Last week, on December 31st, Chongqing Airlines took delivery of its first Airbus A321neo aircraft. The new jet, complete with the "Airbus Cabin Flex" (ACF) configuration, successfully landed at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport with a water canon salute. This brings the fleet of Chongqing Airlines to 28 aircraft.

The aircraft

According to CH-Aviation, the new A321neo aircraft with registration number B-30E3 took off from Hamburg, Germany on December 30th. It made a stopover in the Kazakh capital city of Nur-Sultan before arriving at its new home in Chongqing, China.

The airline says that, once its brand new A321neo aircraft is fully inducted, it will mainly be flying service between Chongqing and Beijing as well as Shenzhen and other major markets during peak times.

This new jet is powered by a pair of CFM International LEAP-1A engines and has a total of 208 seats. The configuration is split up with eight in business class, 24 in premium economy, and 176 in economy.

A photo of the new aircraft's interior. Photo: Chongqing Airlines

In time for Chinese New Year

The aircraft comes just in time for the busy 2020 Chinese New Year travel period. According to the airline, travel spikes between January 10 to February 18. This Chinese New Year comes much earlier than usual as it typically begins in early/mid-February. This additional aircraft will provide some much-needed capacity for this holiday season.

This is what the airline had to say about increased demand:

"...civil aviation is expected to carry 79 million passengers, an increase of 8.4%. Before the holiday, student flow and labor flow overlap each other, and passenger flow is more concentrated. In order to meet the travel needs of the majority of passengers during the Spring Festival, Chongqing Airlines plans to increase the number of flights by 1046..."

The new aircraft's first commercial flight - OQ2301. Photo: FlightRadar24

As part of this holiday period, Chongqing Airlines is increasing frequencies on the following routes out of Chongqing:

  • Zhuhai,
  • Huizhou,
  • Wenzhou,
  • Fuzhou,
  • Ningbo,
  • Taizhou,
  • Dali,
  • Tengchong,
  • Xishuangbanna
  • Beihai,
  • Changchun,
  • Haikou,
  • Zhanjiang,
  • Wenzhou,
  • Ningbo,
  • Shijiazhuang
  • Wuhan
  • and Guangzhou.

"At the same time, existing flight schedules will continue to be optimized to make it easier for passengers to return home to visit relatives or travel." the airline adds.

Conclusion

CH-Aviation also notes that Chongqing Airlines is planning to expand its fleet in order to meet ever-growing demand in the region. This will happen at a rate of 5-9 aircraft per year.

The subsidiary of China Southern Airlines has been expanding its fleet of eight A319-100s, ten A320ceo, and nine A320-200neo to now include this first A321-200neoLR. This delivery marks the first of three A321neoLR jets that Chongqing Airlines will take from Airbus during the first half of 2020.

We reached out to Airbus for a statement and will update this article if any response is received.