Air Macau, Virgin Blue to start low-cost China airline in mid-2005

[Wirraway]

AFP
Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 28 October 2004 0232 hrs

Air Macau, Virgin Blue to start low-cost China airline in mid-2005: report

LISBON : Privately held Air Macau and Australian budget carrier Virgin Blue will start operating a low-cost airline serving China by the middle of next year.

Air Macau, controlled by China National Aviation Company (CNAC), will directly detain 51 percent of the new airline with the rest of the company in the hands of Virgin Blue, property investor Shun Tak and CNAC, an industry source told the Lusa news agency.

The agreement to set up the budget airline, which will focus on destinations in China not already served by Air Macau, will be formally signed next week, the source added.

Air Macau currently has 11 passenger planes and three for cargo which service 14 destinations in Asia.

The airline, based in the former Portuguese gambling enclave of Macau which is currently a semi-autonomous regions of China, makes most of its money shuttling passengers between Taiwan and China.

- AFP

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[Johhny Utah]

sunfish - care to explain what (if any?) competitive advantage Virgin Blue might have in setting up an operation in China...?

:rolleyes:

[The Enema Bandit]

Now let's see how low pilots wages can really go.

[Howard Hughes]

Of course China is the home of the $2 copy........

Cheers, HH.

:ok:

[Arrowhead]

If Air Macau can't get/keep enough of its own pilots, and China is not producing enough pilots, where are the pilots going to come from? Perhaps this is the "not so Holy" Grail wannabees have been searching for....

You can see the logic of Chinese business coupled with VB's low cost know-how... and not all Chinese are poor (check out the UK Sunday Times Magazine "new Chinese rich list" last weekend)...

...but I have to agree that overall the supply and demand sides of the equation look shaky

[Kaptin M]

Could be interesting as far as pilots' salaries go.
Airlines in mainland China are now employing non-Chinese pilots - some for the first time ever - simply because there are not enough of their own.

Salaries for expats in China, post tax, are USD6,500 - USD7,000.