Qingdao Airlines (QW, Qingdao Jiaodong) will officially commence operations in March 2014 with plans to phase in fifty-one medium-sized passenger aircraft between then and 2020. According to WCARN, Qingdao Airlines is jointly funded by Nanshan Group, Qingdao Municipal Transport Development Group and Shandong Airlines (SC, Jinan) with a an initial start-up capital of CMB1billion (USD161million). The first two A320-200s on order from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) have already been identified by AeroTransport Data Bank as cns 6061 & 6102. In mid-year, Qingdao and Airbus signed a purchase agreement for a total of 23 A320 family aircraft, including five A320ceo and 18 A320neo due for delivery from 2016 on.