China Eastern ramps up Jilin, Hubei base, hub investments

Comac C919 certifies, China Eastern eyes only one by YE22

China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao) plans to take delivery of just a single C919 by the end of 2022, despite the Chinese-built narrowbody finally obtaining its type certificate on September 29.

The carrier disclosed in its half-yearly report that out of its five firm-ordered C919s, one was scheduled to deliver by the end of 2022 and the other four in 2023. They will be operated by subsidiary OTT Airlines. While COMAC boasts of having over 800 commitments for the aircraft, its firm order book comprises 188 units, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. Besides China Eastern Airlines, Air China and China Southern Airlines have firm orders for five aircraft each, while the remainder is allocated to various lessors - mainly from mainland China, but also to Ireland's CDB Aviation (ten units) and Hong Kong's Continental Aerospace Technologies (15).

Prior to its entry into service, the C919 has yet to obtain its airworthiness certificate and production certificate.

The narrowbody is exclusively equipped with CFM International...

Juneyao Airlines dumps half its shares in China Eastern

Shanghai Juneyao Group, the privately-owned parent company of Juneyao Air (HO, Shanghai Hongqiao), intends to halve its stake in China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao) by selling off up to 156 million shares, equal to 0.826% of the state-owned carrier’s total equity, China Eastern revealed in a stock filing on September 21.

Shanghai Juneyao currently directly holds a 1.65% shareholding (311,831,909 shares) in the Chinese giant, but this is part of a wider combined stake of 8.9% that the group holds in China Eastern, as three of its subsidiaries also own separate stakes of 1.23% (Juneyao Air itself), 3.12% (Shanghai Jidao), and 2.90% (Juneyao Hong Kong).

“Due to the needs of Juneyao Group’s own business plan, within six months after 15 trading days from the date of disclosure of this announcement, it plans to reduce its holding of the company’s shares by no more than 155,915,954 shares through centralised bidding transactions,” the disclosure summarised.

Cooperation between the two airlines goes back nearly 20 years, and in September 2019 they finalised a cross-shareholding...

Boeing to seek new customers for Chinese B737 MAX

Boeing (BOE, Washington National) will begin seeking new customers for B737 MAX, originally built for Chinese customers, as the type remains grounded in China, Chief Financial Officer Brian West admitted at a conference organised by Morgan Stanley.

"We have deferred decisions on those planes for a long time. We can't defer that decision forever. So we will begin to remarket some of those airplanes," he told the reporters.

Almost simultaneously, Chief Executive Dave Calhoun echoed West's sentiment.

"We'll do it in a very slow way because I want to protect our customers in China, but you can't wait forever. You've got to move them, and there is a big market," he said on the sidelines of the US Chamber of Commerce Aerospace Summit.

The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that China Southern Airlines, Donghai Airlines, Okay Airways, and Ruili Airlines have at least 104 B737 MAX on firm order. However, Chinese carriers typically don't disclose their orders until delivery and are not identified in the manufacturer's order books....

Air China Cargo completes IPO registration