China Southern continues their fleet expansion with the signing of an order for 12 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
China Southern Boeing 787 taking off from Guangzhou – Image (c) The Boeing Company
China Southern will a total of 12 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners (the larger model from the baseline 787-8). For the airline, the 787 won’t be a new operation to them as they currently operate the 787-8 in their fleet.
The airline was the launch customer of the 787 Dreamliner in the Asia/China region, which allowed them to open new routes to London, Vancouver, Perth, Christchurch and Rome – demonstrating the “long and thin” nature that the 787 was designed for.
So why the new planes?
Tan Wangeng, CEO, China Southern Airlines states:
“The 787 Dreamliners have helped us to achieve initial success in implementing our internationalization strategy in the past few years and enabled us to make our operation and services more appealing to passengers,”
“The additional new 787-9s will further increase our capacity and services for our long-haul routes.”
Translating CEO to English: More flights and route expansion. (Editors note: You wonder with some of the fluff that comes out when they write these PR’s..)
The order is valued at US$3.2 billion at list prices, with deliveries from 2018.
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Garrett says
I think you mean $3.2 billion, no?
Kevincm says
It’s all decimal points. Besides, we all know list prices means 😉
Updated.