In today’s Chinese aviation market, many airline companies provide high-discounted air tickets to attract their customers, thus their profits are becoming less and less. So how can Chinese airline companies ease their profit pressure? According to the information from some airlines including Air China, China Southern Airlines, and Sichuang Airlines, with the gradual increase of business passengers, airline companies have started to scramble for these high-end customers. After introducing first class cabin and business cabin, airline companies also introduced super economy cabin or high-end economy cabin that aims at high-end customers.
On March 19, 2010, Air China firstly announced that it would introduce super economy cabin in its A330-300 airplanes. Air China said that super economy cabin will bring its passengers more space for legs and more plentiful interactive onboard audio and video entertainment. Air China planned to introduce 23 A330-300 airplanes that are equipped with super economy cabin in upcoming a few years. This plane model sets up two cabins-first class cabin and economy cabin, which have 311 seats in total. 20 super economy seats are located at the first three rows in economy class cabin. The space between two super economy seats is approximately 92 centimeters, which is close to the first class seat space in traditional narrow airplane.
Only after a day, China Southern Airlines announced that it would invest nearly 100 million into the transformation of 300 airplanes. In July of this year, China Southern Airlines will put totally 7,000 high-end economy seats in market. The airlines said the first transformed airplanes will put into operation on the air routes between Guangzhou (Shenzhen) and Beijing (Shanghai). The airlines also said it can take back the transformation cost in less than a year.
Hu Sanjun, a principal of China Southern Airlines, said, “Since the introduction of high-end economy cabin, its passenger rate has reached 50%. As long as a consumer buys economy ticket at full price, he/she can enjoy the treatment of high-end economy cabin. After the consumer board the plane, he/she will receive a newspaper, a bottle of purified water, refreshment and a blanket free of charge.
The services of these super economy cabin introduced by above airline companies is equal to making passengers enjoy the services in business cabins.
source to this post: Super Economy Cabin Becomes a New Profit Source of Chinese Airline Companies
From the Winter and summer travel website