The Hongkong-Shanghai route gets busier this month with Chinese budget carrier, Spring Airlines, mounting daily return flights between Pudong International Airport and Hongkong and offering prices cheaper than those of its competitors.
Fares, which are available online today (September 18, 2010), start from CNY398 (US$59). The South China Morning Post estimated this to be more than a fourth of those supplied by Dragonair, Hong Kong Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.
The trio and Shanghai Airlines, which already operate 30 daily flights between Hongkong and Shanghai, pose a formidable challenge to the low-cost carrier but Spring Airlines officials however remained unfazed, insisting that demand for overseas travel was strong. The Shanghai-Hongkong service is Spring Airlines' second foreign service since it launched in July with Shanghai-Ibaraki (Japan) flights. More services around northeast Asia are in the pipeline.
A 180-seat Airbus A320 will be put on the Shanghai-Hongkong route. Spring Airlines is a privately owned company.
For more information, visit http://en.china-sss.com/
Alisha Haridasani
