China Southern Boeing 787-8s For Sale

China Southern has reaffirmed reporting from late 2024 that it intended to sell Boeing 787-8s. The planes are now up for sale.

Driven by reporting from Fast Technology, China Southern has placed 10 Boeing 787-8 jets up for sale. 2 GENX-170 engines accompany these jets, and the listing is being placed on the Shanghai United Equity Exchange.

Across the exchange, it has become apparent that the delivery location is Guangzhou, the airline’s home, or potentially another location if the buyer agrees upon another location.

While no buyer has emerged yet, these 787-8s provide an opportunity for a carrier seeking to increase its widebody fleet to acquire these second-hand planes sooner rather than later.

Furthermore, the bidding process will see the minimum price for each aircraft start at USD 50 million and work upwards. This is naturally lower than the list price value of a new 787-8, accounting for this being an older and used aircraft.

Additionally, airlines rarely take on planes at their genuine list price; typically hefty discounts are applied for customers in a bid for planemakers to get deals over the line and secure market share.

China Southern has precisely 10 of the 787-8 models to its name, averaging an age of 11.6 years. Fleet data indicates eight units are active, with two planes parked.

The 787-8 isn’t the airline’s only commitment to the Dreamliner series; 19 787-9s have been delivered. In this case, the middle ground model is integral to international flying and is expected to last longer than the -8.

Airlines Say Goodbye To The 787-8

China Southern becomes another airline/group that has looked to offload itself from the 787-8, a more modest variant to the Dreamliner series that has become unfavourable at some airlines worldwide.

The passenger capacity of the 787-8 is not similar to that of other variants in the program and doesn’t allow enough passengers to travel on longer international flights.

As a result, while the plane has served a purpose in specific airline fleets for companies like China Southern, they are looking to cut their losses and remove this variant to focus on other long-haul aircraft.

Moreover, the departure of the 787-8 also comes with the understanding that this was still not meant to be the smallest Dreamliner variant at some point, as initially Boeing targeted a 787-3 for even more modest flying.

Unfortunately, more often than not, industry trends, alongside airlines’ fresh business models, have driven planes like -8s to become more niche-based, and airlines have looked towards other available variants.