China Eastern Airlines Reviews
For the history of China Eastern Airlines (中国东方航空公司) or Zhongguodongfanghangkonggongsi, founded on June 25, 1988, it is currently one of the “Big Three” or 3 giants of Chinese commercial airlines, consisting of Air China, China Southern Airlines, and China Eastern Airlines.
The company currently has its headquarters in Shanghai, with a base providing both passenger and cargo services throughout China. It has a fleet of 601 aircraft and has several subsidiary airlines.
The year 1988 was the birth year of China’s commercial aviation industry. Previously, CAAC Airlines was the only state-owned airline that monopolized domestic air travel under the Civil Aviation Administration of the Huadong Administration.
However, after 36 years of operation of CAAC Airlines, the government split the business of CAAC Airlines into 6 new airlines in 1988. Because the management of CAAC Airlines at that time, the government had to bear a large service burden, almost leading to bankruptcy.
The airline was split into 6 airlines in 1988, each serving a specific region, such as China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines.
After being separated from China Eastern Airlines for about 9 years, in 1997, China Eastern Airlines acquired China General Aviation because it was no longer profitable, and later became the first airline in the country to offer shares in the international market. In 1998, it joined forces with COSCO, a major Chinese container shipping company, to provide air cargo services under the name China Cargo Airlines.
Then in 2001, it acquired Great Wall Airlines, and two years later, China Eastern Airlines acquired two major Chinese airlines, China Yunnan Airlines and China Northwest Airlines, making it the fastest-growing domestic airline in China, apart from the state-owned national carrier Air China. The late 1990s saw a significant growth in China’s aviation industry.
In the late 2000s, China Eastern Airlines experienced another significant growth, with its first acquisition of Shanghai Airlines in 2009 to expand its freight service between mainland China and Hong Kong, as well as international flights from Hong Kong to neighboring regions.
China Eastern Airlines is currently the second largest shareholder of Air France–KLM with a 9.6% stake. It also has several commercial, cargo and low-cost airlines, including China Cargo Airlines, China United Airlines, OTT Airlines and Shanghai Airlines.
In recent years, China has developed its domestic aircraft manufacturing industry by leaps and bounds. The latest aircraft that China successfully developed and put into service domestically, the COMAC ARJ21-700, has been the main purchaser of China Eastern Airlines for its low-cost carrier OTT Airlines. It is the first Chinese airline to use the aircraft for commercial passenger service on short-haul routes.
According to Forbes in 2020, China Eastern Airlines ranked 10th among the world’s top-performing airlines with revenue of approximately 17.3 billion US dollars. It has a total of around 77,000 employees and is also the world’s 6th largest airline in terms of fleet size, with 600 aircraft.
