2010 June | AsiaLynx

Air China to buy 20 Boeing planes for $1.39 Billion

China 28.06.2010 Comments Off

(Xinhua) – HONG KONG – Air China, China’s leading carrier listed in Hong Kong, said late Friday that it would pay $1.398 billion to buy 20 Boeing 737-800 planes.

In a statement filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange, the carrier said the cost would be “payable by cash in installments” and it would “take delivery of the Boeing Aircraft in stages from 2013 to 2015.”

“The aircraft price is subject to price escalation by applying a formula. Boeing Company has granted to the Company (Air China) significant price concessions with regard to the Boeing Aircraft,” said the statement.

The transaction will be funded through cash generated from Air China’s business operations, commercial bank loans and other financing instruments of Air China, said the statement.

The Beijing-based airlines said the transaction would expand its fleet capacity with an increase of around 5 percent based on available tonne kilometers of Air China by the end of 2009.

In particular, the deal would reinforce Air China’s market share in the Chinese domestic market, and would also increase frequency of flights for a number of domestic and neighboring international routes, it added. – read more at ChinaDaily.com…

Tags: Air China, Airlines, Aviation, Boeing, China, United States
KFC agrees to raise workers’ pay in China

China 17.06.2010 Comments Off

(Xinhua) – SHENYANG: Representatives of US fast-food chain KFC in northeast China’s Shenyang city Thursday signed the company’s first collective labor contract on the Chinese mainland, agreeing to raise workers’ wages and meeting the demands of a local trade union.

According to the agreement, the company’s roughly 2,000 employees will enjoy a minimum monthly wage of 900 yuan ($131.7) – up from the company’s previous offer of 700 yuan per month – and an annual five percent pay raise.

An executive with Yum! Brands Inc in Shenyang said on the condition of anonymity the agreement is the company’s first collective labor contract on the Chinese mainland.

He admitted the company had been under pressure after media reports of the negotiations with the local trade union.

Yum! Brands Inc in Shenyang manages 57 KFC outlets and 11 Pizza Hut restaurants. The company is known by locals as KFC Shenyang.

The company said in a statement earlier this month most of its employees in Shenyang already have monthly wages of over 900 yuan, and so the signing of the contract “would not necessarily mean workers’ pay would immediately rise.” – read more at ChinaDaily.com…

Tags: China, KFC, Shenyang, trade union, Yum Brands
Marriott to double hotels in China

China 08.06.2010 Comments Off

The JW Marriott hotel, Beijing

By Jing Jin (China Daily) – SHANGHAI – Marriott International Inc, the largest US hotel chain, plans to double its hotels in China in the next five years, taking advantage of an expected jump in domestic tourism as the world’s third-largest economy expands.

China is expected to be the world’s single largest source of international tourism and will become the biggest travel destination over the next 10 years, JW Marriott Jr, chairman and chief executive officer of Marriott, said in a statement released at a media briefing in Shanghai.

“It’s growing very quickly,” Arne Sorenson, Marriott president and chief operating officer, said at the briefing at the World Expo in Shanghai. “By the end of this year, revenue in same store hotels is expected to grow over 20 percent in China.”

Marriott, based in Bethesda, Maryland, expects to have up to 90 hotels in China by 2015, up from 46, the company said.

China is Marriott’s largest market outside North America, with sales from the nation of 1.4 billion people accounting for less than 10 percent of revenue.

China’s economy grew 11.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the fastest pace in almost three years.

More than 4 million visitors, an average of 200,000 a day, have entered Shanghai’s $44 billion World Expo park since its May 1 opening.

Hotel and tourism stocks are likely to extend gains this year as a jump in visitors during the World Expo may increase earnings by 20 percent, Guotai Junan Securities Co said last month.

Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc, China’s second-biggest budget hotel operator, said in March that the World Expo will boost room rates by as much as 20 percent, and it’s adding 38 percent more hotels nationwide. …read more at ChinaDaily.com…

Tags: China, Home Inns & Hotels, Marriott, Shanghai, World Expo