A Brief Guide To The All-COMAC Operator

Summary

• Genghis Khan Airlines has carried over 750,000 passengers and accumulated over 19,500 hours of flight time in its first five years of operations.
• The airline chose to operate an all-ARJ21 fleet, becoming the only airline to do so.
• From its inception in 2017, Genghis Khan Airlines has grown its fleet to 6 ARJ21 aircraft by October 2023.

Last Friday, July 26, 2024, an airline based in Inner Mongolia, China, celebrated its five-year anniversary of commercial operations. This airline, founded in 2017, is Genghis Khan Airlines, the world’s only airline operating an all-Chinese-made aircraft fleet.

According to data released by Genghis Khan Airlines, since its official commercial operations began on July 26, 2019, the airline has accumulated 19,594.11 hours of safe flight time, launched 13 destinations, operated 24 routes, and carried over 750,000 passengers in five years.

This article will introduce the story of this unique all-ARJ21 fleet.

Genghis Khan Airlines chooses ARJ21

Genghis Khan Airlines company was established in January 2017, funded by the state-owned Inner Mongolia Aviation Tourism Investment (Group) Co., Ltd., making it a wholly state-owned enterprise.

After more than a year of preparation, in February 2018, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) officially approved the establishment of Genghis Khan Airlines, marking its first step towards becoming an airline.

Interestingly, the establishment approval, which can still be found today on the CAAC website, clearly stated that Genghis Khan Airlines planned to use CRJ900 aircraft. However, as of March or April 2018, Genghis Khan Airlines already had discussions with Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) about introducing ARJ21 aircraft.

On March 19, 2018, the media reported that Chengdu Airlines would use an ARJ21 aircraft to operate the Hohhot-Ulanhot route in Inner Mongolia from March 20-23. At that time, Chengdu Airlines was the only ARJ21 operator. By March 2018, COMAC had delivered four ARJ21 aircraft, all to Chengdu Airlines.

Since Chengdu Airlines did not have a network covering Inner Mongolia, it was widely speculated within the industry that this four-day operation was intended as a demonstration flight. Supporting this speculation, in late February 2018, Embraer sent an E175 aircraft, similar in performance and market positioning to the ARJ21, to Inner Mongolia for a demonstration flight without actual passengers. Thus, it was believed that both COMAC and Embraer were targeting potential customers, and the only new airline in Inner Mongolia with aircraft procurement needs at the time was Genghis Khan Airlines.

On March 20, the day Chengdu Airlines launched its Inner Mongolia ARJ21 route, official Chinese media confirmed through COMAC that the operation was a demonstration to showcase the aircraft’s safety, economy, and comfort to potential customers.

The official website of COMAC’s Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute still features two news headlines (with content removed):

• March 28, 2018: COMAC Chairman He Dongfeng and then-General Manager Zhao Yuerang met with Li Jiheng, Secretary of the China Communist Party Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Committee.
• April 18, 2018: Genghis Khan Airlines Chairman Hao Yutao visited COMAC.

These are the earliest publicly available reports of the interaction between COMAC and Genghis Khan Airlines.

Six months later, on October 15, 2018, COMAC and Genghis Khan Airlines officially signed an ARJ21 aircraft purchase agreement in Beijing, planning to deliver the first ARJ21 aircraft to Genghis Khan Airlines by the end of the year, aiming for a commercial launch in early 2019. For COMAC, this marked a breakthrough from a single customer (Chengdu Airlines) to multiple customers.

According to public reports, Genghis Khan Airlines signed 25 ARJ21 aircraft with COMAC. This aligned with Genghis Khan Airlines’ development plan, which aimed to expand its fleet to 25 aircraft within five years of starting operations.

Notably, the signing announcement highlighted that Genghis Khan Airlines would become the first domestic airline to operate an all-Chinese jet fleet, meaning an all-ARJ21 fleet. To this day, this “only” still remains unmatched.

Reflecting on history, the months following the Chinese New Year in 2018 were pivotal due to COMAC’s efforts, resulting in Genghis Khan Airlines’ ARJ21 fleet today.

From delivery to operation

On February 22, 2019, an ARJ21 with Genghis Khan Airlines livery took off from Shanghai, flying for nearly three hours before arriving at Genghis Khan Airlines’ base, Baita International Airport (HET) in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, completing all delivery procedures and officially being handed over to Genghis Khan Airlines.

This aircraft, with manufacturing serial number 116, was the 12th ARJ21 aircraft produced by COMAC. The previous 11 ARJ21 production aircraft were all delivered to Chengdu Airlines.

In June 2019, COMAC delivered the second ARJ21 aircraft to Genghis Khan Airlines.

A month later, on July 26, 2019, Genghis Khan Airlines commenced its commercial operations with a fleet of two aircraft.

Over the following year, COMAC delivered three more ARJ21 aircraft to Genghis Khan Airlines in September 2019, May 2020, and Oct 2020.

With these five ARJ21 aircraft, Genghis Khan Airlines operated a regional network within Inner Mongolia and its surrounding areas.

After the outbreak of the pandemic, Genghis Khan Airlines halted the reception of new ARJ21 aircraft.

Until the end of last year, in October 2023, Genghis Khan Airlines received its sixth ARJ21 aircraft. The airline specially designed a “14th Winter Games” livery for this aircraft to promote China’s 14th National Winter Games, held in Inner Mongolia in February 2024.

On November 16, 2023, Genghis Khan Airlines’ passenger carriage volume surpassed 500,000 passengers.