Sichuan Airlines 四川航空

IATA ICAO Callsign 3U CSC SICHUAN
Founded	19 September 1986; 37 years ago
Commenced operations	14 July 1988; 35 years ago
Hubs	Chengdu–Shuangliu Chengdu–Tianfu Chongqing Kunming
Focus cities	Beijing–Capital Harbin Hangzhou Lhasa Nanning Sanya Xi'an
Frequent-flyer program	Golden Panda
Subsidiaries	Chengdu Airlines Sichuan Airlines Logistics Sichuan Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (73.04%)
Fleet size	192
Destinations	142
Parent company	Sichuan Airlines Co., Ltd. Group (40%) China Southern Airlines (39%) China Eastern Airlines (10%) Air China (10%)
Headquarters	Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, Chengdu, Sichuan
Key people	Li Haiying (Chairman)
Employees	more than 6,000
Website	global.sichuanair.com

Sichuan Airlines is the largest airline in Western China, headquartered in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

The airline is based in Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, operating mainly scheduled domestic and international flights out of Chengdu Shuangliu Airport, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport and Kunming Changshui International Airport. Sichuan Airlines is also the first airline in mainland China to operate Airbus A320 and the first batch of airlines in mainland China to receive Airbus A350.

History

The airline was established on 19 September 1986 as Sichuan Airlines Company, its first flight was on 14 July 1988 between Chengdu and Wanzhou.

The airline was later restructured as Sichuan Airlines Co., Ltd. on 29 August 2002, in which the Sichuan Airlines Co., Ltd. Group became the major shareholder (40%). The other shareholders are China Southern Airlines (39%), China Eastern Airlines (10%), Air China Group (10%) and Chengdu Gingko Restaurant Co. (1%).

In 2018, the airline was the 42th largest airline group in the world ranked by traffic.

Corporate affairs

Operations

Sichuan Airlines' corporate headquarters is located in its hub Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in Shuangliu District, Chengdu, Sichuan, and its secondary hubs are at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport and Kunming Changshui International Airport.

Subsidiary

Sichuan Airlines owns Chengdu Airlines as its subsidiary, which also has its hub at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport. Chengdu Airlines was formerly named as United Eagle Airlines, and was renamed to Chengdu Airlines to help lift the image of Chengdu on behalf of the city's government, according to an anonymous official of Sichuan Airlines. In late 2009, Sichuan Airlines sold some of its share of Chengdu Airlines to aircraft manufacturer Comac and the Chengdu Communications Investment Group. Chengdu Airlines is the first operator of the Comac ARJ21.

Branding

Sichuan Airlines' logo is a haiyan (海燕) that is soaring with high temperament, symbolizing the company's entrepreneurial spirit. The circle represents the earth and the four wave patterns represents a hundred rivers going into the sea and carrying back virtues, corresponding to the core values of Sichuan Airlines' "truthfulness, goodness, beauty, love", symbolizing that Sichuan Airlines takes off from the inland and connects the stability of land civilization and the outward development of marine civilization.

In addition to the logo, Sichuan Airlines gives emphasis to the Chinese character "川" in which not only the character means river or a shortened name of Sichuan, but also that the character is defined as running through and gathering. It means that Sichuan Airlines is engaged in aviation flight and had built a world-class fleet that connects five continents, improving its network radiation capability and opening more international routes to build a bridge between Western China and the world and to integrate the world's corporate vision.

Destinations

Sichuan Airlines is operating mainly flights in East Asia. (Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, Guangzhou, Lhasa, Kunming, Urumqi, Kathmandu, etc.)

Others destinations include Australia (Sydney, Melbourne), New Zealand (Auckland), Africa (Cairo), Western Asia (Dubai, Tel Aviv), Southeast Asia (Singapore, Bangkok), Europe (Prague, Zurich, Copenhagen, Rome, Helsinki) and North America (Vancouver, Los Angeles), etc.

The airline launched its first long-haul overseas route in June 2012 with flights from its Chengdu hub to Vancouver, Canada. Its second long-haul flight, from Chengdu to Melbourne, Australia, was launched in February 2013 with three weekly services. On 17 October 2016 the airline launched twice-a-week service from Chengdu via Hangzhou to Los Angeles (LAX). In 2016, Sichuan Airlines started twice-a-week flights to its first European destination, Prague. On June 23, 2018, Sichuan Airlines launched service from Chengdu to Zurich via Prague. It was the first fifth freedom flight for the airline. It was also the only airline operating this route with Airbus A330 wide body aircraft.

Codeshare agreements

Sichuan Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

• Air China
• Chengdu Airlines
• China Eastern Airlines
• China Express Airlines
• China Southern Airlines
• Juneyao Air
• Kunming Airlines
• Shandong Airlines
• Shanghai Airlines
• Shenzhen Airlines
• Tibet Airlines
• XiamenAir

Fleet

Current fleet

A Sichuan Airlines Airbus A321neo

An Airbus A330-200 flying into Melbourne Airport

A Sichuan Airlines Airbus A350

Airbus A320-200 economy class cabin

As of December 2023, Sichuan Airlines operates an all-Airbus fleet composed of the following aircraft:

Special Liveries

•  
• Sichuan Airlines took delivery of their first Airbus A350 XWB in August 2018
 
•  
• Sichuan Airlines Chinese Dragon Livery
 
•  
• The 100th Sichuan Airlines A321
 
•  
• The Sichuan Airlines Airbus A330 painted by "Wuliangye"
 
•  
• The Sichuan Airlines Airbus A330 painted by “Changhong”

Sichuan Airlines lounge at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport

Former fleet

The Xi'an Y-7 is Sichuan Airlines' first self-owned aircraftSichuan Airlines Retired Fleet

Golden Panda

The Golden Panda Club is a frequent-flyer program launched by Sichuan Airlines. It can accumulate every flight mileage and enjoy free tickets and other product rewards. When the mileage reaches a certain standard, it can be upgraded to a VIP member and enjoy free upgrades. Free first class lounge waiting, free baggage allowance and other value-added services.

Accidents and incidents

• On 24 January 2003, Sichuan Airlines Flight 434, an Embraer EMB-145 from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, one man attempted to hijack the airplane and ignited home-made explosives, which injured a passenger and also himself. He was subdued by a security officer.

• On 14 May 2018, Sichuan Airlines Flight 8633, an Airbus A319 from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport to Lhasa Gonggar Airport, diverted to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport after a windshield on the copilot's side of the cockpit blew off, intrinsically similar to the 1990 British Airways Flight 5390 Incident, resulting in a loss of a part of the flight control panel. The flight crew made a difficult landing with decompression failure and extremely low temperature. The copilot and a flight attendant were reported injured. Later the incident was adapted into the film "The Captain (2019 film)" and was also featured in the documentary series Mayday.