Sichuan Airlines

Sichuan Airlines was established on 19 September 1986 as Sichuan Airlines Company, operating its first flight on 14 July 1988 between Chengdu and Wanzhou.

The airline was later restructured as Sichuan Airlines Co., Ltd. on 29 August 2002, in which the Sichuan Airlines Co., Ltd. Group became the largest shareholder (40%). The other shareholders are China Southern Airlines (39%), China Eastern Airlines (10%), Air China Group (10%) and Chengdu Gingko Restaurant Co. (1%).

In 2018, the airline was the 42nd largest airline group in the world ranked by traffic.

Destinations

Sichuan Airlines mainly operates flights in East Asia, though other destinations include cities in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Western Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America.

The airline launched its first long-haul overseas route in June 2012 with flights from its Chengdu hub to Vancouver, Canada. Its second long-haul flight, from Chengdu to Melbourne, Australia, was launched in February 2013 with three weekly services. On 17 October 2016 the airline launched twice-a-week service from Chengdu via Hangzhou to Los Angeles (LAX). In 2016, Sichuan Airlines started twice-a-week flights to its first European destination, Prague. On 23 June 2018, Sichuan Airlines launched service from Chengdu to Zurich via Prague. It was the first fifth freedom flight for the airline. It was also the only airline operating this route with Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft.

Codeshare agreements

Sichuan Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

Fleet

Current fleet

As of October 2025, Sichuan Airlines operates an all-Airbus fleet composed of the following aircraft:

Accidents and incidents

On 14 May 2018, Sichuan Airlines Flight 8633, an Airbus A319 from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport to Lhasa Gonggar Airport, diverted to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport after a windshield on the copilot's side of the cockpit blew off, intrinsically similar to the 1990 British Airways Flight 5390 Incident, resulting in a loss of a part of the flight control panel. The flight crew made a difficult landing with decompression failure and extremely low temperature. The copilot and a flight attendant were reported injured. Later, the incident was adapted into the film "The Captain (2019 film)" and was also featured in the documentary series Mayday.