Great Wall Airlines Company Limited was a

cargo airline Cargo airlines (or air freight carriers, and derivatives of these names) are airlines mainly dedicated to the transport of cargo by air. Some cargo airlines are divisions or subsidiaries of larger passenger airlines. In 2018, airline cargo traf ...

based in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It operated cargo services to Europe, the United States and Asia. Its main base was

Shanghai Pudong International Airport Shanghai Pudong International Airport is one of two international airports serving Shanghai and a major aviation hub of East Asia. Pudong Airport serves both international flights and a smaller number of domestic fights, while the city's othe ...

. The airline was merged into

China Cargo Airlines China Cargo Airlines () sometimes as abbreviated 中货航 (in English as ''CCA'') is a cargo airline with its head office on Hongqiao International Airport in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. It is China's first all-cargo airline operating ...

in 2011.

History

The airline launched its first flight from Shanghai to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

on 1 June 2006 with an initial frequency of six flights per week, becoming the first local-foreign partnership airline to take flight in China. It was co-owned by

China Eastern Airlines China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (), also known as China Eastern, is an airline headquartered in the China Eastern Airlines Building, on the grounds of Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in Changning District, Shanghai. It is ...

(51%),

Singapore Airlines Cargo Singapore Airlines Cargo (abbreviation: SIA Cargo) is the unit within Singapore Airlines (SIA) responsible for air cargo operations. It was incorporated in 1988. SIA Cargo manages the cargo operations of SIA's fleet of freight- and passenger airc ...

(25%), and Dahlia Investments (24%), a subsidiary of

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...

based in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. The airline suspended operations on 18 August 2006 after its parent company, China Great Wall Industry, had sanctions imposed on it by the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

for allegedly supplying missile technology to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. All aircraft were returned to

. On 13 December 2006, it was announced that sanctions against Great Wall Airlines had been lifted, and that the airline would resume service in February 2007. The airline resumed scheduled services to Amsterdam (six times weekly), Incheon (six times weekly) and Mumbai/Chennai (three times weekly). As of April 30, 2007, Great Wall Airlines also launched scheduled services to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

via Amsterdam. The airline operated to U.S destinations including Seattle and Chicago beginning end of May 2008. It started services to Atlanta in 2009.

Merger

In the first half of 2011, the company was merged into

, together with Shanghai Airlines Cargo, which was the freight division of

Shanghai Airlines Shanghai Airlines () is an airline headquartered in Shanghai. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines, but its operations remain separate post-merger, retaining its distinct brand and livery. Shanghai Airlines operates domestic ...

Passenger Airline

Prior to 2002, a small passenger airline operated under the name Great Wall Airlines from its base in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. The airline was purchased by China Eastern Airlines in May 2001.

Destinations

Great Wall Airlines operated flights to the following (as of January 2013): * **

Hub **

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

Tianjin Binhai International Airport Tianjin Binhai International Airport , originally Tianjin Zhangguizhuang Airport is an airport located in Dongli District, Tianjin. It is one of the major air cargo centers in the People's Republic of China. It is the hub airport for Tianjin A ...

* **

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport ( nl, Luchthaven Schiphol, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the province ...

* **

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

Incheon International Airport Incheon International Airport (IIA; ) (sometimes referred to as Seoul–Incheon International Airport) is the largest airport in South Korea. It is the primary airport serving the Seoul Capital Area and one of the largest and busiest airports ...

* **

Manchester Airport Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those n ...

* **

Anchorage Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is a major airport in the U.S. state of Alaska, located southwest of downtown Anchorage. The airport is named for Ted Stevens, a U.S. senator from Alaska in office from 1968 to 2009. It is included ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport , also known as Atlanta Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport, Atlanta Airport, Hartsfield, Hartsfield–Jackson and, formerly, as the Atlanta Municipal Airport, is the primary internatio ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, ...

Fleet

Prior to the company's closure in 2012, Great Wall Airlines operated 2

Boeing 747-400BCF The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The "Advanced Series 300" was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, targetin ...

and 2

Boeing 747-400F The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The "Advanced Series 300" was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, targeting ...

References

{{Transport in China Cargo airlines of China Defunct airlines of China Airlines established in 2006 Singapore Airlines Airlines disestablished in 2011