07-10-2019, 02:19 PM
Plans for North American operations revealed in exclusive interview.
New York City - In an exclusive interview with the New York Times, Chairman of Phoenix Airlines Group Mr Zhou Litian has highlighted that Phoenix Airlines has huge plans for a large-scale "invasion" of North America, including a launch of flights from 6 "selected" cities to no less than 11 cities in United States.
Mr Zhou, in the interview, highlighted how the North American market has always been a market that they have been targeting at, and that they have already made a master plan to launch numerous flights into United States. "Feeder traffic from the North American nations, especially United States, have always been something that the airline has always been targeting for. Utilising China as a connection hub into Asia and Oceania is something that Phoenix Airlines wants to achieve, and this is why the plans for North America has long been laid out," he replied, when asked about the importance of USA as a market. "Unlike our plans for other regions, we have a detailed list of routes that we plan to launch and hubs that would allow our inbound traffic from North America to transit to plans to Asia and Oceania. Our first flights to Phoenix and Los Angeles, coming soon in August, are just the tip of the iceberg." He added that the cities the airline intends to serve include Boston, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Denver, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Dallas, and Houston, as well as Toronto, Vancouver and Mexico City in the neighbouring North American countries. "In fact, we will soon be opening reservations for flights from Beijing to Vancouver and Los Angeles, and we plan to launch them by Winter 2019," he added. "And we are in discussions for a possible double-airport situation in New York."
Mr Zhou also made no secret about his plans to purchase different widebodies from Boeing and Airbus. "Currently, we have firm agreements for Boeing 777-9 as well as the A330-900neo. We have also made other agreements with both companies which will be announced at a later date. Together with our second-hand 747s, this would allow us to increase our capacity." He also talked about the airline's plans to fly to smaller regional airports around the world. "First Tel Aviv, then Nur-sultan, now Baku. Someone has been asking me if Tehran would be next on the list," he joked. "Honestly, I believe that small airports and unconventional destinations need to be served, and therefore we would surprise you every now and then with new routes. Alexandria and Ankara would definitely be locations you can look forward to."
To round up the interview, there was also a brief talk about the opening of Beijing Daxing International Airport. "We don't think we would be moving to the new airport, we should be staying at Beijing Capital unless the situation calls for it. However, the opening of the airport would definitely benefit China's aviation industry as a whole, and we look forward to the opening on the 30th of September."