China Southern will introduce a premium economy class on domestic flights March 28, charging full economy fares for seats with 40% more space. The class will be available first between Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, gradually appearing on all domestic routes. The move is surprising because the price of Chinese airlines’ domestic business classes are not high. Aircraft ranging from Airbus A319s to Boeing 777s will have 24 to 53 premium economy seats at pitches of 89 cm. to 94 cm. (35-37 in.). The airline did not say how it calculated the 40% increase.

Japan Airlines should be profitable by the northern fall, under the plans of the chairman appointed to restructure the carrier. The carrier will not drop its international services and become a domestic airline only, says Chairman Kazuo Inamori, despite suggestions along those lines from government officials as the airline slid toward its Jan. 19 bankruptcy. Inamori publicly belittled JAL’s managers, saying at a news conference that he had told them that they were unfit to run a grocery.

Spring Airlines is sticking by plans to become a serious no-frills competitor to China’s lumbering state carriers, despite deferring the share offering that would fund the expansion. Spring says it needs to raise about 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) to buy 50 aircraft, half of a fleet of 100 that it plans to operate by 2015. But the initial public offering of shares scheduled for this year will not now happen until next year or even 2012.