China Xinhua: Hainan's Beijing Chamaeleon

The ownership of many Chinese airlines is murky and hard to understand, partly because of the controlling and obscure nature of the Chinese State and partly because of the myriad of state run companies. China Xinhua is something of an enigma, as though nowadays it still has jets it is hard to say whether it really exists at all! Indeed it is not alone in being an obscure part of the airline rich HNA group of companies.

China Xinhua Airlines Boeing 737-800 B-2908 - Panda Models 1/400 Scale

China Xinhua was one of a range of smaller Chinese airlines that sprung up during the 1990s using the aircraft of choice at the time - the Boeing 737-300. Several of these small local government backed startups would go onto become major Chinese airlines (I'm thinking Shandong Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines) whilst some would stay small and get sucked up by the majors (Zhongyuan Airlines and Wuhan Airlines for example). China Xinhua would straddle the line between semi-independence and cultural assimilation. In fact it is often hard to be certain that the airline really even exists anymore!

China Xinhua Airlines was formed in August 1992 as a joint venture between the Beijing Municipal Government and other unidentified (by me at least) financiers. The name is a little odd as Xinhua means 'New China' so the airline is really called 'China New China Airlines'! Initial equipment came in the form of a single new Boeing 737-300 registered B-2908. This aircraft, a series 341, was built for VARIG as PP-VPC but was not taken up by the Brasilian flag carrier. She joined Xinhua on April 15, 1993.

It appears Xinhua was able to take advantage of the weak global economy at the time as they also acquired a pair of 737-332s from the factory, which were originally to be N304DE and N305DE for Delta. These joined the fleet as B-2942 and 2943 in November 1993. A fourth 737 (a 39K - B-2934) joined in December and a fifth in August 1994 (a 37K - B-2945). China Xinhua operated from its base at Beijing Capital as well as relatively nearby Tianjin and more distant Shenzhen. Cities served included Changzhou, Haikou, Hefei, Jinan, Kunming, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenyang, Wenzhou and Xian.

A sixth and last 737-300 was leased from Boullioun Aviation Services in 1997 becoming B-2982. Along with this frame came 3 737-46Qs and a single 737-4Y0 in 1996/97. With ten 737s China Xinhua represented a sizeable Chinese airline for the time. The end of the 2000s signalled a government backed consolidation of the Chinese airline scene, which would lead to, in 2003, the swallowing of many airlines into the big three. China Xinhua avoided this but probably only because by then it had been acquired by the expansionist Hainan Airlines group. This seems to have occured in 2001 at about the same time two other airlines were also acquired (Shaanxi Airlines and Changan Airlines).

At the time Hainan Airlines was far from the behemoth it is today and was only slightly larger than China Xinhua. Over the next few years all three would come to operate their flights under the parent's HU designator and gradually lose their own identities as they took on the Hainan livery with their own titles. In fact it appears that the original airlines were effectively swallowed and left to operate only as names on a few jets, probably due to the surviving partnerships with local government and subsidies that they derived from those sources.

B-5082 in the late 2000s Hainan Airlines livery

China Xinhua's fleet was added to in late 2003 by a pair of used 737-800s leased from GECAS. Subsequently all the original 737s have been withdrawn (with all the series 300s going to either Yangtze River Express or Donghai as freighters) and replaced by 6 ex-Hainan Airlines 737-84Ps. Lacking its own identity it is hard to find out much if any information about the modern China Xinhua. Certainly the Hainan Airlines group (HNA) ownership is very convoluted. For a time it was suggested that Shaanxi, Changan and Xinhua would combine with the newer entity called Grand China Air (which is separate to Hainan but part owned by it and confusingly part owns Hainan too!!!).

This doesn't have seemed to happen but neither has Grand China Air become the new name for the Hainan Airlines group itself, which was also mooted. Instead Grand China remains a minor operator of 737s as seemingly does China Xinhua itself. Shan Xi Airlines as it's now known has only a single 737-800 in its own name. Interestingly Chang An Airlines itself has recently regained its independence from Hainan Airlines so it is not an impossibility that China Xinhua, which showed so much early promise, may also follow the same path. Only time will tell.