Lucky Air (China) (8L, Dali) will acquire an undisclosed number of B787-9s for use in opening up planned new longhaul routes to Europe and North America later this year.
The move was revealed in the Hainan Airlines (HU, Haikou) subsidiary's application to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for authority to begin 2x weekly flights from Kunming Changshui to each of Moscow and Los Angeles International.
Should the flights commence in December this year as proposed, it will render Lucky Air China's first longhaul LCC and the first such carrier in the U-Fly alliance.
At present, it operates three A319-100s, four A320-200s, eleven B737-700s, and thirteen B737-800s on regular flights throughout China as well as to Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan and Cambodia. Aside from its Kunming hub, it also maintains bases at Lijiang and Chengdu Shuangliu.
