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Hainan Airlines becomes second Chinese B737 MAX operator
November 24th 2017
Hainan Airlines on Saturday took delivery of its first B737 MAX 8 aircraft following a delivery ceremony at Boeing’s Everett facility. Read More » The aircraft was later ferried from Seattle to Haikou via Honolulu and Guam. Hainan’s first MAX will enter revenue service on Saturday on the Haikou-Beijing route.
Hainan’s MAX features eight business class (or domestic first class) and 168 economy class seats, twelve economy seats more than the airline has on its B737-800 aircraft. The HNA Aviation carrier expects the second MAX to be delivered next week. It initially plans to deploy the type on trunk routes to Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Chongqing and Xian.
It is unclear how many MAXs Hainan and its subsidiaries will receive. Boeing’s order log lists three only but that definitely will not be the final count. HNA’s leasing subsidiary – Avolon – has ordered more than 140 MAX series aircraft.
In a statement, Hainan said it expects to have 20 MAXs at the end of 2019. Boeing said it was up to the customer to disclose their orders, but the OEM did note that Mainland carriers would take delivery of almost 100 MAXs by the end of 2018.
