Taking the water way to fly

A floatplane is about to take off from Jinshan City Beach. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Liu Shengjun, CEO of Joy General Aviation Ltd, the floatplane operator in Zhoushan, says: "We've had many tourists take our floatplanes during the tourism peak season."

Liu's company, which started commercial floatplane operations in May this year, offers four flights a day, five days every week during the peak tourism season (May-October). Typically, 70 percent of seats are occupied on the nine-seat floatplanes. The flights cost around 1,000 yuan ($156) an hour.

Although more tourists take the flights at the moment, Liu says they hope to attract more regular commuters in the future.

His company now offers regular flights from Zhoushan to Zhejiang's northernmost Shengsi county.

"It takes 2.5 to 4 hours from Zhoushan to the county by boat, while the floatplane cuts the travel time down to 30-40 minutes," says Liu.

Liu's company has this year ordered 20 floatplanes from US-based Textron Aviation, which sells brands such as Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker.

By next April, it will have 22 floatplanes up and running. The company plans to purchase 40 floatplanes in 2017, and the goal is to have 100-150 floatplanes in five years, says Liu.

Liu says that as of now floatplane route planners are focusing on prosperous regions and scenic spots, though some routes to remote rural areas could be developed to answer the government's call for connectivity.

Routes connecting Shanghai's Jinshan district and Zhoushan, downtown Hangzhou and Qiandao Lake, as well areas in Fujian, Guangdong and Yunnan provinces have been planned and are scheduled to be operational next year.

For example, there is only one flight and no high-speed rail connectivity between Shanghai and Zhoushan, which is not very flexible and economical, since the two places are not far away from each other, so a floatplane link could work there, he says.

Liu says his ultimate goal is to build floatplane connectivity throughout China's 3,000-kilometer coastline and even connect some mainland areas to South Korea, such as Shandong's Weihai and Yantai.