Air traffic and the aviation industry have grown rapidly on the Chinese mainland in the two and a half decades since China's open door policy. Accession to the WTO will further stimulate trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), intensifying the demand for air cargo services. It will also open up the Chinese economy to foreign participation in the transportation and logistics sectors, making these sectors more competitive and efficient. This book provides a systematic and comprehensive study of China's air cargo industry as well as its policy evolution. It covers the sources and destinations of air cargo in mainland China and Hong Kong: whence it comes and where it goes to. The major hubs of the transportation network - Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou - are discussed one by one. The virtual aspects of the network at these hubs in terms of IT applications, preparedness, and needs are examined and compared. Though the subject matter of this book is air cargo, there is considerable coverage of the aviation industry and policy on the mainland and Hong Kong. Changes have been happening so fast there are few books and publications that cover them systematically and comprehensively. Readership includes business executives in airfreight companies, airports and airlines, logistics specialists, aviation university lecturers and students.

In the foreseeable future the alliance will become an increasingly important feature of the airline industry around the world. Despite its growing importance to airline management, aviation policy makers, and research literature, there has not been much rigorous analysis of airline alliances in economics or management literature. It is clear that the authors of this book are among the first researchers to do serious analytical studies and quantitative analysis on airline alliances. Given the growing importance of alliances, there is a clear need for a book that gives a comprehensive and analytical treatment of key aspects of airline alliances. In this book, they accomplish just that. This book presents the past history and current status of airline alliances, reasons why alliances are being formed, analyzes the questions 'why are alliances likely to remain a key fixture of the airline industry in the foreseeable future?' and 'what implications do alliances have on carrier management and public policy makers', and quantifies the key economics effects of airline alliances.