Airline News
Xi visits UK, Rolls-Royce signs $2.4 billion deal with HNA
October 23rd 2015
Following his visit to the U.S. last month, resulting in $38 billion of new aircraft orders and Boeing’s first plant in China, Chinese President, Xi Jinping, was in the UK this week accompanied by a 150-member business delegation, including the chiefs of major finance, infrastructure and aviation firms. Read More » Chen Feng, chairman of rapidly growing HNA Group, was also in the list.
Mainland media has reported HNA Group, parent of Hainan Airlines, has been in talks with Manchester Airport to acquire a majority stake in the facility, with insiders suggesting Chen nailed down the acquisition during Xi's visit. Such acquisition would not be surprising, given HNA in July bought Swissport International for $2.81 billion, in August purchased the Reuters Building in London and last month agreed to take full control of Avolon Holdings for $7.6 billion.
During his visit to the UK, Chen signed a $2.4 billion deal with Rolls-Royce for engines and services for a total 44 on order from Airbus, covering Trent 700 engines and TotalCare service support for 20 A330s; TotalCare support for Trent XWBs that will power 15 A350-900s; and TotalCare support for Trent 700s that power five A330 freighters and four A330s.
On Tuesday, Hainan announced it would deploy B787s on all its U.S. routes in the winter schedule starting this Sunday, including Boston, Chicago, San Jose and Seattle from Beijing and Shanghai.
