Air China Increases Competition on Beijing – Hong Kong

Air China is to introduce a seventh daily flight between Beijing and Hong Kong from July 1 as it seeks to increase its share of this busy and lucrative market. The Chinese flag carrier currently holds a 28.7 per cent share of the 1.8 million O&D travellers on the route but is facing increased competition from rivals, mainly in the form of Hong Kong Airlines which together with its affiliate Hong Kong Express now operate three flights per day and have plans to add more capacity in the future.

As the table above shows, the market is currently dominated by Dragonair, which offers up to eight flights per day, seven of which are operated by widebodied Airbus A330 jets. It holds a 48.5 per cent of the total traffic carrying an estimated 880,000 passengers a year. Air China hopes its new flight, which will be the first to leave Beijing in the morning and the third daily departure from Hong Kong will attract a lot of business clientele, especially on the outbound leg.

Hong Kong is now the tenth largest market for Air China (ranked by weekly seat capacity) but its frequency and available seats fall far short of the airline’s top five destinations from its Beijing Capital International Airport base, which are highlighted in the table above - these routes together account for almost a quarter of the carrier’s total weekly capacity.