China’s Hainan Airlines has just added the Airbus A330-900neo to its fleet. We had a clue that this was going to happen, though oddly there was no official announcement, and these deliveries are happening without much fanfare.
Continue reading: Surprise: Hainan Airlines Mysteriously Adds Airbus A330-900neo To Fleet
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“HNA Group (also the parent company of Hainan Airlines)” little bit a of a correction as this is not the case anymore so it would be “former”, the HNA Group proper went bankrupt and went into government administration who divested various core entities to different owners which included the airline business. The current Hainan Airlines is owned Fangda Group through its subsidiary HNA Aviation which it acquired during the restructuring of HNA Group
Lack of fanfare. Yup.
They are already flying A330s. Adding the 900 may electrify OMAAT readers, but some perspective it helpful - the other 99% of the world want to know about new locations. They want to know if there is a flat bed seat, but are fairly ambivalent as to the manufacturer and even to whether the configuration is herringbone 1-2-1 or 2-2-2 when they set out to purchase (they may care more once on board).
Hainan may not have seen the addition as newsworthy as some.
@ jfhscott -- For what it's worth, this is the first A330ceo operator I can think of that "upgraded" to the A330neo where there wasn't even an Airbus press release. At a minimum, you'd think Airbus would want the press of showing off the popularity of its new plane, so I do find this to be very unusual.
" disclosing that it had spent around $24 million with Safran to purchase galley equipment for A330-900neos. " ".....ordered 20 xA330-900s"
Over $1 mil per plane just for galley equipment? Damn, this industry is EXPENSIVE!!
Photos of the cabin floating around LinkedIn. Business same seat as Condor A330neo. Economy is a new seat type with winged headrests at each row.
Was covered heavily on Chinese social media. Quite a nice looking cabin with an especially interesting economy class.
@Ben Schlappig
The cabin configuration is exactly what Garuda Indonesia have on their NEO (24 in business, 277 in economy). What are the odds that this plane was supposed to go to them instead
I’ve always wondered why Mainland Chinese airlines largely didn’t care for the A330neo, given how gung-ho they’ve been about the A330ceo, with a significant portion of the global A330ceo fleet operating in China. What’s even more mysterious is that HU and other Mainland airlines haven’t been very visible (in terms of global recognition) since the pandemic, with Starlux and co. from across the strait taking their place. No wonder the celebration seems muted, as HU and its ilk probably don’t care for a global audience any more:
The mainland airlines have been in huge losses since the pandemic and you see all sorts of cost-cutting. There is not so much buzz to write about.
You gotta be kidding right?
Gung-ho?
More like gaslight-ho.
I like how you keep imagining stuff up.
"significant portion of the global 'C919' fleet operating in China."
Does that mean mainland carriers are "gung-ho" with C919?
They don't even represent 0.1% of the Chinese fleet.
Mystery solved.
Now go back to "visualise yourself flying Qsuites or Air France or JAL or something of that kind! ;)"
Any story involving Hainan Airlines holds a special place in my heart (along with OMAAT), since I met my wife on a mileage run from LAX to CSX years ago—back when Lucky was writing about their once-lucrative partnership with AS.
Ben - Some supplementary info here: