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Juneyao confirms Singapore as maiden international destination
December 7th 2018
Shanghai-headquartered Juneyao Airlines this week confirmed Shanghai-Singapore as the first international route to be serviced by its B787-9. Read More » From February, the airline will fly the B787 daily between Shanghai’s Pudong and Singapore Changi airports.
Last month, Juneyao told Orient Aviation that its maiden intercontinental route would be a daily Shanghai Pudong-Helsinki Vantaa B787-9 service from June. It also told Orient Aviation it had converted its five B787 options to firm orders, bringing the airline’s order book for the type to ten.
Juneyao, a private carrier, accepted its first B787 in October and is flying it twice daily on the Shanghai Hongqiao-Shenzhen trunk route. Two more B787s will be delivered to the carrier this month and will operate from Shanghai to Chengdu, Chongqing and Sanya.
Two additional B787s are due at Juneyao in 2019 and the remaining five planes 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.
In July, Juneyao and its parent, the Juneyao Group, 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 they have a combined market share exceeding 50%.
