Air China to expand fleet to 700 aircrafts

There will be more Air China flights now as the airline has decided to expand its fleet. The airline recently announced it will be expanding its fleet to nearly 700 aircrafts. As part of its fleet expansion program, the airline will be taking delivery of nearly 150-200 aircrafts annually in the next five years.

Wang Changshun, Chairman of Air China, said that by adding 700 aircrafts in its fleet the airline will be able to increase its capacity by around 10 percent.

Air China will be gradually phasing out its older aircrafts with the delivery of newer aircrafts keeping in with its fleet renewal program.
Beijing-based Air China is currently operating a fleet of nearly 290 aircrafts. However, its subsidiary Shenzhen Airlines now has a fleet of about 140 aircrafts.

According to Wang Changshun, presently the operating environment is quite challenging because of the fragile recovery of American economy, European debt crisis and the slowdown of Asian economy growth. He said that the present challenges are quite severe than the 2008 global financial crisis. Presenting a positive outlook of the Chinese economy, he said that it is maintaining its growth and domestic consumption upgrade is accelerating.