History and Development
Shanghai Airlines was established in 1985. It is China's first commercial airline of multidimensional investment funded by the Shanghai municipal government and Shanghai local enterprises. The airline was initially restricted to domestic flights, but has operated international services since 1997.
In late 2002, Shanghai Airlines was successfully listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which enabled the airline to fuel its further expansion. In 2006, the airline's cargo subsidiary was founded.
On December 12, 2007, Shanghai Airlines was officially welcomed as the 19th member of Star Alliance, which consolidated the alliance's presence in the Shanghai market.
On June 11, 2009, it was announced that Shanghai Airlines would merge with China Eastern Airlines. The merger of the two airlines was expected to reduce excess competition between the two Shanghai-based carriers, and allow them to compete more effectively with domestic rivals Air China and China Southern Airlines. It was also aimed at consolidating Shanghai's status as an international aviation hub.
In February 2010, the merger was completed. Shanghai Airlines was delisted from the Shanghai Stock Exchange and became a wholly owned subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines. The new combined airline is expected to have over half of the market share in Shanghai.
As a result of the merger with China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines reached an agreement with Star Alliance to terminate its membership. On 1 November 2010, the airline officially left the Star Alliance and announced its intention to join its parent company in SkyTeam.
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Famous quotes containing the words history and/or development:
“I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“If you complain of people being shot down in the streets, of the absence of communication or social responsibility, of the rise of everyday violence which people have become accustomed to, and the dehumanization of feelings, then the ultimate development on an organized social level is the concentration camp.... The concentration camp is the final expression of human separateness and its ultimate consequence. It is organized abandonment.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)