By Wang Yingying, Research Team on "Development Strategy for China's Small and Medium-Sized Cities' Accessibility and Regional Aviation", Research Department of Social Development, DRC

Research Report Special Issue No 44, 2015 (Total 1447)

Abstract:

China Express Airlines, also known as Huaxia Airlines, is currently the only private regional airline company in China. Huaxia Airlines proposed the "Program on Improving Accessibility of Small and Medium-Sized Cities" in 2007, and launched pilot project cooperation with the government of Bijie City, Guizhou Province in 2013. Over the past two years, with deepened advance of the dual hub express model of Bijie and successive opening up of relevant routes, the accessibility of Bijie Airport has been remarkably improved and the average time from Beijie to over 40 key cities nationwide has been significantly shortened. The Huaxia Airlines' experiment on improving airline accessibility of small and medium-sized cities aims at win-win result between the cooperation of market players and local governments. It hopes to create economic value, expand market space, and guarantee local people's equal right to travel. If placed against the backdrop of the big picture of deepened reform, the pilot program is advanced jointly by micro market players and grassroots governments with win-win cooperation. Such innovation is of typically exemplary significance.