In the aviation sector, the industry watchdog says airline companies are making money again. Air travellers are now finding it hard to get big discounts on tickets for domestic routes.
Spring has come and that also seems to be the case for carriers. Travel agencies are no longer offering big discounts like 70 to 80 percent off. Prices now only include discounts of around 30 percent, especially between commercial hubs in the country.
Fan Runjun, marketing manager of CTRIP, "we have seen a fast increase in business travel. Air ticket prices in March more than doubled those of February."
The General Administration of Civil Aviation says travel numbers have increased 21 percent, 13 percent and 14 percent year-on-year for each of the first three months of 2009. China's aviation watchdog has even predicted the total industry will realize a combined revenue of 800 million yuan in the first quarter.
Mao Ang, analyst of Galaxy Securities Research Center, says, "what we are seeing now are high travel numbers, high occupancy rates on planes almost the best level in history, and pretty high prices, because ticket discounts are getting smaller. These are all indicators that demand in air travel is booming."
In addition to the rally in travel numbers, carriers are benefiting from lower oil prices. The domestic aviation fuel price was cut again by 460 yuan a ton, meaning 4 billion yuan will be saved by all the domestic carriers this year. But at the same time, the international crude oil price has risen 20 percent since the end of 2008. That has reduced carriers' huge loss on crude oil derivatives.
(CCTV April 14, 2009)
