Xiamen Airlines Buys 30 Boeing Jets for Over $3 Billion

Xiamen Airlines, a subsidiary of China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd., has signed a $3.24 billion deal to purchase 30 narrow-body planes from Boeing Co.

The order includes 20 737 Max 8s and 10 737 Max 10s jetliners, and will be delivered between 2019 and 2022, China Southern said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The deal “will help Xiamen Airlines maintain its streamlined and efficient fleet structure, expand the scale of transportation capacity and increase the core base capacity,” the filing said.

Xiamen Airlines Co. Ltd., which operates an all-Boeing fleet of over 160 jets, bought 39 737 Max 8s in 2015. Those jetliners are expected to be delivered through 2020.

The air-travel market in China has been booming amid a rapidly growing middle class. A Boeing report in September predicted that China’s commercial airlines will likely buy up to 7,240 new aircraft worth about $1.1 trillion over the next two decades.

China has become an important market to Boeing and archrival Airbus SAS. In 2017, Boeing delivered a total of 763 aircraft globally, among which nearly 30% was sent to China.

To compete for more orders, the U.S. manufacturer is building its first China production facility in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province. Construction began last year.

Airbus now operates a Tianjin factory. It’s building a new facility nearby for finishing work on wide-body A330 jetliners, with a helicopter plant in the northeastern city of Qingdao, Shandong province, that is also under construction.

Contact reporter Mo Yelin (yelinmo@caixin.com)