China Southern Airlines orders 12 787-9s

China Southern Airlines has finalized an order for 12 787-9 that will be delivered between 2018 and 2020.  This is another shot in the arm for the 787 which has been selling slowly this year.  Added to the order from Qatar Airways, China Eastern, and Ruili Airlines among others, Boeing has 61 787 orders this year, 33 from China alone.  This is a firm order and beings Boeing total 787 order book to 1,203.

Here's Boeing's statement:

Boeing, China Southern Airlines Finalize Order for 12 787-9 Dreamliners

China's largest carrier by fleet size to operate both variants of Dreamliner family

Oct. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] and China Southern Airlines today finalized an order of 12 787-9 Dreamliners, valued at $3.2 billion at current list prices. The new order strengthens China Southern's expanding long-haul fleet. 

"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." 

China Southern Airlines, China's launch customer of the 787, currently operates 10 787-8s. 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. 

China Southern has been a long-standing Boeing customer and we truly appreciate their confidence in the 787," said Ihssane Mounir, senior vice president, Northeast Asia Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "The 787-9 will help the airline achieve a new level of efficiency and profitability."  

The 787-9 complements and extends the super-efficient 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 exceptional environmental performance. Like the 787-8, the 787-9 brings the economics of large jets to the middle of the market, with 20 percent less fuel use and 20 percent fewer emissions than similarly sized airplanes.

The 787-9 leverages the visionary design of the 787-8, offering passenger-pleasing features such as large windows, large stow bins, modern LED lighting, higher humidity, a lower cabin altitude, cleaner air and a smoother ride. 

China's largest airline by fleet size, China Southern Airlines currently operates 700 aircraft, including Boeing 787, 777, 747, 757 and 737s. By 2020, the airline expects to have a fleet of 1,000 aircraft with passenger traffic surpassing 160 million annually.

787 has found favor amongst Chinese carriers after early bumps

As Boeing was ramping up the 787 (7E7) program early in the last decade, one of the prized target market was China. In January 2005 Boeing landed  a large order for 60 787s to be split amongst 6 Chinese carriers.  This was a coup for the 787 program and gave the young program a huge leg up on the competition.

However, as the 787 delays mounted, there were the inevitable cancellations including a large one of 24 airplanes by China Eastern Airlines of 24 787s in 2011 and a conversion of 3 787-8 by Xiamen Airlines into an order for the 737.

2005 Orders:

Air China - 15 787-9
China Eastern Airlines -15 787-8**
China Southern Airlines - 10 787-8
Hainan Airlines - 8 787-8
Shanghai Airlines - 9 787-8**
Xiamen Airlines - 3 787-8*

Total of 60 787s

* Cancelled on June, 2006
** Cancelled on October, 2011 (Shanghai is partly owned by China Eastern Airlines)

As the 787 program slowly got back on track the Chinese carriers had renewed interest in the Dreamliner. Hainan Airlines led the resurgent Chinese interest in 787 by ordering 30 787-9 plus taking additional -9 on lease from Air Lease Corp and AerCap. Xiaman re-ordered the 787-8 and added the 787-9 which will start deliveries later this year.  China Eastern also re-ordered the 15 787 they cancelled earlier this time taking the 787-9.  Riuli Airlines, a smaller carrier just signed on for 6 787-9.  All told, the Chinese 787 order book is now 98 direct purchased Dreamliner plus a number of additional 787s that will be taken up from lessors.  After deliveries are all said and done, Chinese carriers could account for at least 10% of the total 787 order book which currently stands at 1,161

2016 Orders

Air China - 15 787-9 (6 delivered)
China Eastern Airlines -15 787-9***
China Southern Airlines - 10 787-8 (10 delivered)
Hainan Airlines - 10 787-8 (10 delivered); 30 787-9 (4 delivered)
Ruili Airlines - 6 787-9
Xiamen Airlines - 6 787-8 (6 delivered)****; 6 787-9

***China Eastern re-ordered the 15 787 this time taking the 787-9
****Xiamen re-ordered 6 787-8 in May 2011 and finalized the order in August 2013