China Southern Airlines is seeking to sell four of its widebody Boeing (BA) 777-200 medium-range aircraft according to a tender invitation posted on the carrier’s Web site this week.
The four 777s it plans to phase out are the original short-range versions, which joined China Southern’s fleet between 1995 and 2000.
When new, the list prices of these aircraft were around $115 million to $143 million in the mid-1990s.
China Southern, which was China’s first airline to operate the 777s, didn’t say why it wants to retire the aircraft given their relatively young age. Passenger aircraft can remain in service for over 20 years.
China Southern said in April it decided to lease eight Airbus aircraft it had on order instead of buying them, to help the company reduce its ‘tremendous’ need for capital and relieve the pressure on operations caused by a high asset-liability ratio.
China Southern is China’s biggest airline by fleet size. At the end of 2007, the carrier had a fleet of 332 aircraft.
Source: CNN Money