China Southern Airlines will plan to add over 200 Boeing and Airbus single-aisle jets over the next three years. The details of the plan were revealed in China Southern’s aircraft delivery and disposal plan, revealed recently.
The total order will include 103 Boeing 737 aircraft and 111 Airbus A320, with 46 deliveries planned in 2025. Deliveries will include a previous agreement announced in July 2022, for 96 Airbus A320neo worth $12.2 billion.
Speaking of deliveries, China Southern Airlines recently received its 16th ARJ21 from COMAC marking the first delivery in 2023. The airline flew a ferry flight to Jieyang Chaoshan International Airport, chosen as the second ARJ21 operating base after its Guangzhou headquarters. The aircraft was welcomed at the airport with a water cannon salute followed by a ceremony.
The airline decided to launch Shantou Company as the second operating base for ARJ21 aircraft outside Guangzhou, with the aim of gradually increasing the flight capacity of ARJ21 aircraft in the Chaoshan market. The Shantou Company is a large-scale aviation transport practitioner in the eastern Guangdong Province and currently operates from two bases in Jieyang and Yiwu.
Wei Weifeng, Captain, China Southern Airlines Shantou Company said: “I feel extremely proud and honored to be an ARJ21 pilot! It has been the dream of generations of civil aviation personnel to be able to fly a domestically produced aircraft in the blue sky, and it has finally come true here!