Air China closes the gap with the competition.
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Air China has announced its plans to ‘take on the competition’, most notably Cathay Pacific and Delta Air Lines for the coveted international routes.
China’s largest international carrier confirmed it is working on more than 100 service improvements to lure in business and increase its yields, especially in first and business class.
Some of the improvements to the passenger’s service experience will cover onboard catering, seat comfort, inflight entertainment, call-centre operations, and maintenance and cleaning. The airline is also deploying a mobile-phone text messaging system for passengers on the go.
“This year we want to focus on improving services,” said Senior Vice President He Li in an interview on Friday in Beijing “We couldn’t do it during the financial crisis as then we were tied up with just avoiding losses.”
The executive firmly believes that Air China will strengthen its market share and win more sales in the nation’s lucrative outbound market, which is expected to surpass 50 million passengers a year by 2015.
According to He Li, the airline will equally focus on China’s first and business-class traffic on domestic routes, especially as the government frees up pricing rules.
Zhang Jing, an analyst at Philip Securities (HK) Ltd. in Shanghai believes there are fundamental differences in the service quality China’s three major carriers, Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines offer to the international airlines.
The three carriers have three-star ratings along with Delta Air Lines from London-based Skytrax. Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific have the highest ranking of five-stars.
“There’s clearly still some difference in the service quality between China’s airlines and international ones,” said Zhang Jing. “The verdict remains open if the new fare rules will result in better inflight services.”
Operating under the new pricing structure that was implemented at the beginning of this month, Air China and its mainland competitors will no longer need to set premium fares at a fixed percentage above economy-class ticket prices.
With this in mind and a rebounding global economy creating new business opportunities, Air China plans to expand its capacity by 12 percent this year as it takes delivery of 33 new planes in the next two years.
Written by Jill Walsh
