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{{Short description|Chinese airline}}{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}}

factoids

| image = | logo = Sichuan Airlines logo.svg| logo_size = | IATA = 3U| ICAO = CSC WORK=FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION ACCESS-DATE=22 JUNE 2019 URL-STATUS=LIVE ARCHIVE-DATE=3 FEBRUARY 2017, dmy-all, Chengdu, Sichuan| key_people = Li Haiying (Chairman)| aoc = WEBSITE=CH-AVIATION.COM, 21 November 2023, weblink}}}}

factoids

Sichuan Airlines is the largest airline in Western China, headquartered in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.The airline is based in Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, operating mainly scheduled domestic and international flights out of Chengdu Shuangliu Airport, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport and Kunming Changshui International Airport. Sichuan Airlines is also the first airline in mainland China to operate Airbus A320 and the first batch of airlines in mainland China to receive Airbus A350.

History

The airline was established on 19 September 1986 as Sichuan Airlines Company, its first flight was on 14 July 1988 between Chengdu and Wanzhou.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}The airline was later restructured as Sichuan Airlines Co., Ltd. on 29 August 2002, in which the Sichuan Airlines Co., Ltd. Group became the major shareholder (40%). The other shareholders are China Southern Airlines (39%), China Eastern Airlines (10%), Air China Group (10%) and Chengdu Gingko Restaurant Co. (1%).WEB,weblink Sichuan Airlines, China: Brief Introduction, Hub, Aircraft Type, www.travelchinaguide.com, 2018-09-21, WEB,weblink zh:四川航空简介_四川航空股份有限公司简介-四川航空官网, Sichuan Air, zh-cn, 2018-09-21, In 2018, the airline was the 42th largest airline group in the world ranked by traffic.WEB,weblink World Airline Rankings, 2019, Flight Global,

Corporate affairs

Operations

Sichuan Airlines' corporate headquarters is located in its hub Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in Shuangliu District, Chengdu, Sichuan,WEB,weblink Privacy Policy, Sichuan Airlines, 2024-04-06, Address: Aviation Building, Shuangliu International Airport, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China., WEB,weblink Scal.html, Sichuan Airlines, 2022-03-24, 公司地址 成都双流国际机场川航大厦, - Alternate address: "NO.68，4th JiChang South Road,ShuangLiu District,Cheng Du City,SiChuan Province" and its secondary hubs are at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport and Kunming Changshui International Airport.

Subsidiary

Sichuan Airlines owns Chengdu Airlines as its subsidiary, which also has its hub at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport. Chengdu Airlines was formerly named as United Eagle Airlines, and was renamed to Chengdu Airlines to help lift the image of Chengdu on behalf of the city's government, according to an anonymous official of Sichuan Airlines. In late 2009, Sichuan Airlines sold some of its share of Chengdu Airlines to aircraft manufacturer Comac and the Chengdu Communications Investment Group. Chengdu Airlines is the first operator of the Comac ARJ21.NEWS,weblink China's COMAC delivers first ARJ21 jet plane to domestic airline, Reuters, November 28, 2015, 2017-06-30,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20151203121845weblink">weblink 2015-12-03, live,

Branding

Sichuan Airlines' logo is a haiyan ({{zh|labels=no|c=海燕}}) that is soaring with high temperament, symbolizing the company's entrepreneurial spirit. The circle represents the earth and the four wave patterns represents a hundred rivers going into the sea and carrying back virtues, corresponding to the core values of Sichuan Airlines' "truthfulness, goodness, beauty, love", symbolizing that Sichuan Airlines takes off from the inland and connects the stability of land civilization and the outward development of marine civilization.WEB,weblink zh-cn, zh:川航标志介绍_四川航空品牌介绍-四川航空官网, Sichuan Airlines, 2018-09-22, In addition to the logo, Sichuan Airlines gives emphasis to the Chinese character "" in which not only the character means river or a shortened name of Sichuan, but also that the character is defined as running through and gathering. It means that Sichuan Airlines is engaged in aviation flight and had built a world-class fleet that connects five continents, improving its network radiation capability and opening more international routes to build a bridge between Western China and the world and to integrate the world's corporate vision.

