Airlines, companies unveil new routes, services

COMAC

Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd (COMAC), the manufacturer of the C919 commercial jet, said Thursday that the nose of the C919 has gone off the production line in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

According to the company, the design data of the nose was released at the end of 2012, and the component's production was started in April 2013.

The company plans to assemble the test plane of the C919 in the second half of this year.

Boeing

Boeing forecast Wednesday that between 2014 and 2033, the world's aviation industry will require 533,000 new commercial airline pilots and 584,000 new commercial airline maintenance technicians.

In the Asia-Pacific region alone, the demand for new pilots and technicians will reach 216,000 pilots and 224,000 technicians.

The outlook also projects continued increases in pilot demand, which is up approximately 7 percent compared to 2013.

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines said Thursday that it will deploy the A380 for the route between Beijing and Singapore from Friday.

Beijing will be the second city in China to receive the Singapore Airlines A380 after Shanghai.

The company said the 471-seat A380 will be deployed on flight SQ802, departing Singapore at 08:30 and arriving in Beijing at 14:40.

Meanwhile, the return flight SQ807 will depart Beijing at 16:35, arriving in Singapore at 22:55.

HK Express

HK Express, a low-cost airline based in Hong Kong, announced Thursday that it has started a new route between Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province, and Hong Kong.

It is the third city in China for HK Express after Kunming, Yunnan Province and Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.

From now to Wednesday, passengers can book a single ticket between Zhengzhou and Hong Kong for 99 yuan ($16) to fly between this September and March 2015.

Airbus

Airbus Group showed stellar performance in the first half of the year, raising net profits by half thanks to strong sales to airliners, it reported Wednesday.

The Franco-German group said that net profit jumped by 50 percent from the equivalent figure last year to 1.4 billion euros ($1.88 billion) in the first half of this year.

The underlying profit margin rose to 6.5 percent of sales from 6.3 percent, and sales rose by 6.0 percent to 27.2 billion euros.