Today a thought piece was published by David Bentley, a principal with BigPondAviation.com. Southern Airlines’ Chairman, Si Xianmin, warned that emerging competition from China's expanding high-speed rail network is a “major challenge” for China's airlines. Mr Xianmin stated competition from high-speed trains is "already visible" and costing China Southern, Air China, China Eastern and other carriers market share on major routes where high-speed service is also available. According to Mr. Xianmin, traffic may fall by more than half on 518 of the carrier’s weekly services, while 38 of its 160 domestic routes will compete directly with high-speed railway lines.

This is amazing, since China is still developing and its airline industry is in early growth phase. To see such a rapid impact from high speed rail is unprecedented.