Spring Airlines' CEO Xiuzhi Zhang kicked off the CAPA World Aviation Summit last week in Hong Kong with a prediction that we'll see the first true low cost carrier alliance soon.

"Expect a whole new dialogue," she said, as competition among low cost airlines steps up across the region.

She painted a picture of "congestion, rationalization, synergies, interline agreements and alliances" as Asia Pacific-based low cost airlines focus their energies on the China market and Chinese-based airlines like hers fan out to the region.

The next logical step is interline agreements among carriers interested in providing connections in the Greater China region, she said.

Undoubtedly Spring, which is now in the pre-IPO phase, intends to fully stay ahead of the competition. The key is to avoid network complexity and over-expansion, said Zhang.

She said that Spring has had to follow its own path, given the unique characteristics of the China market, but whatever model you choose to call it, it's been consistently profitable with profit margins higher than industry average. "Despite difficult times, low cost airlines are seeing growth and it's proof that the Chinese market can be lucrative," she said.

Load factors have been at over 90% but it's staying flat and so critical to maintaining profitability is keeping costs low.

And one area Spring is focusing on is distribution with its website now generating 80% of sales and the airline will continue to invest in technology to drive costs down.

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