TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s China Airlines is not facing any political pressure over its decision whether to buy Boeing (NYSE:) or Airbus planes to modernize its long-haul fleet, the chairman of Taiwan’s China Airlines said on Saturday.
Taiwan’s largest airline was weighing the Boeing 777X and Airbus A350-1000 aircraft as replacements for its fleet of 10 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which are mostly used on the U.S. and some high-density regional routes, according to industry sources.
China Airlines President Hsieh Shih-chien told reporters that the company is still in the process of evaluating which planes it will take, and when asked if there was any political pressure on the decision, he replied, “No.”
“When it comes to purchasing aircraft, only China Airlines is doing the evaluation. I want to make that clear,” Hsieh added.
New aircraft deals worth billions of dollars often have to take into account political and commercial considerations – especially in Taiwan’s case, given its international status and the pressure it faces to surrender to China’s sovereignty claims, which its democratically elected members reject. Government in Taipei
The United States is the most important international supporter and arms supplier to Taiwan despite the lack of official diplomatic relations with it, and the Taiwan government is the largest owner of China Airlines.
A senior industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters that the timing for the China Airlines deal was a complicating factor given the US elections in November.
In 2022, shortly after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei — which sparked Chinese war games — China Airlines announced a $4.6 billion order for a Boeing 787 to replace its aging fleet of Airbus A330s.
China Airlines already operates 15 of the smaller Airbus A350-900 aircraft, as well as nine 777 freighters.
Hsieh said the 787s will start arriving from next year, while another 11 Airbus A321s, which replace aging Boeing 737-800s, will arrive before 2026.
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