(Yicai Global) Dec. 3 -- Newly-rebranded Air Travel recently secured a certificate of operation after the name change of its main operating base and air carrier identity following the change of its corporate registry information and acquisition of a new business license from the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The former Hunan Hongtu Airlines has now jumped through all the hoops to switch its name to Air Travel after changing its original Yunnan Hongtu Airlines name to Hunan Hongtu Airlines on Dec. 7 last year. 

Changsha, the capital of China’s Hunan province, raised its holding in the private Yunnan Hongtu Airlines in September last year, after which the carrier relocated its head office to the Changsha Airport Economic Demonstration Zone in July this year, finally giving the central China province its first local air carrier. 

Air Travel has started modifying the outer surfaces of the aircraft in its fleet and is phasing in the use of “Air Travel" and a new logo to replace the old ones in ticket sales, flight information queries and other areas. 

The company, whose registered capital has risen to CNY1.7 billion (USD260 million) from CNY980 million (USD149 million), is still majority owned by Tongcheng Air Travel Services Group, an affiliate of Suzhou-based online travel agency Tongcheng-Elong Holdings, at 38.75 percent, followed by Hunan Emerging Industries Equity Investment Guide Fund Partnership at 26 percent. The fund is a sovereign one under the Hunan government. 

Air Travel flies 12 Airbus A320 airplanes, each three years’ old on average, and runs flights to 31 cities across China including Kunming, Changsha, Nanjing, Chengdu, Wuxi and Qingdao. 

Before the provincial government’s capital increase, Air Travel’s forerunner was mostly based at Kunming Changshui International Airport in China’s southwestern Yunnan province for its operations and largely focused on the Kunming and Nanjing route to build its network. 

Its successor started to concentrate air capacity at other major airports in Kunming, Changsha, Nanjing and other cities, and opened several routes starting from Hunan, including from Changsha to Kunming, Changsha to Yantai in eastern Shandong province and Changsha to Hailar in northern Inner Mongolia after changing its main operating base to Changsha Huanghua International Airport. 

In addition to its earlier alter egos’ air passenger and cargo transport business, Air Travel also hopes to lever the advantages of controlling shareholder Tongcheng in the field of “internet + tourism," integrate the travel industry chain resources of “aviation + tourism" in Hunan, and apply artificial intelligence and Big Data analysis in civil aviation to create “internet + quality" aviation, an Air Travel executive told Yicai Global. 

Editors: Liao Shumin, Ben Armour, Xiao Yi