Air China Limited is abbreviated as "Air China" and its predecessor, the old Air China, was founded in 1988. According to "Civil Aviation System Reform Program" approved and passed by the State Department, in October 2002, the old Air China combined China National Aviation Company and China Southwest Airlines and founded China Aviation Group Company. Based on the joint air transport resources of the three parties, the new Air China Company was founded. On September 30th, 2004, approved by the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of State Council (SASAC) as the main air transport company controlled by China Aviation Group, Air China Limited was founded in Beijing in due form, with 23,000 employees, registered capital of RMB 6.5 billion and the paid-up capital of RMB 9.433 billion. On December 15th, 2004, Air China successfully listed in Hong Kong (HKEx: 0753 and London (trading code: AIRC). With excellent profitability, Air China has made profits for seven consecutive years since 2001, which is the leading position in China Flights industry.
China Flights & International Flights
The enterprise logo of Air China is an artistic Phoenix pattern, the Chinese version of "Air China Limited" written by Mr. Deng Xiaoping and its English translation "AIR CHINA". The Phoenix is a divine bird in the ancient Chinese legend as well as the lucky bird adored by Chinese people since ancient times. According to records from "Shan Hai Jing", the phoenix came from an oriental country called Junzi; she flies across the great Kunlun Mountain and over all the oceans; wherever she flies, she brings auspiciousness and peace. The logo of Air China is the phoenix and it also is the artistic transfiguration of the word "VIP". The color is the traditional Chinese red which implies auspiciousness, completion, peace and happiness, and expresses Air China’s sincere passion to serve the society and endless pursue of the safety enterprise. Air China’s corporate culture emphasizes service and transcends its values in the new era. The desire and orientation of Air China is an air company with an international reputation, the connotation of which is to realize four strategic targets of achieving leading competitiveness in the world, continuously developing and steadily increasing profits and providing excellent and unique travel experiences for passengers. Its enterprise spirit emphasizes "serve the world with a warm heart and guide the future by innovation". Its enterprise mission is to "meet the requirements of customers and create mutual values". Its enterprise sense of worth is to "make a high level of service and get the universal approval of the public". Its service notion is "reassurance, satisfaction, easiness, and sensation". The enterprise culture of Air China has expressed its notion of spreading love all over the world and pursuing excellent service quality.
Air China is the only airline company which carries the national flag. It became a member of Star Alliance in December 2007 and it is also the airline partner of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It has the first rank of brand value among domestic airline companies (the world brand laboratory evaluated it RMB 23.523 billion in 2007) and it leads domestic counterparts in passenger and freight air transport and related services. It is known to all that Air China takes the responsibility of special plane task for Chinese national leaders visiting abroad, and foreign leaders and governmental leaders visiting China, which demonstrates the exclusive status as the national flag carrier.. With the headquarters located in Beijing, Air China has several branch companies such as Southwest, Zhejiang Province, Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Tianjin, Guizhou Province, Tibet and bases in Shanghai and Southern China. It also owns a project technology branch, a business plane branch, Aircraft Maintenance & Engineering Corporation (Ameco Beijing), China International Freight Transport Airline Co. Ltd. and Beijing Air Food Company. Air China also holds shares of Shenzhen Airline and Cathay Pacific Airline. It is the biggest stockholder of Shangdong Aviation Group Co. Ltd., and controlled Macao Airline Co. Ltd. until the end of March 2008. Air China owns 224 Boeing and Airbus planes operates 243 routes covering 28 countries and districts, among which there are 69 international routes, 6 regional routes and 168 domestic routes. It provides more than 6.000 weekly flights and offers 1 million seats. By traveling with Air China, passengers can easily reach 81 domestic destinations and 42 international and regional destinations through its strong and balanced global route network with Beijing as the major hub.
Air China has successfully established cooperative partnership with 20 well-known airlines globally. On December 12th 2007, Air China formally joined Star Alliance, the world’s largest airline alliance, which further expands its service to 897 destinations in 160 countries and enables it to offer passengers more convenience and benefits.