Flight delays a problem for airlines trying to beat trains
By Winny Wang |
June 30, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
LOWER ticket prices, on-time service, competitive speeds, cell phone signals, WiFi availability and massive flight delays are being touted by China's high-speed railway system as good reasons to skip the airlines and travel by train.
Last Tuesday, I left home at 8am to catch a China Eastern Airlines flight due to depart at 10am for Beijing. We were called to board at 9:30am. Ah, the flight will be on time, I thought.
But once on board, we sat for half an hour before the captain told us that our plane was in a queue and take-off time was uncertain. The pilot blamed air control for the delay.
I had a business meeting in downtown Beijing at 3pm, and I started to feel twinges of anxiety about making it. But the passengers around me seemed calm as they turned on their mobile phones, computers and iPads to pass the time. I got the impression they were seasoned travelers used to delays.
We finally took off at about 11:30am and landed in Beijing two hours later. Having had no meal service on board a plane that was supposed to land before lunchtime, I had 10 minutes to grab a quick bite after suffering through a traffic gridlock to get from the airport to downtown.
From my front door in Shanghai to my meeting location in Beijing took seven hours. By high-speed train, the trip should have taken around six hours.
"If we had ridden a bullet train, we would have arrived in Beijing earlier," a companion traveling with me complained.
Air traffic control is taking the flack for flight delays these days.
"We are reluctant to keep our passengers waiting in the cabin, but we can't keep our place in the take-off queue if we haven't shut the plane doors," a Hainan Airlines official told me.
Stormy weather in Beijing last week further eroded passenger bonhomie at the airport, where many passengers were stranded by long delays.
"I will never choose airplanes to travel between Shanghai and Beijing because trains are more punctual and less affected by weather and traffic control," said Eric Yang, a 30-year-old freight-forwarding employee.
I think it's a woeful time for China's domestic airlines as they are facing a challenging future with their rail rivals now offering faster trains and a service that takes you to stations in downtown areas thus avoiding the traffic problems that can occur on the way from airports to the city center. It's high time for the airlines to abandon their often arrogant attitude toward customers
Ma Xulun, general manager of Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines, has promised that the carrier will improve its punctuality and service to compete with high-speed railways.
Some domestic airlines are starting to discount fares by as much as 65 percent in an attempt to keep their passengers.
The ticket price for a single trip between Shanghai and Beijing will drop to as low as 400 yuan (US$61.81)on July 1 before surcharges, compared to the 410 yuan fare of a second-class seat on a train moving at the slower speed of 250 kilometers per hour on the new high-speed railway, according to China's leading travel agency Ctrip.com.
With the airport construction fee and fuel surcharge added, an air ticket could cost around 590 yuan, only 35 yuan more than a second-class seat on the faster train moving at 300kph on the 1,318 kilometer-long route.
"Airlines are also offering discounts on flights that take off later than 6pm," said Shao Jihong, head of air ticket department of Ctrip.com. "There is no bullet train departing from Shanghai to Beijing after 6pm."
Cecile Chen, a human resources manager in Shanghai, said she would still prefer to fly, if the price is competitive.
"I am concerned about the safety of high-speed trains," she said. "Some experts have expressed doubts about whether the bullet trains can run safely at such fast speeds. Besides, I heard that WiFi signals are unstable on the trains."
China Eastern's Ma said competition from the high-speed rail service is expected to divert up to 20 percent of passengers from domestic airlines initially, but after six months, passenger volume is forecast to return to normal.
Analysts said business travelers in particular will stick to planes because of the speed factor.
To address what is expected to be a short-term switch of customer allegiance, some carriers are adjusting capacity on the route by replacing A330 jets that seat 300 passengers with 180-seat A320 jets.
"About 80 percent of planes on the Shanghai-Beijing route are wide-body aircraft," said Wu Li, an analyst at Essence Securities. "Carriers can replace them with smaller planes. An 80-percent load factor can secure stable ticket prices for airlines."
Eventually, both rail and airlines are expected to realize that there will be more profit in cooperation than competition.
