Spring Airlines Offers 1 Yuan Airfare
By Chen Liying, Shanghai Daily | Nov. 29, 2006
Spring Airlines will offer one-yuan (13 US cents) fares from Shanghai to Jinan when it launches daily service on November 30, breaking its record low price of 99 yuan for a single trip.
The Shanghai-based low-cost carrier said it will sell 10 percent of its 180 seats per flight for 1 yuan, against the full price of 760 yuan.
The total fare for the cheap seats will be 151 yuan when tax is included. Spring will offer 99-yuan tickets on 20 to 30 percent of its seats on the Shanghai-Jinan flights.
The bargain-basement fares will be available through December 10, when the airline will decide whether to continue the offer.
"We initiated the one-yuan ticket to market our new service, and hopefully it can attract enough passengers during the slow season," said Sun Xuezhen, a Spring Airlines official said.
Industry officials said the one-yuan price won't have a major effect on other airlines.
"The number of tickets is very limited so it won't deal a blow to the market," said an official with the east China branch of the General Administration of Civil Aviation. "It's a corporate move; we won't support it or oppose it."
China Eastern Airlines said its lowest price on the route is 300 yuan on very late flights.
Spring Airlines has just received its fourth A320 aircraft, which will fly on Shanghai-Guangzhou route and Shanghai-Jinan-Sanya or Haikou route. Both services start on November 30.
The company, which claimed a thin profit this year, has applied to buy another 20 A320 aircraft as part of 150 orders China signed with Airbus SAS earlier this year.