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The 1979 OPEC oil crisis, triggered by the Iranian Revolution, threw CP Air's equipment plans into chaos. As already described in part 2 the airline had bought new DC-10s, but it had also ordered four of Boeing's, then new, 767-200s (along with four options) for its North Atlantic routes. With the resulting global recession CP Air was instead looking for fleet rationalisation rather than expansion and the 767s would never see service. Chinese aviation has certainly come a long way in the past 30 years or so - see my history of Chinese airline development. I have a vague fondness for the original Civil Aviation Administration of China's (CAAC) airline as their 747SPs (hello Gemini wakey wakey) were regular visitors to London Gatwick when I was a kid. Still the creation of some competition and the 6 initial separate regional airlines (China Eastern, Southern, Southwest, Northern, Northwest and Air China) in 1987 was a major step forward for Chinese aviation which hasn't looked back since. CAAC itself didn't have the best reputation hence the spurious acronym in the blog title - one of several that existed at the time! The original 737-100 and 200 were not big sellers for Boeing in the 1960s even in the USA. Western was renowned for going against the norm having not operated DC-3s or 727-100s so the 737 was in a way a natural fit and the airline's choices were limited after it was forced to cancel its ten orders for the One-eleven. As with the 720 the 737-200 would go on to be a major component of the fleet and unlike the former it was never replaced, except by more 737-200s (the Advanced model). |
AuthorI'm Richard Stretton: a fan of classic airliners and airlines who enjoys exploring their history through my collection of die-cast airliners. If you enjoy the site please donate whatever you can to help keep it running: Archives
May 2024
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