Juneyao Air (HO, Shanghai Hongqiao) plans to open branch companies in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Greece, and Malaysia, the privately owned carrier said in a stock market filing on January 9, as it continues to expand in Europe and Southeast Asia.
Since taking delivery of its first B787-9 widebody in 2018, Juneyao has been bolstering its overseas presence, launching its first long-haul route to Helsinki Vantaa in June 2019.
It currently has six B787-9s in its fleet, according to the ch-aviation fleets module, with four more on order, and has announced new services to Dublin International, Manchester International, and Reykjavik Keflavik from March 2020, all of which will fly via Helsinki. It also operates two A320-200neo delivered in December 2019, forty A320-200s, and twenty-seven A321-200s. It is expecting the delivery of its first A321-200neo shortly.
Juneyao Air said in the filing that the new branch offices would be set up “in order to explore overseas markets, promote the development of the company's business in the local area, enhance the company's brand image and influence, and at the same time facilitate personnel management.”
Juneyao's overseas expansion comes as other Chinese carriers suffer mounting losses on long-haul routes which, according to Reuters, reached a combined CNY21.9 billion yuan (USD3.16 billion) in 2018, a trend compounded by a slowing economy and trade tensions.
“We would not open new international routes blindly but rather through careful consideration and assessment, and we will make decisions based on our own ability and market environment,” Hongliang Zhao, Juneyao Air's president, told journalists in November. “We are sure that we will need collaboration. We need international partners.”
