9 Air (AQ, Guangzhou) will commence its maiden scheduled operations either at the end of this month or early next month airline president Ji Guangping told the Guangzhou Daily on Friday.
According to Ji, the budget carrier's first flight will be from Guangzhou to Zhanjiang Wuchuan with initial operations to be covered by its two B737-800s on lease from Lion Air (JT, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) sister firm, the Singaporean lessor, Transportation Partners (TP).
Outlining the carrier's future expansion plans, Ji said 9 Air will focus on consolidating its short-haul domestic route network initially before expanding into the Asian market.
9 Air is a joint venture between Juneyao Airlines (Shanghai Hongqiao) (69%), Elion Resources Group (15%), Macrolink Group (10%) and Ji Guangping with 6%.
