China Airlines Ltd’s (CAL, 中華航空) board of directors yesterday approved a plan to spend up to US$4.6 billion to purchase 16 Boeing Co 787-9 airplanes, with delivery scheduled to start in 2025.
The airline expects to receive all 16 new planes by the end of 2027, it said.
As the new planes arrive, the company would at the same time retire its older Airbus SE 330-300 aircraft for medium-haul services.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The new wide-body Boeing aircraft equipped with General Electric Co’s next-generation engines would be used mainly for regional routes, such as flights between Taiwan and Australia, as well as New Zealand, CAL said.
Asked why it did not opt for a similar wide-body plane such as the Airbus 330neo, CAL said that its primary concerns were fuel efficiency, maintenance costs and cargo capacity, as well as jet design and market acceptance.
In particular, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, CAL needs to make allowances for a new business model in which a passenger jet might also be utilized for air cargo business, it said, adding that the cabin of a 787-9 jet can accommodate 36 containers, much more than other wide-body aircraft.
The addition of the Boeing 787-9 planes would boost CAL’s cargo capacity, the airline said.
“Overall, our purchase task force gave Boeing 787-9 passenger jets the highest score among all wide-body aircraft, believing that the airplane would have the best utility,” the airline said.
CAL in September last year set up the task force responsible for determining the purchase of new aircraft and recently finalized its conclusion, the airline said.
The 787-9 aircraft’s fuel consumption and carbon emissions are 20 percent lower than that of older passenger jets, which would help the airline reach its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, it said.
The deal includes eight options allowing CAL to buy the bigger 787-10 aircraft if necessary, it said.
CAL has 65 passenger jets and 21 cargo jets.
CAL would be the second Taiwanese airline to purchase Boeing’s 787-9 aircraft, after EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) in 2018.
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