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Athens, Greece will likely be the next intercontinental destination for Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines, a company spokesperson said, as the privately owned carrier targets countries covered by Beijing’s Belt and Road economic program.
Seeking niches to avoid direct competition, Juneyao will look for routes that other airlines are not serving, the spokesperson said.
A Shanghai-Athens service would tick both boxes: no carrier is operating on the route, and Greece is cooperating with the Belt and Road initiative, which aims to promote China’s involvement in foreign economies. The Shanghai-Helsinki route, which became Juneyao’s first long-haul route on June 28, has the same qualifications.
Juneyao chairman Wang Junjin mentioned the importance of Belt and Road destinations when speaking to reporters after the first Juneyao flight to Helsinki landed. He added that Juneyao’s long-haul destinations would be in Europe and North America—though neither Canada, the US nor Mexico has signed a Belt and Road agreement with China.
The company originally intended to fly to Australia and New Zealand but now finds the market unattractive. Many Chinese airlines, including Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines, have opened or strengthened services to the main cities in those countries in the past few years.
In March, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) gave Juneyao preliminary approval to fly between Shanghai and London—which is not a niche route—but eventually withheld final approval. Wang said competition on London services is too intense anyway, so the company is considering Manchester as a British destination.
Boeing 787s will be used on Juneyao’s long-haul routes. The company has four of 10 787s it ordered in 2017, including five initially covered by options that Juneyao said were firmed up in the same year. Juneyao will receive the 10th 787 in 2020, Wang said.
The company said it will consider flying intercontinentally from cities other than Shanghai. Reinforcing the Belt and Road initiative is politically useful for a Chinese airline, even a privately owned one.
Bradley Perrett, perrett@aviationweek.com
Research by Ryan Wang
Source: ATWonline