Shanghai Airlines Co., Ltd. is an airline headquartered in the Jing'an District, Shanghai, People's Republic of China. It operates domestic and international services. Its main bases are Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. It also retains a few flights at Nanjing and Hangzhou, and is one of the most concentrated "hub and spoke" airlines in China. On June 11, it was announced that Shanghai Airlines will merge with China Eastern. It is uncertain whether or not Shanghai Airlines will leave Star Alliance after the merger and China Eastern's decision to join rivalling alliance SkyTeam.
The airline was established and started operations in 1985. It was founded by the Shanghai municipal government as the first independently-run local airline in China. It was initially restricted to domestic flights, but in September 1997, it won government approval to operate international services. In October 2002, it began to issue shares on the Shanghai stock market. It launched domestic freighter services in May 2004. It is the fifth-largest airline of China in terms of fleet size. In 2006, a cargo airline, Shanghai Airlines Cargo, was established with Taiwan-based EVA Air.[citation needed] In its 22-year history, with the contribution of its well-recognized Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) program, Shanghai Airlines has had zero accidents, fatalities or severe damage to its aircraft, making it one of the safest airlines in Asia; and possibly the world.
 Shanghai Airlines
Shanghai Airlines was officially welcomed as the 19th member of Star Alliance on December 12, 2007. With that, it has dedicated Terminal 2 of Pudong International Airport to its Star Alliance partners. However, with its merger with China Eastern Airlines, the future of its membership in Star has become uncertain. For instance, in a move to consolidate operations with China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines already moved its Beijing operations on March 28, 2010, from terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport, which Star Alliance members are using, to terminal 2 to co-locate with China Eastern.
 Shanghai Airlines
Shanghai Airlines Chief Executive Officer, Fan Hongxi, says that Shanghai Airlines expects to have a fleet of 100 aircraft by 2010 capable of handling 17.7 million passengers and 1.5 million tons of cargo and mail annually. It is also focussing on growing its market share in Australia, Europe, the United States and Canada in the next five years., |
