Some of Asia’s marquee airlines that spoil passengers with free alcohol and in-flight entertainment may soon have to kick the habit. The on-board giveaways, famously rolled out to every passenger in the 1970s by Singapore Airlines, will be unsustainable for some carriers after OPEC’s production cuts announced last week drive up the cost of fuel, according to aviation analysts. Other options include cutting unprofitable routes, retiring gas-guzzling aircraft and raising fares. The deal reached by the OPEC on Nov. 30 couldn’t have come at a worse time for carriers such as Cathay Pacific and Singapore Air that are battling excess capacity and declining premium traffic. Asian operators are also particularly vulnerable to rising fuel costs as their profit margins are about half those of their North American peers after competition pushed down fares. In order to survive, some Asian airlines may be forced to ape US low-cost carriers and charge for extras -- ranging from food and alcohol to checked-in baggage -- that have been taken for granted on long-haul flights for decades, according to Mathieu De Marchi, a Bangkok-based aviation consultant at Landrum & Brown. “More full-service airlines in Asia Pacific might consider doing the same,” he said, declining to pick out the carriers in the region most likely to make customers pay. Fuel is typically an airline’s biggest expense and this year’s 30 percent price increase is enough to threaten the global aviation industry’s five-year run of earnings growth, according to Heathrow-based advisory Flight Ascend Consultancy.<br/>
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China's transport ministry said on Monday it expects travellers to make nearly 3b trips during the upcoming Spring Festival, putting road, rail and air links through their hardest test during the country's most important holiday. The ministry predicted that 2.98b trips would be made during the 40-day period, which includes the Lunar New Year, up 2.2% compared with last year. The holiday is set to begin on Jan. 13. The railway network is likely to see a 9.7% jump in trips against 2015, while airlines will accommodate about 58.3m trips, up 10%, the ministry said. The majority of travellers will take to the roads to make an expected 2.52b trips, it said. It said it would look to add capacity over the period by adding trains and flights, and would strengthen measures to guard against the sale of fake tickets.<br/>
Consumer advocate group Choice is calling for a complete overhaul of the Australian airline industry as its report finds 'systemic breaches' in the way domestic carriers deal with customers. The group, which Tuesday published its report looking into airline terms and conditions, claimed carriers had breached Australian Consumer Law by enforcing "excessive" cancellation fees, the use of 'no refund' signs and providing a lack of compensation for mistakes made by airlines. The report, which claimed to "ensure that consumers are treated fairly", called on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate airline practices to "provide clearer guidance to the industry". Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey said that airlines had the power to act "immediately" to change their "unfair" practices. "We’d like to see the airlines act today, they can get rid of the ‘no refund’ signs immediately, they can end their excessive cancellation fees and of course they can bring in compensation for travellers when they make mistakes," he said. <br/>