Wang Changshun, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told a conference on Tuesday that the fast trains have forced some airlines to cancel short-distance flights along high-speed rail lines.
For example, the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway, where every few minutes trains zip between the two cities via Changsha, capital of Central China’s Hunan province, has carried 20.6 million passengers in the year since its opening in December 2009.
During that period the number of flights between Changsha and Guangzhou has been cut from an average of 11.5 flights a day to three flights a day, he said.
Hainan and Shenzhen airlines decided to withdraw from the market, leaving only China Southern Airlines carrying the three daily flights, Wang said.
The ticket price for those flights also dropped by 15 percent to attract travelers, but still the number of passengers flying between Changsha and Guangzhou dropped by 48 percent to 390,000 during 2010, he said.
“The opening of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line next year will be another blow to the air transport industry,” Wang said, without forecasting how serious the impact will be.
Airlines have been urged to cut costs, reduce delays and seek cooperation opportunities with high-speed railways.
Bookmarks