Paving a 'Silk Road in the air'

Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines has operated more than 270 flights between Shanghai and Prague since the flight route connecting the two cities opened, with the average occupancy rate being above 80 percent, an indication of the huge business potential in the Belt and Road Initiative.

In 2014, China Eastern operated 118 flights to 19 nations and 38 cities related to the initiative. These figures grew to 128 flights to 20 countries and 41 cities in 2015, before increasing further to 131 flights to 21 countries and 45 cities in 2016.

China Eastern Airlines said that its total capacity in the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative increased more than 45 percent in the past three years.

The State-owned carrier said it will be supporting the Belt and Road Initiative by developing "a Silk Road in the air" , a flight network with Shanghai as its core hub while Kunming of Yunnan province and Xi'an of Shaanxi province act as the secondary hubs and Beijing being a pivot.

According to China Eastern's plan, Xi'an will reprise its role as the starting point of the ancient Silk Road, albeit in the air. The airline has already launched long-haul international flights from Xi'an to Sydney and Moscow, with new flights to St Petersburg, Irkutsk, Prague, Vancouver and Saipan expected to debut this year.

"The development of the Silk Road in the air is an all-around opening-up. It requires the development and internationalization of various aviation sectors such as manufacturing, transportation, maintenance and finance," said Liu Shaoyong, chairman of China Eastern.

In order to realize this goal, China Eastern said it retired more than 100 aircrafts from its current fleet - the average age of its planes is only less than 5.5 years - and replacing them with newer models.

The airline has also strived to achieve a healthier capital flow through market and capital restructuring. As a result, its listed arm's debt-to-asset ratio decreased from 115 percent in 2008 to less than 75 percent at the moment.

China Eastern is one of China's top three airlines. It flies to 1,062 destinations in 177 nations and regions, serving more than 100 million passengers every year.

wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn