MESA AIR
GROUP signed a joint venture agreement with Shenzhen
Airlines to create a Chinese regional airline, provisionally called
Beijing Airlines. China Daily, the official newspaper of China's
ruling Communist Party, reported a $64 million investment in the
new airline: 51% from Shenzhen, 25% from Mesa and 24% from
Wilmington Trust in Delaware. Mesa won't confirm how much it
invested. But it did talk about the companies' plans for the
regional carrier and what it will mean to Mesa's business. The
plans call for the new regional carrier to begin domestic service
within 12 months with 50-seat regional jets. Routes will primarily
serve cities in the western and southern regions of China that
don't get much, if any, air service today, said Mesa spokesman Paul
Skellon.
SHENZHEN AND
MESA expect the new carrier to have 20 of the 50-seat
regional jets in service prior to the 2008 Olympic Games in
Beijing. They expect to operate more than 100 50-, 70- and 90-seat
aircraft within five years. Shenzhen Airlines, founded in 1992,
currently operates a fleet of 45 A320 and 737 airplanes, flying 100
routes within mainland China and Southeast Asia. It carried nearly
5.3 million passengers in 2006. The airline's headquarters are in
Shenzhen, in southern China's Guangdong Province. Mesa said it
believed China was wide open for regional service because the
country currently has just 70 regional jets in operation, flying
for seven carriers. The plan calls for the new carrier to feed
traffic to Shenzhen's hubs, like the hub-and-spoke systems that
developed in the U.S.
IN OTHER
AIRLINE NEWS, the Qantas board of directors unanimously
endorsed a buyout offer of $8.7 billion from a private equity group
that includes Texas Pacific. The board recommended that Qantas
shareholders approve the offer from Airline Partners Australia,
which would acquire 100% of Australia's dominant airline. Airline
Partners Australia includes Onex Partners, Allco Equity Partners,
Allco Finance Group, Macquarie Bank, TPG and others. In the Qantas
deal, TPG, based in Fort Worth, Texas, would have a 25% economic
stake and control of 15% of the voting rights. Qantas, which is
profitable, limits any foreign shareholder's investment to 25%. The
buyout of the airline is subject to regulatory and shareholder
approvals.
HILTON
HOTELS' QASR AL SHARQ, or Palace of the Orient, will join
the Waldorf-Astoria Collection, Hilton's new luxury hotel brand.
The hotel will become the first international property in the
collection. Qasr Al Sharq, a 46-suite hotel in Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia, opened on June 1 as Hilton's fourth hotel in the kingdom.
The Waldorf-Astoria Collection currently has four properties in the
U.S.: the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, the Grand Wailea Resort
Hotel & Spa in Hawaii, the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa in
Phoenix and La Quinta Resort & Club in La Quinta, Calif., near
Palm Springs.
HOTEL
HAPPENINGS IN DUBAI:
" W Hotels Worldwide
plans to open its second hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its
third property in the Middle East. W Dubai-The Palm is scheduled to
open in late 2009. W already has the W Dubai-Festival City and the
W Doha in Qatar. Starwood Hotels, W's parent company, entered into
an agreement with Al Sharq Investment to manage the hotel. W
Dubai-The Palm will have approximately 400 rooms, multiple
restaurants and a bar and spa.
" InterContinental
Hotels Group is due to open the InterContinental Dubai Festival
City in the summer. The hotel will have 501 rooms; all rooms will
have a choice of views, including the Dubai Creek, the Festival
Marina or the shopping center. The InterContinental Dubai Festival
City will feature a Japanese restaurant with an open kitchen and a
Lebanese eatery.
Asia-Pacific
Editor: Jorge Sidron
Phone: (973) 898-0011
[email protected]
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