Railway officials have signed an agreement with China Eastern to integrate their services, allowing passengers booking airline tickets on certain routes to also book train tickets between Shanghai and cities in the Yangtze River Delta region.
Last Tuesday, I left home at 8am to catch a China Eastern Airlines flight due to depart at 10am for Beijing. We were called to board at 9:30am. Ah, the flight will be on time, I thought.
But once on board, we sat for half an hour before the captain told us that our plane was in a queue and take-off time was uncertain. The pilot blamed air control for the delay.
I had a business meeting in downtown Beijing at 3pm, and I started to feel twinges of anxiety about making it. But the passengers around me seemed calm as they turned on their mobile phones, computers and iPads to pass the time. I got the impression they were seasoned travelers used to delays.
We finally took off at about 11:30am and landed in Beijing two hours later. Having had no meal service on board a plane that was supposed to land before lunchtime, I had 10 minutes to grab a quick bite after suffering through a traffic gridlock to get from the airport to downtown.
From my front door in Shanghai to my meeting location in Beijing took seven hours. By high-speed train, the trip should have taken around six hours.
"If we had ridden a bullet train, we would have arrived in Beijing earlier," a companion traveling with me complained.
Air traffic control is taking the flack for flight delays these days.
"We are reluctant to keep our passengers waiting in the cabin, but we can't keep our place in the take-off queue if we haven't shut the plane doors," a Hainan Airlines official told me.
Stormy weather in Beijing last week further eroded passenger bonhomie at the airport, where many passengers were stranded by long delays.
"I will never choose airplanes to travel between Shanghai and Beijing because trains are more punctual and less affected by weather and traffic control," said Eric Yang, a 30-year-old freight-forwarding employee.
I think it's a woeful time for China's domestic airlines as they are facing a challenging future with their rail rivals now offering faster trains and a service that takes you to stations in downtown areas thus avoiding the traffic problems that can occur on the way from airports to the city center. It's high time for the airlines to abandon their often arrogant attitude toward customers
Ma Xulun, general manager of Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines, has promised that the carrier will improve its punctuality and service to compete with high-speed railways.
Some domestic airlines are starting to discount fares by as much as 65 percent in an attempt to keep their passengers.
The ticket price for a single trip between Shanghai and Beijing will drop to as low as 400 yuan (US$61.81)on July 1 before surcharges, compared to the 410 yuan fare of a second-class seat on a train moving at the slower speed of 250 kilometers per hour on the new high-speed railway, according to China's leading travel agency Ctrip.com.
With the airport construction fee and fuel surcharge added, an air ticket could cost around 590 yuan, only 35 yuan more than a second-class seat on the faster train moving at 300kph on the 1,318 kilometer-long route.
"Airlines are also offering discounts on flights that take off later than 6pm," said Shao Jihong, head of air ticket department of Ctrip.com. "There is no bullet train departing from Shanghai to Beijing after 6pm."
Cecile Chen, a human resources manager in Shanghai, said she would still prefer to fly, if the price is competitive.
"I am concerned about the safety of high-speed trains," she said. "Some experts have expressed doubts about whether the bullet trains can run safely at such fast speeds. Besides, I heard that WiFi signals are unstable on the trains."
China Eastern's Ma said competition from the high-speed rail service is expected to divert up to 20 percent of passengers from domestic airlines initially, but after six months, passenger volume is forecast to return to normal.
Analysts said business travelers in particular will stick to planes because of the speed factor.
To address what is expected to be a short-term switch of customer allegiance, some carriers are adjusting capacity on the route by replacing A330 jets that seat 300 passengers with 180-seat A320 jets.
"About 80 percent of planes on the Shanghai-Beijing route are wide-body aircraft," said Wu Li, an analyst at Essence Securities. "Carriers can replace them with smaller planes. An 80-percent load factor can secure stable ticket prices for airlines."
Eventually, both rail and airlines are expected to realize that there will be more profit in cooperation than competition.
Railway officials have signed an agreement with China Eastern to integrate their services, allowing passengers booking airline tickets on certain routes to also book train tickets between Shanghai and cities in the Yangtze River Delta region.
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