Akasa Air gets nod for international flights; eyes Middle Eastern destinations

BEIJING — A new mega-sized airport being built in China could shift the balance of power in the country’s airline industry. Beijing’s new 6-pier, radial-shaped airport was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. It will cover an area of 313,000sqm. Flag carrier Air China dominates the current Beijing airport. Its regional rivals China Eastern Airlines control Shanghai, while China Southern Airlines hold Guangzhou. The new airport will allow China Eastern and China Southern a 40 percent share of passengers each, which may encourage the two provincial airlines to open lucrative new North American routes, Bloomberg reported. “There are demands to add hundreds of flights in Beijing every day that get refused because we’re running out of resources,” Liu Xuesong, general manager of Capital Airports Holding, the operator of Beijing’s existing airport, told Bloomberg. The new airport is due to open in 2019 and will have a capacity of 100 million passengers a year. Liu told Bloomberg that the current Capital International Airport and the new airport together will handle 170 million passengers annually with their seven runways by 2025. Industry experts worry the expansion will result in heavy air traffic as only about 20 percent of China’s airspace is open to civilian flights. China is known for flight delays. Its big three airlines were ranked the least punctual of the world’s major carriers last year.

Akasa, the youngest Indian airline, has been granted permission to start international flights. However, the airline is currently facing challenges due to an...