A new aircraft was delivered to Xiamen Airlines to start the year 2023. After arriving in China’s Fujian Province, the first A321neo joined the fleet, becoming the airline’s first Airbus. The delivery comes after a significant order for Airbus jets was announced in 2022, and it represents the first step toward a mixed fleet of Boeing and Airbus aircraft.
Since its founding in 1984, Xiamen Airlines has maintained an entirely Boeing-based fleet. 143 Boeing aircraft are currently in use by Xiamen Airlines, according to statistics from ch-aviation.com. The B737 and B787 series of aircraft make up the majority of the fleet. Xiamen Airlines has an order for more B737 MAX deliveries in addition to the Airbus purchase, despite the fact that the fleet hasn’t increased significantly over the past few years.
Later this year, after being fully integrated into the airline, the new A321neo will start operating on commercial routes across China. There are eight seats in business class and 200 in economy on this leased aircraft’s two-class arrangement.
Capacity problems with the current fleet and orders from Boeing are thought to be two factors that led to the shift in policy to increase the number of Airbus aircraft in the fleet. 19 of the B737 fleet’s aircraft are in storage, according to data from ch-aviation.com, while 22 more of same kind are on order. Before the firm order in September 2022, the airline had been talking about options with Airbus for a number of years.
Since 2008, Airbus has been building A320 airplanes at its factory in Tianjin, China. As of late, it has also begun building A321 airplanes there. In addition to its existing sites in France, Germany, and the United States, there is an additional A321 assembly plant. In response to the increasing demand, Airbus has boosted production capacity, and the A321 can be assembled at any of the four locations. George Xu, executive vice president and CEO of Airbus China, spoke in November 2022.
Following COVID-19 regulations, the Chinese aviation market has increased.
With COVID-19 travel restrictions being relaxed, the Chinese aviation business, which has been slowly recovering, is anticipated to continue expanding. Due to rigorous limitations put in place over the past few years, this also applies to international travelers. With assembly now taking place in China, Airbus has boosted the production line’s capacity and hopes that overall delivery costs will be lower for clients in the region, especially for Chinese carriers. The order for 40 A320neo families of aircraft was announced in September 2022. In fact, according to George Xu, Airbus hopes to increase cooperation with the Chinese aviation industry chain as it looks to expand its footprint in the country.
The agreement with Airbus will help to diversify the risk of any supply chain concerns with aircraft orders. Xiamen Airlines will be trying to increase its fleet in line with the recovering travel demand.