Destinations

Sichuan Airlines is operating mainly flights in East Asia. (Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, Guangzhou, Lhasa, Kunming, Urumqi, Kathmandu, etc.){{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}Others destinations include Australia (Sydney, Melbourne), New Zealand (Auckland), Africa (Cairo), Western Asia (Dubai, Tel Aviv), Southeast Asia (Singapore, Bangkok), Europe (Prague, Zurich, Copenhagen, Rome, Helsinki) and North America (Vancouver, Los Angeles), etc.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}The airline launched its first long-haul overseas route in June 2012 with flights from its Chengdu hub to Vancouver, Canada. Its second long-haul flight, from Chengdu to Melbourne, Australia, was launched in February 2013 with three weekly services. On 17 October 2016 the airline launched twice-a-week service from Chengdu via Hangzhou to Los Angeles (LAX).WEB,weblink Sichuan Airlines launches first US service, 18 October 2016, anna.aero, 19 October 2016, In 2016, Sichuan Airlines started twice-a-week flights to its first European destination, Prague.WEB,weblink Sichuan Airlines Launches Non-stop10-hour Service between Chengdu and Prague, www.gochengdu.cn, en, 24 March 2017, On June 23, 2018, Sichuan Airlines launched service from Chengdu to Zurich via Prague. It was the first fifth freedom flight for the airline. It was also the only airline operating this route with Airbus A330 wide body aircraft.NEWS,weblink Sichuan Airlines adds Swiss service to Zurich, a route flown via Prague, 2018-06-27, anna.aero, 2018-08-18, en-GB,

Codeshare agreements

Sichuan Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:WEB,weblink Profile on Sichuan Airlines, CAPA, Centre for Aviation, 2 November 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20161102185742weblink">weblink 2 November 2016, live, {{Div col}}

• Air China
• Chengdu Airlines
• China Eastern Airlines
• China Express Airlines
• China Southern Airlines
• Juneyao Air
• Kunming Airlines
• Shandong Airlines
• Shanghai Airlines
• Shenzhen Airlines
• Tibet Airlines
• XiamenAir

{{Div col end}}

Fleet

Current fleet

File:B-302T@PEK (20190829170215).jpg|thumb|A Sichuan Airlines Airbus A321neoAirbus A321neoFile:Sichuan Airlines Airbus A330-200 B-6518 (40626846374).jpg|thumb|An Airbus A330-200 flying into Melbourne AirportMelbourne Airport(File:B-304V@PEK (20191119161234).jpg|thumb|A Sichuan Airlines Airbus A350)File:Economy class cabin of B-8500 (20230927171729).jpg|thumb|Airbus A320-200 economy class cabin]]{{As of|2023|12}}, Sichuan Airlines operates an all-Airbus fleet composed of the following aircraft:JOURNAL, Sichuan Airlines fleet,weblink Plane Spotters, April 2019, 12 March 2019, JOURNAL, Global Airline Guide 2019 (Part One), Airliner World, October 2019, 11, {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin:0.2em auto"|+ Sichuan Airlines Fleet ! rowspan="2" | Aircraft! rowspan="2" style="width:65px;" | In Service! rowspan="2" style="width:40px;" | Orders! colspan="3" | Passengers! rowspan="2" | Notes ! J! Y! Total|Airbus A319-100|23|—|8|124|132||Airbus A320-200|53|—|8|142|150|B-6388 in Chinese Dragon livery.B-6719 in Yunnan livery.|Airbus A320neo|27|—|8|150PUBLISHER=CH-AVIATION, 7 September 2017, ||Airbus A321-200|43|—|8|186|194|B-1663 in "100th Aircraft" livery.|Airbus A321neo|26|2|8|190|198||Airbus A330-200|4|—|36|209|245|One aircraft painted in panda livery.|Airbus A330-300|7|—|36|265WEBSITE=CDN.CARNOC.COM ACCESS-DATE=22 APRIL 2018, |B-5923 and B-5929 in "Wuliangye" livery.B-5945 in 2021 Summer Universiade livery.|Airbus A350-900|8DATE=22 SEPTEMBER 2016 ACCESS-DATE=24 SEPTEMBER 2016, HTTPS://WWW.CH-AVIATION.COM/PORTAL/NEWS/64269-CHINAS-SICHUAN-AIRLINES-ORDERS-TEN-A350-900S>TITLE=CHINA'S SICHUAN AIRLINES ORDERS TEN A350-900SACCESS-DATE=22 APRIL 2018, |28|303|331|B-325J and B-306N in Panda Route Livery. B-304V and B-304U in Chengdu FISU World University Games. B-301D in Panda Livery. |Comac C919|—|20TBA|!colspan="7"|Sichuan Airlines Cargo fleet|Airbus A330-200F|3|—Cargo|Airbus A330-300>Airbus A330-300/P2F|1|1CargoPUBLISHER=CH-AVIATION, 17 February 2022, !Total!192!32!colspan="4"|

