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HNA Group sells down Urumqi Airlines shareholding
November 30th 2018
Hardly a week goes by without some major HNA Group news. Read More » This week it emerged that the HNA conglomerate would reduce its equity in Urumqi Airlines from 70% to 30%, with the Urumqi city government holding the remainder and reversing the relative stakes the parties owned when the LCC was established in 2014.
Urumqi Airlines is one of eight carriers in the HNA Group stable. The carrier is a member of Value Alliance, the world's first LCC alliance.
Urumqi Airlines operates a fleet of 15 B737-800s on domestic services.
Earlier this month, it emerged that HNA was looking to sell a majority stake in Lucky Air to Shanghai's China Eastern Airlines for an undisclosed sum. In the interim, the Shanghai heavyweight this month took an approximately 8% shareholding in Juneyao Airlines for US$455 million. Juneyao is also Shanghai-based and it is expected that this new partnership will result in higher fares out of China's commercial centre.
Separately, HNA mainline carrier, Hainan Airlines, this week applied for new daily traffic rights between Guangzhou and Helsinki and Tehran from January 7, respectively.
If approved, Hainan will be competing on Guangzhou-Helsinki with Finnair and with Mahan Air on Guangzhou-Tehran.
Hainan has opened countless long-haul routes over the past three years, including flights to Vienna, Mexico City and Madrid.
