Spring Airlines, China's only budget airline, plans to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange as early as the first quarter of next year to help expand its fleet and international network.
The Shanghai-based airline, founded in 2005, submitted its listing application in January and hired UBS as sponsor. The airline is worth a total of 8 billion yuan (HK$9.66 billion), and the portion to be listed has yet to be disclosed.
It will be the first privately owned airline to list on the mainland, where the four existing listed airlines are either state-owned or partially funded by local government.
Spring Air will grow its fleet size to 60 by 2015 from 24 at present. The company had originally planned an even bigger fleet but was affected by restrictions imposed on aircraft purchases, said Zhang Wuan, Spring Air's director of executive office.
Due to an austerity regime imposed by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Spring Air had revised down its fleet expansion plan to 60 from 100, Zhang said.
It is believed the regulator wants to rein in mainland carriers' fleet expansion plans to avoid a cut-throat price war on airfares. Mainland carriers also face a challenge from high speed railways.