The Fleet Of Mainland China’s Second SkyTeam Airline: XiamenAir

Despite having a larger collection of aircraft than major airlines like Air Canada or KLM, XiamenAir’s fleet of aircraft is far from the largest in its home country of China. The Chinese carrier, also known as Xiamen Airlines, has a fleet of 167 aircraft- all of which happen to be Boeing. Let’s take a look at what this airline is flying these days.

XiamenAir relies on a large fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners for its long-haul and high-capacity services. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

The XiamenAir fleet at a glance

Let’s first take a look at the composition of the airline’s fleet as a whole, according to data from ch-aviation.com. We should note that there is a slight discrepancy with data from Planespotters.net, which shows two fewer planes

The aircraft types, all from Boeing, are listed below with quantities in parentheses:

• 737-700 (9)
• 737-800 (136)
• 737 MAX 8 (10)
• 787-8 (6)
• 787-9 (6)

XiamenAir relies on the narrowbody 737 type for its shorter, lower-capacity routes. Photo: Getty Images

The relatively simple fleet

When you boil down the numbers to the basic types of aircraft, XiamenAir’s fleet only consists of two types of planes: The Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the 737. While XiamenAir is a full-service legacy airline, it appears to have adopted a fleet strategy more common with budget airlines in operating a less diverse collection.

In doing so, the airline would have money on pilot training and maintenance, only having to worry about two types of planes- both coming from the same manufacturer.

On an interesting historical note, the airline has always been all-Boeing, having had nine 757-200s in recent years. These longer narrowbodies were completely phased out in late 2018.

Around the start of the pandemic, there was news that the airline would drop its loyalty to Boeing and place an order for 10 A321neos. However, this has yet to materialize, even with nearly two years passing.

In August of 2021, XiamenAir celebrated its maiden flight to Beijing Daxing International Airport. The carrier has shifted all of its Beijing operations to the new airport. Photo: XiamenAir

155 Boeing 737s

Used for its short and medium-haul services, XiamenAir relies on a collection of 155 737s across three variants. Clearly, the largest sub-fleet is made up of 737-800s, of which the airline has 136.

While quite a large portion of the 737 fleet is configured in an all-economy layout, the airline does have a portion of 737-800s with two classes: eight business class seats and 162 seats in economy class.

Of course, 10 737s aren’t operational at the moment. Of course, these specific aircraft are XiamenAir’s 737 MAX 8s. China is one of the last major markets yet to recertify the next-generation jet- although progress is being made slowly. This leaves XiamenAir and several other Chinese operators unable to fly the plane. It was back in May of 2018 that the carrier took delivery of its very first 737 MAX. XiamenAir had initially ordered 30 in March of 2018, requesting 20 MAX 8s and 10 MAX 10s.

It looks like this order has been adjusted, with data from both ch-aviation.com and planespotters.net indicating that only 18 MAX 8s are’ future deliveries.’

Just 12 widebodies

For its long-haul operations, XiamenAir has 12 Boeing 787 Dreamliners- six of the shorter -8 and another six of the -9 variant. The airline’s -8s are configured with four seats in first, 18 in business class, and 215 in economy.

Meanwhile, the airline’s -9s have just two classes: 30 seats in business and 257 in economy class.

Have you ever flown with SkyTeam alliance airline XiamenAir? Share your experiences with us by leaving a comment.

from Simple Flying https://ift.tt/3FhFym6
via IFTTT