Air Travel is a Chinese airline operating domestic flights from its

Kunming Changshui International Airport Kunming Changshui International Airport is the primary airport serving Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, China. The airport is located northeast of the city center in a graded mountainous area about above sea level. The airport opene ...

hub in

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

. The airline launched operations in May 2016 as Hongtu Airlines and rebranded to "Air Travel" in 2018. The airline moved to

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

in 2020.

History

Air Travel, originally named Hongtu Airlines, received preliminary approval from the

Civil Aviation Administration of China The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC; ) is the Chinese civil aviation authority under the Ministry of Transport. It oversees civil aviation and investigates aviation accidents and incidents. As the aviation authority responsible f ...

(CAAC) on 26 March 2015. In October 2015, the airline's livery was revealed. The red color represents the famous red earth of

Dongchuan District Dongchuan District is one of seven districts of the prefecture-level city of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China. The district was approved to form from the former ''Dongchuan City'' by the State Council on Decemb ...

; in fact, Hongtu in the airline's name, is a transliteration of ."Photos: Livery of China's Startup Hongtu Airlines Unveiled on an Airbus A321"
''China Aviation Daily''. 9 October 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2016. On 22 December 2015, Hongtu Airlines took delivery of its first aircraft, an Airbus A321 originally destined for

UTair Aviation Utair (russian: ОАО «Авиакомпания «ЮТэйр») () is a Russian airline with its head office at Khanty-Mansiysk Airport while its hubs are at Surgut International Airport and Vnukovo International Airport. It operates scheduled ...

." China's Hongtu Airlines takes delivery of maiden aircraft"
''Ch-aviation''. 28 December 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2016. The aircraft is named ''Dai'' after the Dai people, an ethnic minority in Yunnan Province."Photos: Hongtu Airlines' First A321 Aircraft Touches Down at Kunming Airport"
''China Aviation Daily''. 23 December 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2016. Hongtu Airlines held an inauguration ceremony on 20 May 2016 and began flights the following day, with the inaugural flight operating between Kunming and

Nanchang Nanchang (, ; ) is the capital of Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east ...

. The airline underwent a branding change in 2018: its English name became Air Travel, despite in Chinese, it still known as . The company is slated to change its name yet again to Hunan Airlines (湖南航空公司) in 2021 following its move to Hunan Province.

Corporate affairs

Hongtu Airlines is headquartered near

. The airline is a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

between Kunming Evergreen Financing (30%); local entrepreneur Tang Longcheng (20%); and five other companies, each holding 10%. The parties have invested a total of CNY600 million (

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

96.6 million) in the airline.

Destinations

As of December 2017, Hongtu Airlines flies to the following destinations in China:

Fleet

The Hongtu Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft as of September 2019:

References

External links

*
Photos from inaugural flight, 21 May 2016
{{Airlines of the People's Republic of China Airlines of China Airlines established in 2015 Companies based in Hunan Chinese brands Transport in Yunnan