News
Hainan Airlines to establish Chengdu base as parent nears Hahn Airport purchase
January 27th 2017
Following talks with local Communist Party boss, Zhou Xianyi, Hainan Airlines president, Sun Jianfeng, said the two parties agreed to launch various aviation-related projects in Chengdu, capital of China’s Sichuan Province, including the establishment of a secondary Hainan base and the strengthening of Chengdu’s MRO, cargo, general aviation and FBO capabilities. Read More »
Chengdu will be Hainan’s eighth base on the Mainland, complementing existing bases in Beijing, Guangzhou, Haikou, Hangzhou, Sanya, Shenzhen and Xian. Until now, Hainan only operates domestic flights from Chengdu, but it has applied for traffic rights to launch Chengdu-London flights this year.
Separately, Hainan parent, HNA Group, said it was in advanced talks to purchase Germany’s Hahn Airport, a 24-hour facility 90 minutes from Frankfurt Airport. Hahn is a largely underused facility catering to budget and freight operators. Only Ryanair and Wizz Air fly to Hahn along with cargo airlines Atlas Air, MyCargo Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines, Silk Way Airlines and Yangtze River Express (an HNA company).
The German provincial government of Hesse had previously agreed to sell debt laden Hahn to a Chinese investor for $13 million, but the sale collapsed after the Mainland bidder failed to make payments.
