Chinese carriers took delivery of 424 aircraft in 2017

Chinese carriers introduced 424 aircraft—407 passenger aircraft and 17 freighters—in 2017, expanding their total fleet to 3,261 aircraft (3,118 passenger aircraft and 143 freighters) at year-end.

As of Dec. 31, 2017, China’s three largest carriers by fleet size were:

China Southern Airlines, operated 545 aircraft and took delivery of 50.

China Eastern, which operated 487 aircraft and introduced 54.

Air China, which operated 387 aircraft and introduced 32.

Narrow-body aircraft accounted for 81.5% of China’s airlines’ total fleet.

Air China became the first Chinese carrier to take delivery of the Boeing 737 MAX in November 2017, followed by 20 MAX aircraft delivered to Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Hainan Airlines and China Eastern subsidiary Shanghai Airlines in November and December 2017.

In addition, Air China, China Southern, Tianjin Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and West Air introduced a total of 18 Airbus A320neos in 2017.

Domestic airlines took delivery of 57 wide-body aircraft, comprising seven Boeing 777-300ERs; 18 Boeing 787-9s and 32 A330s, expanding Chinese carriers’ total wide-body fleet to 353 aircraft, which was dominated (60%) by A330 family aircraft as of Dec. 31, 2017.

In 2017, seven Chinese carriers introduced 17 freighters, which increased domestic airlines’ total freighter fleet to 143 aircraft (51 Boeing 737Fs and 30 Boeing 757Fs)

(Katie Cantle - ATWOnline News)