8s and two Tupolev Tu-204s. Datang Qili Airlines has signed an agreement with the China Aviation Supplies Import & Export Group, which will help the start-up source Tupolev Tu-204 pilots from Russia and other former Soviet republics. CAAC says the carrier has signed an agreement with New Zealand pilot recruitment firm IAC to source Boeing 747 pilots.
Source: Flight International
