News
Air China reinstates San Jose launch and Tianjin Airlines hints at A350 buy
June 17th 2016
Mainland flag carrier, Air China, has again changed course about its San Jose route launch. The airline was due to commence flights between Shanghai and the Silicon Valley this month, but without explanation removed the five-weekly A330-200 schedule from the system in May. Read More » The airline is expected to launch the service from September 1.
The Star Alliance member will compete with Hainan Airlines, which operates a four-weekly B787-8 service between Beijing and San Jose.
Last Friday, Hainan flew its inaugural four-weekly Beijing-Manchester A330 service and will add a thrice-weekly Beijing-Calgary B787-8 flight from the end of this month. On Monday, the HNA Group airline celebrated the first revenue flight of its first B787-9 aircraft from Haikou to Beijing, making it the Mainland’s second -9 operator after Air China.
Hainan will place the new type on its Beijing-Boston flights 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 for the first of its 30-on-order -9 variants to arrive. It already operates ten -8 variants.
HNA Group carrier, Tianjin Airlines, performed its first-long-haul service on Monday, with its weekly A330-200 route between Tianjin and Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. Next week, the airline will start twice a week Tianjin-Gatwick, via Chongqing, A330 flights.
It also plans to add Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Melbourne to its network and will induct ten A330s into its fleet in the next five years. The carrier’s president, Liu Lu, told local media the A330, the A320 and A350 will form the core of its fleet. Neither Tianjin nor parent, Hainan, have placed official orders for Airbus’ new long-haul jet.
Another HNA subsidiary, Kunming-based budget carrier, Lucky Air, has applied to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to expand its business to include regional (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan) and international flights. It intends to commence twice-weekly Nanjing-Osaka and Nanjing-Shizuoka operations, respectively, from July, and flights from Kunming to both Jakarta and Bali (via Nanning).
