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Air China


中国国际航空公司
Air China
IATA/ICAO	CA/CCA
Founded	1988
Fleet size	293 (+250 orders)
Destinations	185
Headquarters	Beijing Tianzhu Airport Industrial Zone
Website	Official website

Air China Limited is the flag carrier and one of the major airlines of the People's Republic of China, with its headquarters in Shunyi District, Beijing .

Air China's flight operations are based out of Beijing Capital International Airport and is the world's 10th largest airline by fleet size. The airline ranked behind its main competitors China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines in terms of total passengers carried.

The enterprise logo of Air China consists of an artistic phoenix pattern, the name of the airline written in calligraphy by former national leader Deng Xiaoping, and "AIR CHINA" in English. The phoenix logo is also the artistic transfiguration of the word "VIP". Air China is a member of the Star Alliance.

In 2010, Air China carried 60 million domestic and international passengers with an average load factor of 80%. The airline reported a net profit of 12 billion yuan (USD $1.83 billion) in 2010.

History

In 2012 Air China launched a Facebook campaign in collaboration with Asian restaurants in Sweden, where participants could check in using their smartphones and win a flight to Beijing .

On January 15, 2013, Air China announced that it will offer nonstop flights from Beijing , China to Houston using a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft beginning July 11, 2013 pending approval from the US Department of Transportation.

Fleet

As of February 7, 2013, the Air China fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 6.6 years

Aircraft	In Service	Orders
Airbus A319-100	30	0
Airbus A320-200	28	3
Airbus A321-200	38	20
Airbus A330-200	30	1
Airbus A330-300	10	13
Airbus A340-300	6	0
Airbus A350-900	0	10
Boeing 737-300	13	0
Boeing 737-700	20	1
Boeing 737-800	87	133
Boeing 747-400	4	0
Boeing 747-400M	5	0
Boeing 747-8I	0	5
Boeing 757-200	8	0
Boeing 777-200	19	0
Boeing 777-300ER	11	9
Boeing 787-9	0	15
COMAC C919	0	20
Total	272	252

Destinations

Air China's route network extends throughout Asia to the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America from its main hub at Beijing Capital International Airport. It also currently reaches a significant number of Asian, Australian and European destinations from Shanghai . Some international routes operate from Chengdu, Chongqing , Dalian, Dubai, Hangzhou, Kunming, Nanning and Xiamen .

On 10 December 2006, Air China began serving its first South American destination, São Paulo (via Madrid). This was the airline's longest direct flight. The service was initiated with Boeing 767-300 aircraft, but due to increased demand, the service has been upgraded to the Airbus A330-200.

Air China introduced its new Airbus A330-300 aircraft long-haul operations beginning with services to Düsseldorf, Germany in summer 2011. These aircraft provided the same two-class cabin standard as the Airbus 330-200 except that the economy cabin had no seat-back entertainment system installed (with the exception of the first two economy rows which also had increased legroom). Düsseldorf is now the third German destination on the Air China network. The airline launched a new Beijing-Milan service on 15 June 2011, complementing the airline's existing Shanghai Pudong-Milan service.

Deliveries of the carrier's 19 new Boeing 777-300ERs commenced in mid-2011, and Air China stated that the aircraft will form the "backbone of its future longhaul operations". The new Boeing 777-300ER will ultimately replace Boeing 747–400 on routes to U.S. destinations such as Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, but is expected to first enter service on flights to Paris from March 2012. The Boeing 777-300ER will replace all 747 service once sufficient numbers enter the fleet. Air China expanded its operations in India with a Beijing-Mumbai route begun in September 2011, while the existing Delhi route was upgraded to the A330. The airline also launched service to Mumbai from Chengdu on 2 May 2012.

The airline announced that it plans to use the Boeing 777-300ER on one of its two daily Beijing-Los Angeles flights beginning 1 February 2012. Beginning in late-2012 to early 2013, the airline will replace the Boeing 747-400s currently servicing the New York and San Francisco routes with the Boeing 777-300ER.