Air China and Shenzhen Airlines
Feng Gang, former president of Shandong Airlines, will head up the newly-restructured Shenzhen Airlines. Air China effectively took over SZA after increasing its share in the airline from 25% to 51% last month. A few months ago, CA had already placed one of their VPs, Fan Cheng, as acting head and party secretary at Shenzhen.
Shenzhen has a majority stake in Jade Cargo in a joint venture with Lufthansa. It also owns Henan Airlines, formerly Kunpeng Airlines. Air China is also the majority shareholder of Shandong Airlines, and has a stake in Cathay Pacific as well.
What’s a party head, you ask? In China, each state-owned company has a member of the Communist Party assigned to that company as the representative of the CPC. His or her exact role and responsibilities are very very vague, but in terms of hierarchy this member ranks dotted line to the chairman.
What Air China wants, Air China gets
Last year, it appeared that Air China was going to buy out East Star Airlines, but the deal fell through. Within months, East Star owner Lan Shili was arrested by police, his company dissolved, and Air China bought its assets. CA now has an important piece of the lucrative Wuhan/Central China market.
Several years ago, CA made a bid for Shenzhen Airlines and lost out to Li Zeyuan. Late last year, Li came under investigation by the authorities, and subsequently Air China took over majority ownership. CA now has an important piece of the lucrative Shenzhen/Southern China market.
Lesson? If Air China wants to buy you, just say how much.
Li and Lan may have furthered their infamy by making China Daily’s Top 10 Toppled Executives 2009, a list which includes Tian Wemhua of the Sanlu milk scandal. That two high-profile airline executives recently met their demise may be shocking to some, but in the past year or so several others cases have set tremors. In February of 2009, Li Peiying, former chairman of Capital Airport Holdings, which controls Beijing Capital International Airport and a host of other concerns, was sentenced to death. And earlier this year, Yu Renlu, former VP of CAAC, was dismissed from his post and await prosecution for corruption.
(Sources: China Daily, Xinhua)
[...] by scores of officials in Chinese aviation, as the government clamps down hard on corruption. We reported earlier the demise of several airport and aviation authority officials, and it appears that there is no [...]