China Southern Airlines Orders 12 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners

China Southern Airlines has finalized an order for 12 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, valued at US$3.2 billion at current list prices.

China Southern Airlines, China's launch customer of the B787, currently operates 10 B787-8s.

The airplanes have enabled the Guangzhou-based carrier to launch six new non-stop global routes, connecting Guangzhou to London and Rome in Europe, Vancouver in North America, as well as Perth, Auckland and Christchurch in the Oceania area.

"The 787 Dreamliners have helped us to achieve initial success in implementing our internationalization strategy in the past few years and enabled us to make our operation and services more appealing to passengers," said Tan Wangeng, CEO, China Southern Airlines. "The additional new 787-9s will further increase our capacity and services for our long-haul routes."

The 787-9 complements and extends the 787 family. With the fuselage stretched by 6 meters (20 feet) over the 787-8, the 787-9 will fly more passengers and more cargo farther with the same environmental performance.

China's largest airline by fleet size, China Southern Airlines currently operates 700 aircraft. By 2020, the airline expects to have a fleet of 1,000 aircraft with passenger traffic surpassing 160 million annually.

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