Addendum
Juneyao Airlines going long-haul to Helsinki without Star
November 1st 2018
The Juneyao Group airline subsidiary told Orient Aviation last month that its maiden intercontinental route would be a daily Shanghai Pudong-Helsinki Vantaa B787-9 Dreamliner service to be launched next June in direct competition with Finnair. Read More » Juneyao Airlines also told Orient Aviation it had converted its five B787 options to firm orders. The airline now has 10 B787s on its order book.
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Juneyao, a private carrier, took delivery of its first Dreamliner in October. The airline is flying it twice daily on its Shanghai Hongqiao-Shenzhen trunk route. Before it commences flights to Finland next year, the aircraft will be rostered on “regional routes, such as Singapore and Japan, in early 2019”, it said.
Juneyao will receive three B787s in 2018 and two in 2019, which will increase its international capacity by 9.2% and 4.4%, respectively. The remaining five airplanes will follow in 2020 and 2021. The airline has installed 29 Thompson Aero Seating Vantage XL lie-flat seats in business class and 293 Recaro Aircraft Seating CL3710 recliners in economy class. Juneyao has a regional fleet of 41 A320s and 27 A321s.
Last year, Juneyao became the first, and to date, the only carrier to join Star Alliance’s Connecting Partner Model. It was believed Juneyao’s first B787 intercontinental flights would feed into the Star hubs at Frankfurt, San Francisco and Vancouver but certainly not Helsinki.
Then again, Juneyao’s allegiance to Star Alliance could be shifting. In July, Juneyao and its parent invested US$1.9 billion for an approximate 5% shareholding in state-controlled China Eastern Airlines, a SkyTeam member. The “strategic investment” will allow the two Shanghai-based carriers to tighten their grip in the Yangtze River Delta where combined they have a market share exceeding 50%.
