Airlines are now facing fiercer competition on the hot air route between Shanghai and Hong Kong as more carriers will get the right to offer flights.

Tuesday Dragonair displayed their new menu of "in flight" food at the "Three on the Bund" – a building complex composing trendy restaurants, fashion boutiques and vogue clubs in Shanghai's century-old prosperous Bund.

Passengers in First or Business classes will be served with new dainty dishes from May 1 which will be supplied by two well-known restaurants in Shanghai.

Chen Qinghui, manager of East China Division of Dragonair, said the new dishes had been  designed to lure high-end travelers and make their flights a little bit like a relaxing time in a five-star hotel.

However, some industry insiders observed that food might feed the stomachs of air travelers but it remained uncertain if such a service would win their hearts. Cathay Pacific Airways is also coming back to Shanghai within the year which will make the competition even fiercer.

Yang Yuanyuan, director of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), said that Cathay Pacific would be given this year access to Shanghai-HK passenger flights based on the central government's policy of opening-up, according to a local newspaper report last month.

The air route between Shanghai and Hong Kong has long been hot and is called the "golden corridor" linking mainland and Hong Kong. The route is now operated by two airlines – Dragonair and China Eastern.

The Shanghai-based Eastern Airlines runs some 14-15 daily flights to and from Hong Kong and Dragonair 15 to 16. If Cathay Pacific does join the competition, the market share balance of the existing operators will be knocked sideways. 

Chen Qinghui said his company had been operating the route for 18 years and the high-quality service provided had gained a good reputation with passengers. Though rivals would bring fiercer competition, the fast-growing economy in the Yangtze River Delta would lead to more customers in the future, said Chen. He's clearly optimistic about the future challenges.

Statistics show that every year around 1 million air passengers traveled to Shanghai via Hong Kong and over six million international travelers via Singapore, Bangkok, Tokyo and other Asian airports.

Industry analysts suggest it would bring 300,000 more passengers annually if Cathay Pacific recovered the air route between Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The arrival of a new player was good news for the Hong Kong aviation industry but a challenge for mainland airlines, an industry observer noted. 

In 2003 Cathay Pacific started to make efforts to recover Shanghai-HK air links after it succeeded in resuming the Beijing-HK flights. 

A senior official from Cathay said the airline was ready to start the route and hoped it would happen as soon as possible.

Demanded by reciprocal traffic rights one mainland airway will also be authorized to operate the route, which would make it possible for Shanghai Airlines to have direct link to Hong Kong, according to industry insider's view. 

(China.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong, April 27, 2006)