Hainan Air Routes Open to Passenger DiscountsEight domestic air routes linking South China's Hainan Province will be open to fare discounts starting on Sunday, bringing to 15 the total number of routes in China eligible to discount fares.Flights linking Hainan with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing and Kunming will be sold air tickets at as little as 60 per cent of their face price. Preferential ticket prices for students, teachers and soldiers will continue, a report said. The ruling means passengers can travel between Beijing and Hainan for 1,080 yuan (US$130) each way under the new policy, compared with the present price of 1,800 yuan (US$217). An official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)said discounts are limited to the designated routes and the department has no plan to halt an overall ticket discount ban. The CAAC source said the agency is busy with the regrouping process of major State-owned domestic airlines, so no plan exists to renovate the pricing system. CAAC Minister Liu Jianfeng had promised to reconsider the price-discount ban as soon as the agency severs ties with its 10 directly controlled airlines, probably next year or in early 2003. CAAC started the fare-discount ban in 1998 to stop cut-throat competition among State-owned domestic airlines that led to sharp losses. Yet the ban, which did return the deficit-plagued industry to fiscal balance in 1999, has caused a revenue drop for tourism businesses in certain areas by discouraging travel. |
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