Hainan Airlines aims to lower fares, up competition in US market

Mainland China’s leading airline Hainan Airlines plans to seek entry into the transpacific marketplace for past few years is going to intensify competition and significantly lower fares with other carriers seeking their share in revenues as well. Hainan Airlines, which according to Skytrax is Mainland China’s best airline, is presently operating flights to various destinations in the United States including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Jose and Seattle. The airline is also operating flights services to two Canadian destinations as well, including Toronto and Calgary.

Apart from these North American destinations, Hainan Airlines is also planning to provide air connectivity to New York City from Chongqing and Chengdu, both secondary cities in southwestern China. The airline is also aiming to launch flights to international destinations from the Chinese coastal city of Tianjin.

Hainan Airlines is a privately-owned airline. When it comes to offering preferential treatment on international routes, the Government of China mostly favors largest state-owned carriers such as China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Air China. The fact being that Hainan Airlines is privately-owned, it, therefore, has to conduct flights to secondary cities such as San Jose and Calgary. The airline now wants to move in the big league and is focusing on developing Chinese destinations, in addition to Beijing and Shanghai. Travel experts say that the it would be a big deal for U.S. customers booking Hainan Airlines flights to travel to a secondary Chinese city like Tianjin or Chongqing with the help of Hainan’s regional affiliates low-cost connections.

Taking cue from Hainan Airlines, one of largest U.S. carriers United Airlines has also moved ahead to formulate a similar strategy. United Airlines has indicated that instead of focusing exclusively on Beijing and Shanghai hubs it would be opting to extend its network to Chinese cities such as Hangzhou and Xian. According to travel experts, business travelers would be favoring the routes when traveling between the United States and China.