Airline News
China firms up 130 Airbus jets order as Air China-China Southern merger rumours denied
October 30th 2015
Air China and China Southern Airlines have dismissed media reports of their merger, which had caused share prices to close at their upper limits in Shanghai last Thursday. Read More »
Shanghai Securities News, owned by the official Xinhua News Agency, had reported both airlines were likely to join forces, citing market talk, as Beijing moved to consolidate bloated state-run conglomerates and improve their global competitiveness.
However, both Air China, the Mainland’s largest carrier by market value, and China Southern, the largest by fleet size, said in separate filings to the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges that they had no knowledge of such plans.
"Upon inquiry with China National Aviation Holding Company, the controlling shareholder of the company, neither the company nor its controlling shareholder has ever received any information, written or verbal, from any government authority concerning the above mentioned reports,” Air China said. "We know nothing about it," a China Southern executive told Reuters.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the country's aviation regulator, also said it had no knowledge of such a merger.
Meanwhile, a revenue sharing joint venture between Star Alliance partners, Air China and Germany’s Lufthansa, in the making for more than a year, could progress this week during Angela Merkel's visit to China.
Karl Ulrich Garnadt, the head of the German airline's passenger business, will accompany the German chancellor on the trip, which will include meetings with Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping, a Lufthansa spokesman said. Lufthansa and Air China signed an in principle agreement in July 2014, but Lufthansa later cautioned it could take until 2016 before the joint venture was fully up and running because of the time needed to win antitrust approval.
In the interim, China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CAS) signed a General Terms Agreement (GTA) with Airbus for the acquisition of 30 A330 Family aircraft and 100 A320 Family aircraft on Wednesday. The 30 A330s firm up a commitment signed in June 2015. The GTA was signed in Beijing by Li Hai, President and CEO of CAS, and Fabrice Brégier, President and CEO of Airbus, in the presence of Angela Merkel and Li Keqiang.