Special Liveries

File:B-301D@PEK (20180816135704).jpg|Sichuan Airlines took delivery of their first Airbus A350 XWB in August 2018File:Sichuan Airlines Airbus A320-232 (Chinese Dragon Livery) B-6388 (8719587351).jpg|Sichuan Airlines Chinese Dragon LiveryFile:B-1663@PEK (20180103150326).jpg|The 100th Sichuan Airlines A321File:B-5929@PEK (20191119141414).jpg|The Sichuan Airlines Airbus A330 painted by "Wuliangye"File:B-5960 - Sichuan Airlines (Changhong Livery) - Airbus A330-343 - 1579 - VGHS.jpg|The Sichuan Airlines Airbus A330 painted by “Changhong”File:Sichuan Airlines Lounge.jpg|thumb|Sichuan Airlines lounge at Chongqing Jiangbei International AirportChongqing Jiangbei International Airport

Former fleet

File:B-3497 (7487660062).jpg|thumb|The Xi'an Y-7Xi'an Y-7{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;margin:0.2em auto;"|+ Sichuan Airlines Retired Fleet !Aircraft!Total!Introduced!Retired!Notes|Airbus A319-100|1|2010|2016||Airbus A320-200|13|1996|2019||Airbus A321-100|2|2003|2015||Airbus A321-200|4|1998|2018||Airbus A330-200|1|2012|2014||Antonov An-24|{{Unknown}}|{{Unknown}}|{{Unknown}}||Boeing 737-300|1|2000|2001||Embraer ERJ 145|5|2000|2011||Tupolev Tu-154|6|1992|2001WEBSITE=RZJETS.NET, 2019-12-02, |Xian MA60|{{Unknown}}|{{Unknown}}|{{Unknown}}||Xian Y-7|{{Unknown}}|{{Unknown}}|{{Unknown}}access-date=2020-12-14language=en}}

Golden Panda

The Golden Panda Club is a frequent-flyer program launched by Sichuan Airlines. It can accumulate every flight mileage and enjoy free tickets and other product rewards. When the mileage reaches a certain standard, it can be upgraded to a VIP member and enjoy free upgrades. Free first class lounge waiting, free baggage allowance and other value-added services.WEB,weblink Service Guide of SCAL Golden Panda Club Member, global.sichuanair.com, en, 2018-09-22,

Accidents and incidents

• On 24 January 2003, Sichuan Airlines Flight 434, an Embraer EMB-145 from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, one man attempted to hijack the airplane and ignited home-made explosives, which injured a passenger and also himself. He was subdued by a security officer.NEWS,weblink Aviation Safely Network (ASN), Sichuan Airlines Flight 434, 24 January 2003, 28 July 2015,

• On 14 May 2018, Sichuan Airlines Flight 8633, an Airbus A319 from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport to Lhasa Gonggar Airport, diverted to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport after a windshield on the copilot's side of the cockpit blew off, intrinsically similar to the 1990 British Airways Flight 5390 Incident, resulting in a loss of a part of the flight control panel. The flight crew made a difficult landing with decompression failure and extremely low temperature. The copilot and a flight attendant were reported injured.NEWS,weblink Sichuan Airlines jet makes emergency landing after cockpit..., reuters.com, 2018-05-14, en-US, NEWS,weblink BREAKING: Sichuan Airlines Airbus A319 Loses Windscreen; Crew Injuries Reported {{!, TheAvgeek|date=2018-05-14|work=TheAvgeek|access-date=2018-05-14|language=en-US}}WEB,weblinkweblink 2021-12-12, live, South China Morning Post: Sichuan Airlines pilots recall moment cockpit window blew out in mid-air, YouTube, 2018-05-27, {{cbignore}} Later the incident was adapted into the film "The Captain (2019 film)" and was also featured in the documentary series Mayday.

See also

• Civil aviation in China
• List of airlines of China
• List of airports in China
• List of companies of China
• Transport in China
• The Captain (2019 film)

References

{{reflist}}

External links

{{commons category-inline|Sichuan Airlines}}

• Official website

{{Sichuan Airlines}}{{Airlines of the People's Republic of China}}{{Navboxes|list ={{Air China}}{{China Eastern Airlines}}{{China Southern Airlines}}{{IATA members|china}}{{Transport in China}}}}{{authority control}}