Prices for Shanghai-Beijing flights are increasing after five airlines cooperated on a new service.

No discount will be offered on flights from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport to Beijing Capital Airport this week, China Business News said. The ticket is 1,130 yuan (US$150).

Prices increased 10 to 30 percent for flights from Beijing to Shanghai, the report said.

A manager of the fast-service project said the airlines decided to offer discounts of no more than 20-percent for Shanghai-Beijing flights.

The five carriers, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Shanghai Airlines, jointly launched trial operation of the fast-service project today. It allows passengers to switch tickets on the Shanghai-Beijing route among those airlines, the report said.

After the project is officially launched, passengers on the Shanghai-Beijing route will have quicker check-ins, special security check channels, a waiting area, boarding gate and luggage claim area.

The service claims it will take passengers only three hours to get from downtown Shanghai to downtown Beijing.

Flights serving the route will depart every 30 minutes from today. The earliest flight from Beijing to Shanghai will take off at 7:30am and the latest will be 10pm.

More than 40 flights fly between Shanghai and Beijing every day, and the interval fluctuates from 15 minutes to one hour, said China's Administration of Civil Aviation.

It said the fast-service project between Shanghai and Beijing will eventually expand to Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

(Shanghai Daily August 7, 2007)