Thursday, 16 August 2007：At the second annual Abacus Chinese Carrier Conference held last month, some 27 senior executives from nine separate Chinese carriers met in Sichuan to discuss industry trends and explore business opportunities.
Representatives from Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and Xiamen Airlines were updated on a number of industry developments, including online travel distribution, electronic ticketing and low cost carriers.
Abacus General Managers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China also offered their insights on key trends in their respective markets as well as potential opportunities that Chinese carriers could explore.
“With China’s tourism accounting for 5.5% of the world’s total travel and tourism industry, it is becoming a dominant influence in the region’s travel sector. As the leading travel facilitator in Asia Pacific, Abacus would like to work very closely with the mainland based Chinese carriers to support their distribution needs,” said Patrick Lai, Vice President, Airline Marketing and North Asia at Abacus.
The delegates were extremely pleased with the outcome of the conference. Liu Yuan Yuan from Air China said that she enjoyed the interaction between carriers and that the conference would help Air China’s business strategies for the region.
“Abacus has always taken its role as leading travel facilitator very seriously, and reinforced this by sharing invaluable information and analysis. This conference had allowed us to see the potential opportunities available to us in our major overseas markets, which will definitely help us in our airline growth and in maximising our potential in the region,” said Wei Lan Sun from China Southern Airlines.
