News
HNA Group eyes stake in Avianca and will take two A350s from Azul
June 10th 2016
Apart from its confirmed commitment in Australia, the HNA Group is looking to acquire equity in Avianca Holdings and Avianca Brasil, Reuters has reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Read More » Getting another foot in the door in South America would be a major coup for HNA, after it took a 23.7% stake in Azul Brazilian Airlines last November. Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Lufthansa Group are understood to have an interest in Avianca.
Azul president, Antonoaldo Neves, told Bloomberg HNA would assume two 2018 A350-900 delivery slots originally destined for Azul (leased from AerCap). Whether HNA will allocate them to Hong Kong Airlines (which already has 15 -900s on order) or place them with mainline Hainan Airlines (which has none) remains to be seen.
Potential for large orders for the A350 remain in China. Air China has ten in its books and China Eastern Airlines, in April, confirmed 20 -900s. China Southern Airlines has not placed any A350 orders and the budget segment is not mature enough for wide body operations.
That said, HNA’s Hainan Airlines on Friday received its first leased B787-9, making it the Mainland’s second -9 operator, following Air China. Hainan will place the new type on the Beijing-Boston service and will use it to launch a Beijing-Las Vegas route from September. It will receive its second leased -9 shortly, but will have to wait until 2021 before the first of 30-on-order -9 variants arrive. It already operates a fleet of ten -8 variants.
