Airline can’t meet demand

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 30

Airline can’t meet demand

NZPA-Reuter Peking China’s national airline, C.A.A.C., said it could not keep pace with rising demand, in spite of investing heavily in new planes, and would need at least two years to complete its planned reorganisation. The airline’s director-gen-eral, Hu Yizhou, told reporters at Peking Airport that in the first five months of 1985, the airline had carried 60 per cent more traffic than in the same period last year. He gave no < figures, but said it was because of China’s tourist boom and the Peking Gov- - emment’s drive to open up the economy. “We need more pilots, more engineers and more equipment. We have yet to eaten up with rising demand,” he said. In the last three months, the airline has signed contracts worth more than $2.83 billion to buy Boeings, McDonnell Douglas MD-80 twin-jets and 10 BA 146 aircraft from British Aerospace. In an attempt to improve its image at home and

abroad for bad service and safety, C.A.A.C. is buying new planes and scrapping its own national monopoly to create what it hopes will be leaner, more efficient regional airlines. up the airline into the planned six regional parts is an extremely complex matter and will take at least two years.” The six planned areas are Peking, Shanghai, Canton, Chengdu, Lanzhou and Shenyang, Hu said.