SHANGHAI — Spring Airlines gives new meaning to low-fare, no-frills flying.
For a one-way ticket from Shanghai to Qingdao, about the distance from Los Angeles to San Francisco, it charges as little as $12.50. You won't get a bag of peanuts on the plane, but 50 cents will get you a pickled duck wing.
And don't plan on packing anything heavy. Passengers are allowed to check bags weighing a total of 33 pounds, about a third of the limit set by most U.S. carriers.
Traveling on Spring makes Southwest Airlines, AirTran Airways and other U.S. budget brands seem like luxury carriers.
Since its debut in July, Spring has flown more than 200,000 travelers to 11 Chinese cities on its three, bright-green Airbus jets. The Shanghai-based airline hopes to have 50 planes in five years.
Private, low-cost carriers like Spring have been sprouting in China and across Asia amid fast-rising incomes and a boom in leisure travel. Companies such as Singapore-based Valuair and Malaysia's Air Asia are taking on traditional carriers and making air travel accessible to tens of millions of people.
Nowhere is the opportunity as great as in China. Experts say fewer than 1% of the nation's 1.3 billion people have stepped foot on a plane. Most travel long distance on trains that often are smelly and crowded.
Spring wants to make air travel routine in China.
For some routes, "we're cheaper than the bus or the hard seats on the train," said Spring's chairman, Wang Zhenghua, 61.
The airline has won some converts.
Zhou Jianxin, a 25-year-old recent college graduate, took Spring's flight from Shanghai to Qingdao last month to go home for the Chinese New Year holiday. It was his first time on a plane. He was so excited that he got to the airport three hours before the scheduled departure, only to face a two-hour delay.
Zhou asked for a window seat and frequently peered outside.
"It was so cool," the stocky man with a soldier's haircut said. "It was like riding a roller coaster when the plane was accelerating and taking off."
For years Zhou had gone by train from Shanghai to his home in Shandong Province. As a student, he paid half price, about $6 for a hard seat. But it was a long 24-hour ride. When he flew last month, he didn't get the best fare because of the holiday season. He paid $65 for a one-way ticket. But that was still 50% cheaper than the lowest fare available on other carriers.
