rafalmay
23.06.04, 17:33
MALÉV - THE GREAT LEAP INTO CHINA
Malév tickets to China - Beijing, Canton, Shanghai and 30 other Chinese
cities - available from Monday.
Malév starts selling air tickets for its direct Budapest-Beijing flight on
Monday, 14 June 2004.
The Hungarian national carrier and China's fourth largest domestic airline,
Hainan Airlines Company Ltd. (HNA), concluded an agreement on launching the
non-stop flight between Hungary and China on 17 February 2004. Positive talks
between the two airlines held over the past few months have also paved the
way for existing commercial and operational contracts to be extended into
many other areas.
The joint Malév Hungarian Airlines and Hainan Airlines Budapest-Beijing
flight starts carrying passengers between the two capitals on 2 August 2004,
flying three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Flight MA
6070/6071 is operated by Hainan Airlines using its Boeing 767-300ER aircraft.
Malév sells 100 of the 270 seats on board each flight. Initially only Economy
seats are available, but there will be the opportunity to open a business
class section shortly.
Tickets for the return Budapest-Beijing trip - priced from HUF 129,000 - can
be purchased in Malév ticket offices, in travel agencies and online.
The service opens up a whole host of opportunities for the travelling public
in Hungary, Central Europe and indeed China, allowing anyone to "fly Malév"
not only to Beijing but, via the Chinese capital, to Shanghai, Canton and in
fact across the entire Hainan Airlines network. A Budapest-Canton airfare
(with transfer in Beijing) starts from HUF 168,000, and the Budapest-Shanghai
ticket (with transfer in Beijing) can be purchased from HUF 149,000. Flights
operate under a Malév code. Travellers arriving from Beijing will also find
that Budapest offers an excellent transfer point since every important and
popular centre in Europe can be accessed in just a few hours by flying Malév
from Ferihegy.
Today, the Chinese market is one of the most important and dynamic in the
world. For many years the pace of economic growth in China has been of the
order of 8-10%. Nearly 200 million of the country’s population of 1.3 billion
can be said to be well-off, with a high level of disposable income. The
number of Chinese travelling abroad for pleasure rose 47.17% to 14.8 million
in 2003.
The primary objectives of developing even closer cooperation between the two
airlines are, on the one hand, for Malév to strengthen its position in China
and the Far East, and on the other hand for HNA to boost its business share
in Hungary and other countries of Europe. In the interests of increasing
competitiveness, the airline’s top managers agreed on intensifying
cooperation in several areas including route networks and fleets, and within
this network development and scheduling plus the exchange of information and
expertise.
One of the goals defined in the commercial contracts is to strengthen the
regional hub role of the Hungarian carrier's Budapest base by linking the
Beijing and Budapest destinations and by establishing connection points
beyond these twin destinations. Budapest will be the first departure station
in Central Europe offering direct access to Beijing. Thus the travel time
between the two capitals will fall from an average 14-18 hours to just 10.
In the same way, the companies have expanded collaboration in several areas
of sales too. In this respect, particular stress has been placed on
coordinating duplicate activities, on mutual representation, call centre
information exchange and harmonizing the airlines' frequent flyer
programmes.
The newly-signed contracts extend their scope to coordinating cooperation
with each other's partners too, for example in the fields of pricing and
revenue management, cargo, technical matters and maintenance, flight safety
and operations training, human resources and staff exchanges.
Furthermore, Malév and HNA have declared that they will only conclude new,
competing commercial agreements (except for Interline, Prorate and Code Share
contracts) with other airlines when both airlines give their approval to such
in writing.
www.malev.hu/BP/ENG/I_AKTUALITASOK_ENG/2004-0614-1127-58VNFM.asp