Several months ago, I wrote about an online auction from a major airline looking to dump some pre-enjoyed Dreamliners. There’s now an update, as these planes have found a buyer, and we know where they’re (probably) headed.
In this post:
China Southern dumps fleet of 10 Boeing 787-8s
China’s largest airline, China Southern, has a massive fleet of nearly 700 jets. For quite some time, the airline has been trying to sell its subfleet of Boeing 787-8s. The airline has 10 of these, and they’re an average of over 12 years old, having been delivered in 2013 and 2014. The planes are configured with 266 seats, including 18 business class seats and 248 economy class seats.
China Southern hasn’t been very happy with these planes. The airline states that it wants to instead focus on larger wide body aircraft, which are higher capacity. Also keep in mind that while the 787-8 has great range, China Southern’s fleet doesn’t have the updated maximum takeoff weight, so these 787-8s aren’t as capable as some newer ones.
In 2024, the airline started a project to try and sell these aircraft to “further optimise its fleet structure,” though the process was suspended in early 2025, given the uncertainty related to tariffs. After several months, the airline resumed the process, with the idea being that China Southern wanted to take an “all or nothing” approach, and it was only willing to sell these Dreamliners if it could get rid of all of them, along with a spare pair of GE Aerospace GEnx-1B engines.
There’s now an interesting update. Bohai Leasing has announced that on February 27, 2026, it signed a Master Sale and Purchase Agreement with China Southern for the 10 planes plus the two spare engines. This is being done through its subsidiary, Avolon. The market value of this is around $532 million, and the final price will be determined through the exchange bidding process.
For those curious, China Southern’s 787-8s have primarily been operating out of Ürümqi (URC), in western China. Even though China Southern is a massive airline, its fleet overwhelmingly consists of narrow body planes. Aside from the 787-8s, the carrier’s wide body fleet consists of 22 Airbus A330-300s, 19 Airbus A350-900s, 15 Boeing 777-300ERs, and 20 Boeing 787-9s.
Are these Boeing 787-8s headed to Thai Airways?
It’s funny, because aircraft manufacturers have largely struggled to deliver aircraft on schedule, and so many airlines have complained about not having enough planes. Yet all too often when planes actually go on sale secondhand, there are just crickets.
So when we first learned about China Southern selling 10 Boeing 787-8s, many of us speculated about where the planes may go. Could Qatar Airways look to expand its 787-8 fleet? Could this be an easy entry point for Southwest Airlines to start long haul flying?
Well, nope, none of those. Instead, it appears highly likely that these 10 jets are haded to Thai Airways. While it doesn’t specifically reference this deal, the airline has made clear that it’s acquiring 10 787-8s through a leasing company, with deliveries expected starting in the coming months. If that’s unrelated to this deal, it would be a mighty strange coincidence.
Over the years, the Star Alliance airline has acquired all kinds of planes from other airlines, so that’s hardly surprising. While the airline does have dozens of factory fresh 787-9s on order, those will only be delivered gradually, and we know the airline is looking to grow ASAP, especially with the number of planes that have been decommissioned since the start of the pandemic.
Don’t expect Thai Airways to make huge changes to the interiors of these planes once it adds them to the fleet, as consistency definitely isn’t a priority for the airline when it comes to hard product.
Bottom line
Over the past several months, China Southern has been looking to sell its fleet of 10 Boeing 787-8s. The airline approached this in an unconventional way, by trying to auction off these planes, all at once. Many of us wondered if there would be interest for these planes, and it appears that there is.
A leasing company has agreed to buy these jets, and Thai Airways also seems to have plans to lease 10 787-8 starting in the coming months. So when you connect the dots, it seems clear what’s going on.
What do you make of China Southern selling its 787-8s, and Thai Airways potentially picking them up?
oh bummer - I'm flying into Urumqi on the 787-8 late April - and possibly out in early May - does anyone want a to take a guess whether I'll get Qatar'd or will i get the 787?
(Correct me if I'm wrong but 787 is flat bed and replacement would be a recliner)
Basically confirmed by TG inner circles that these 10 are coming to TG, first aircraft arriving in June. Expected to operate regional routes within Asia-Pacific, furthest routes may be Sapporo or Perth, and will free up additional A350s and 777s for long-haul expansion.
The airline is also expected to take on an additional 15 A321NEOs this year, on top of the 2 already delivered, and 4 leased, factory fresh 787-9s, separate to the large...
Basically confirmed by TG inner circles that these 10 are coming to TG, first aircraft arriving in June. Expected to operate regional routes within Asia-Pacific, furthest routes may be Sapporo or Perth, and will free up additional A350s and 777s for long-haul expansion.
The airline is also expected to take on an additional 15 A321NEOs this year, on top of the 2 already delivered, and 4 leased, factory fresh 787-9s, separate to the large order of 45 aircraft coming in 2027. Which should help as the airline is expecting to lose 6 widebodies this year, 2 of their RR powered 788s, going to LOT, 2 oddball 2-2-2 config A350s going to Edelweiss and the retirement of their 2 remaining 777-200ERs.
The airline has already announce AMS and CSX as 2 new routes with the intention of adding CKG, WUH and XMN, returning to AKL and increasing frequencies to double daily to MUC and CDG, so these coming aircraft should help in doing so.
Oh good, I like TG so I am glad they're returning to NZ.
Should work quite well with overall commonality- Thai's existing 788s being 22J(2-2*-2), 234Y.
And their new 787s being GE, so no major factor there.
I'm sure they would prefer the -9 version, but Qantas is desperate for more 787s. I would think they would love these aircraft to put on their Asian routes to allow the 787-9s to do Europe and US.
Of course the Chinese have taken good care of these airplanes. They have taken all rotables with any service life left from the older 78's and swapped out those parts with timed out parts from their other 78's.
This would've been a quick way for AA to get some extra capacity.
Problem is that AA does NOT want any more -8 and prefer the more advanced -9 that have longer range. AA has stated repeatedly they have no desire to operate wide bodies Domestically because offering that type of equipment on routes that do not bring in a premium fare is not worth the expense.
I agree that AA could use these. Not necessarily for the long term but at least until they finally, if ever, get sufficient wide-body capacity.
Agreed, but the cost to overhaul interiors and integrate them into the fleet is prohibitive on a 10+ year old airframe.
Taking delivery of 788s would also create the question of a new (flagship suite?) LOPA on that fleet at a time when the 77W and 772 fleets are already behind on retrofits. Why install an old product when AA is likely to update all 788’s when the 772s are completed?
Also worth mentioning that CZ has retrofited their 788s in the late 2010s, so seats aren’t that old, especially when compared to 788s used by Xiamen Air which CZ partially owns
Global Airlines should've pitched in to beef up their A380 fleet.
Landing in Bangkok in 2022 was crazy. Thai airways planes parked as far as the eye could see. All faded. Often with engine covers. A380s included.
Glad to see them on the upswing.
I think they somehow need to refresh the interior. The CZ 787-8 only has 18 business class seats and the whole cabin is not functioning very well.
I believe the interiors will have a minor refresh, change of seat fabrics to match the rest of the TG fleet, but from I heard, they will only be on a 5 year lease to cover them until the new 787s arrive from Boeing. So I doubt much else will be done
Uh oh, you've been TGed!