China Southern Airlines has finalised its order for 12 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, valued at $3.2 billion to further strengthen its expanding long-haul fleet.
The 787-9’s fuselage is six metres longer than the 787-8, offer seats for passengers and cargo capacity. Boeing says the 787-9 uses 20 per cent less fuel with 20 per cent fewer emissions than similar sized aircraft.
China Southern Airlines chief executive officer, Tan Wangeng says: “The 787 Dreamliners have helped us to achieve initial success in implementing our internationalisation 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.”
Boeing Commercial Airplanes senior vice president Northeast Asia Sales, Ihssane Mounir says: “China Southern has been a long-standing Boeing customer and we truly appreciate their confidence in the 787. The 787-9 will help the airline achieve a new level of efficiency and profitability.”
China Southern was the Chinese launch customer for the 787, operating 10 787-8s which enabled it to launch six new non-stop routes to London and Rome in Europe, Vancouver in North America and Perth, Auckland and Christchurch in Oceania.
