Budget airlines set to soar as limits are lifted

The budget airline also noticed it is now much easier to purchase new aircraft.

Wang said it used to take four to five months for Spring Airlines to apply to buy a new aircraft but the period has been shortened dramatically.

Spring Airlines plans to enlarge its fleet by 40 aircraft by 2015. It already has 39 airplanes, and its fleet will total 46 aircraft by the end of this year.

"We still plan to purchase eight to 10 aircraft every year," Wang said.

West Air, a subsidiary of HNA Group, which completed its transformation to budget airline at the end of 2012, also has a plan to increase its fleet. Four aircraft will be added in 2014.

Some other airlines are also trying to turn into low-budget airlines because of the business opportunities they present.

China United Airlines Co Ltd, a Beijing-based subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines Co, is working on a specific plan to turn into a low-cost carrier.

Juneyao Airlines Co Ltd, a privately owned carrier in China, also applied to develop a low-cost airline called Jiuyuan Airlines. It means the airline will provide special air tickets priced between 9 to 49 yuan at certain times.

"We can expect more budget airlines in China because the authority's support may make it easier to enter the business," said Li Xiaojin, a professor at China Aviation University in Tianjin.

The Chinese are getting used to traveling by air, with air traffic growing fast and providing more customers to budget airlines, he added.

Chinese airlines transported 319.36 million person-trips in 2012. The number reached 326.1 million in the first 11 months of 2013, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

But it is still difficult to operate budget airlines, which need to lower their costs and improve load factors at the same time, Li said.

"The low-cost airlines need enough passenger flow to make a profit because their ticket price is low," he added.

Improving efficiency is a main method for budget airlines to lower their operational costs.

West Air's overall costs in 2013 were reduced 15 percent over 2012 through improving plane-use rates and upgrading operational systems.