News
Ruili Airlines orders six B787-9s
May 20th 2016
Ruili Airlines celebrated its second anniversary on Wednesday with a ceremony in its namesake hometown next to China’s border with Myanmar and an announcement it has committed to purchasing six B787-9s, with deliveries from 2019. Read More »
The full-service carrier, wholly owned by Yunnan JingCheng Group, will use the Dreamliner to fulfil its long-haul aspirations. Ruili operates on domestic routes only because Chinese regulations require airlines to be in business for at least three years before they can launch international services.
At the order announcement, Boeing Commercial Airplanes senior vice president Northeast Asia sales, Ihssane Mounir, presented JingCheng chairman, Dong Lecheng, with a token B787 tail fin as a gift. Dong replied, rather ungraciously, that next time around he would like a complimentary airliner.
In 2015, Ruili ordered 30 B737 MAX 8s plus 30 options, with financing provided by Minsheng and AVIC Leasing. The carrier operates nine aircraft – six B737-700s and three B737-800s. It received its latest two -800s on Sunday. The two frames, like most of Ruili Airlines’ existing fleet, come from financially-troubled airberlin and were purchased in cash.
Ruili’s B787 order means Boeing has placed the Dreamliner with six Mainland carriers: Air China (15; see here), China Eastern Airlines (April order for 15 -9s), China Southern Airlines (ten -8s), Xiamen Airlines (six -8s; six -9s) and Hainan Airlines (ten -8s; 30 -9s).
Citing analysts and investors, a Reuters report this week suggested that without more near-term B787 sales, Boeing will have to take a sizable charge to write off some of the Dreamliner’s deferred costs. Boeing replied that it has "a healthy sales pipeline this year" and it expected to "recover 787 deferred costs in the current accounting quantity of 1,300 planes". Without taking the Ruili order into account, the U.S. plane maker has sold 1,154 B787s.
