The long-distance intercontinental routes of the United Kingdom and Belgium are "new", and Juneyao Airlines focuses on differentiated competition

Interface News Reporter | Xue Bingbing

Jiemian News learned from Juneyao Airlines that after the opening of Shanghai's first regular passenger route to Athens, Greece in early April, Juneyao Airlines' intercontinental route was "new" in early July, entering the traditional aviation market in Western Europe for the first time.

Juneyao Airlines said that on July 1 and July 3, it will open two direct intercontinental routes from Shanghai Pudong to Manchester, England and Brussels, Belgium, respectively, with three flights per week. Among them, the Shanghai-Manchester route is the first direct scheduled passenger route from Shanghai to Manchester, England.

So far, Juneyao Airlines has 6 long-distance intercontinental routes, with direct flights to Northern Europe, Western Europe and Southern Europe, including Finland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy and Greece.

The ability to operate intercontinental routes has been put to the test

Like Spring Airlines, Juneyao Airlines is a medium-sized private airline with its main base in Shanghai. The difference is that Spring Airlines' fleet is all Airbus A320 family narrowbodies. Due to the limited range of narrow-body aircraft, its international routes focus on the Asia-Pacific region, and deeply cultivate the short-range markets in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia.

Juneyao Airlines is positioned as a full-service airline, with Airbus A320 family narrowbody aircraft as the main operating aircraft in its fleet, and also ordered the first batch of 10 B787 family widebody aircraft from Boeing in 2017 as a supplement to the intercontinental operating reserve. Therefore, its international route layout includes both Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and other neighboring countries, as well as long-distance intercontinental lines such as Finland and the United Kingdom.

Cheng Xi, general manager of the commercial department of Juneyao Airlines, told Jiemian News: "We want to operate the international market, and we will look at the world, not just around the surrounding countries, only in this way will the operation be more stable." Through the launch of intercontinental routes, the company's international service level can be enhanced. In March this year, Wang Junjin, chairman of Juneyao Airlines, also mentioned at the company's work conference that it is necessary to be more active in integrating into the international market competition and continuously improving the operation quality of intercontinental routes.

Thanks to the opening of a number of new short-haul and long-distance international destinations after the epidemic, Juneyao Airlines' market share of international routes has significantly exceeded that of the same period in 2019. However, compared with short-haul international routes, long-distance intercontinental routes have higher operational requirements, which is a test for Juneyao Airlines, a "new entrant".

Juneyao Airlines told Jiemian News that taking the Shanghai-Manchester route as an example, the company not only needs to pay attention to the whole process of flight operation, introduce and implement and continue to optimize new operating specifications including ETOPS double-engine extended flight, PBN performance navigation, etc., but also pay attention to the overall service experience of passengers in the process of taking intercontinental routes, such as meals, seats, and cabin environment.

According to the characteristics of intercontinental flights, it is also necessary to improve the work ability of front-line personnel in an all-round way from the aspects of ground ticketing, air service, and aircraft airworthiness maintenance.

Does the "differentiated" competitive strategy work?

As the allocation of air traffic rights is mainly tilted towards airlines with strong network capacity and high operational efficiency, as a medium-sized airline, Juneyao Airlines is still difficult to set foot in the traditional first-tier routes in Europe and the United States.

Tan Feng, vice president of Juneyao Airlines, also mentioned in an interview with Jiemian News that according to the current scale of Juneyao Airlines, when laying out the intercontinental route market, we must first consider whether there are any blank spots and take the road of differentiated development.

This can also be seen in the layout of its intercontinental network. Two of Juneyao Airlines' three new intercontinental routes this year bear the label of "Shanghai's first", and most of them are located in second- and third-tier cities in Europe.

From the actual effect, the data provided by Juneyao Airlines to Jiemian News shows that the daily utilization rate of its wide-body aircraft is about 12 hours, the load factor of the wide-body fleet is about 80%, and the overall passenger load factor of intercontinental routes is about 70%.

"Since the opening of the Shanghai-Athens route in April, we are satisfied with the overall market performance, but there is still a lot of room for growth." Cheng Xi, general manager of the commercial department of Juneyao Airlines, said that April to June is the shoulder season for the civil aviation industry, and the passenger load factor of this route is about 65%. With the arrival of the summer vacation travel season, the passenger load factor is expected to further increase.

Juneyao Airlines said that through the implementation of the differentiation strategy, Juneyao Airlines can learn passenger flow training and operation organization in a more relaxed environment.

Whether the "differentiated" competitive strategy will continue or be adjusted in a timely manner, Juneyao Airlines responded to Jiemian News that in the future, the company will scientifically select the continuous promotion of relevant business strategies according to market demand and operating environment.

Participated in the construction of Shanghai International Aviation Hub

Shanghai is an important international aviation hub in mainland China, ranking first in the country in terms of the number of inbound and outbound passengers for 21 consecutive years, but there is still a certain gap compared with the world's leading aviation hubs.

On February 28 this year, Han Jun, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, mentioned at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that in view of the low transit efficiency, low international accessibility and urgent need to improve the convenience of entry and exit in the continental aviation hub, multiple measures will be taken at the same time and comprehensive measures will be taken to effectively enhance the international competitiveness of the continental aviation hub.

On April 2, the Shanghai Municipal Government and the Civil Aviation Administration of China signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Shanghai. The two sides also expressed the hope that the signing of the new round of strategic cooperation agreement will be an opportunity to support Shanghai to improve its high-quality route network, strengthen international aviation transit, and help Shanghai build a comprehensive gateway complex international aviation hub.

Transit capacity is one of the core indicators to measure the construction level of hub airports. Jiemian News learned that about 30%-50% of the current passenger source structure of Juneyao Airlines' intercontinental routes are transit passengers. In addition to the source of domestic transit passengers around the Yangtze River Delta, major provincial capitals in China also contribute to the source of tourists; the other is the transit passengers of Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and other regional routes; The main sources of international transit tourists are Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Singapore in Japan.

In order to further participate in the construction of the Shanghai hub, build a network hub company. Juneyao Airlines continues to promote diversified transit services of "international + international", "international + domestic" and "domestic + domestic". It mainly includes baggage check-in, one-ticket to the end, free VIP lounges and overnight transit hotels, etc., to enhance the flight experience of passengers transiting at Pudong Airport.

At the same time, in order to cooperate with the "convenient payment" initiative for inbound passengers and the visa-free measures for passengers from some countries, Juneyao Airlines will optimize the layout of the existing route network, tilt towards some visa-free countries and friendly countries, and open/encrypt corresponding routes to further attract foreign passengers to China for business and sightseeing.