China Fund News reporter Wenyan
On September 22, China Eastern Airlines issued the Notice on the Special Handling of Passenger Tickets of OTT Airlines, stating that from September 22, China Eastern Airlines and OTT will operate together.
This means that 123 Airlines has officially bid farewell to the civil aviation market. China Eastern Airlines previously announced that 123 Airlines, as the absorbed merger party, will be deregistered in accordance with the law.
It is reported that China Eastern Airlines wants to take this opportunity to increase the importance of domestic civil aircraft operation. As of the close of trading on September 20, China Eastern Airlines' total market capitalization was 78.91 billion yuan.
Issuing a notice of special handling of tickets
According to the latest notice of China Eastern Airlines, due to the change of the actual carrier, in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of passengers who have purchased OTT flights, China Eastern Airlines has specially formulated relevant ticket refund and change regulations.
The applicable date of issuance of OTT Passenger Ticket refunds and changes is before September 21 (inclusive), and the applicable flight conditions are that the Ticket contains at least one unused segment and is actually carried by the original OTT and the date of carriage is on or after September 22. There is no restriction on the actual carrier and date of other unused segments in the same ticket.
In accordance with the above scope of application, if you apply for a ticket change or refund after September 22 (inclusive) (subject to the cancellation of the ticket reservation time), you can go through the refund and change procedures in accordance with the relevant rules within the validity period of the ticket.
Among them, the refund is within the validity period of the ticket, and the involuntary refund of the unused segment can be handled at the original ticket purchase channel, and the refund service fee will be waived. If a ticket has been changed in accordance with the above principles, if the application for refund is made, it must be handled in accordance with the conditions of use of the ticket.
At the same time, after the merger of China Eastern Airlines and 123 Airlines, the collection standard of China Eastern Airlines' regional aircraft civil aviation development fund includes two requirements:
First, flights operated by regional aircraft types are exempt from the Civil Aviation Development Fund;
The second is to use the flight at the time of the original ticket issuance as the standard for whether to collect the Civil Aviation Development Fund for the regional aircraft. If there is a change in the type of aircraft when the ticket is subsequently reissued or the flight is actually executed, the Civil Aviation Development Fund will not refund or make up for it.
The performance of 123 Airlines is poor
According to public information, 123 Airlines was established in February 2020 and passed the CCAR-121 operation qualification certification in December 2020, opening the commercial market-oriented operation of domestic civil aircraft.
At that time, ECTT announced that it would operate with domestic civil aircraft such as the ARJ21 as the main body. As of June 30, 2024, OTT operated a total of 24 ARJ21 aircraft.
According to public information, 123 Airlines uses Pudong Airport as its main operating base, and through the opening of third- and fourth-tier cities with abundant traffic around the base, it has built a "feeder network" and integrated the route network of China Eastern Airlines to provide high-coverage transportation services.
However, as a regional airliner operator, 123 Airlines has been in a state of continuous loss in recent years.
In 2023 and the first half of 2024, the net profit of 123 Airlines will be -584 million yuan and -273 million yuan respectively, and the net assets as of June 30, 2024 will be -89 million yuan.
Pictured: Part of the financial data of 123 Airlines Source: China Eastern Airlines announcement
China Eastern Airlines previously announced that the company's decision to absorb and merge 123 Airlines is to further optimize the company's management structure, shorten the management chain, improve management efficiency and reduce management costs.
China Eastern Airlines said that the company's absorption and merger of 123 Airlines reflects its emphasis on the operation of domestic civil aircraft, and the integration of the ARJ21 fleet into the unified operation of its large fleet and the overall production organization is conducive to the long-term development of the fleet.
Editor: Captain
Review: Muyu