Air Changan

Is Air Changan safe?

As far as the public record shows, yes. Air Changan, the Xi'an airline of the Hainan Airlines group, has had no accident and lost no aircraft since it got its own operating certificate back in April 2016. The one hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary on record, a Dash 8 turboprop that hit the terminal at Xi'an during an engine run in December 2002, killed nobody and falls outside our 20-year window. We score it 80, close to its sisters Beibu Gulf Airlines and Fuzhou Airlines (81 each).

What we cannot see is the everyday safety record. China's regulator publishes few incident reports, the airline publishes nothing on fleet or safety, and incident trackers have no entry for it. We do not score that silence as a proven clean record.

Who runs it?

Air Changan is based at Xi'an Xianyang International Airport in Shaanxi province, in north-west China. Hainan Airlines Holding owns 70.5% of it directly and another 26.6% through subsidiaries, according to its half-year report for 2026, and like the rest of the HNA airlines it has been controlled by Liaoning Fangda Group since the group's restructuring in 2021.

Its history is not a straight line. From 27 October 2002 Chang'an flew under Hainan Airlines' HU code and operating certificate, as Shanxi Airlines and China Xinhua Airlines still do. It received its own certificate again on 5 April 2016 and went back to its own 9H and CGN codes (CAPA). Since then it has flown under its own code and certificate, so its record counts here and not on the Hainan page. IATA lists it as Air Changan; schedules often say Chang'an Airlines.

The airline loses money. Hainan's filings show a net loss of about CNY 45 million on revenue of CNY 2.70 billion in 2025, and a loss of about CNY 171 million on CNY 1.44 billion in the first half of 2026. It still has positive net assets of about CNY 3.2 billion. We found nothing linking the losses to safety.

The 2002 hull loss

On 7 December 2002 a Dash 8-400, registration B-3567, crashed into the terminal building at Xi'an during an engine run-up. The aircraft was written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary; the Aviation Safety Network records no deaths. Heavy snow had fallen that weekend and the taxiways were slippery.

By then Chang'an was flying under Hainan's code and certificate, and the event is more than 20 years old, so it does not count in our accident factor on either page. The airline no longer flies turboprops. It still says something about Xi'an winters, which matter for the airline today.

What does it fly?

Air Changan flies only the Boeing 737-800: its 2026 schedules to Phuket from Xi'an and to Bangkok, Hanoi, Kuching and Vientiane from Yichang all list the type. The airline publishes no fleet count and no average age. The best guide is the Hainan group's figure: 233 Boeing 737s averaging 11 years at the end of June 2026, with no breakdown by airline.

The 737-800 has a long and good safety record, but it is an older design without fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary controls. The Hainan group has started taking the Comac C909, but we found none at Air Changan. We score the fleet 70, the same as Kunming Airlines, another all-737NG airline of similar age.

Where does it fly?

Xi'an is one of China's large airports, with modern equipment. The challenge is the weather and the region. Winters on the Guanzhong plain bring fog and snow, and flights to smaller cities in north-west China have fewer diversion airports nearby. In the warmer months, thunderstorms build over the Qinling mountains south of Xi'an.

The airline also flies seasonal and charter-style routes to South-East Asia, often from secondary Chinese cities such as Yichang. Those routes change from month to month. We score the environment 72, the same as Beibu Gulf and above airlines based on high or remote airports such as Urumqi Air (65).

Oversight

China holds Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary in the FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment, and no Chinese airline is on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary. China told the ICAO Assembly that it scored 90.19% in its 2024 ICAO safety audit. Air Changan is on the IATA member list, which requires an IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit. Our standard score for a Chinese airline with IOSA is 80, held down by how little the CAAC publishes.

Before you fly

• Winter mornings in Xi'an: fog often holds departures from December to February. If you have a connection, leave a long gap or pick an afternoon flight.
• Seasonal South-East Asian routes: these run for a few weeks at a time. Book through the airline, or check that the flight number starts with 9H, so you know which airline and rules apply if it is cancelled.
• Booking help: the airline's 24-hour hotline is 95071199; use it rather than a reseller if weather disrupts your trip.

How we scored it

The accident record (88) is clean since 2016 but comes from a small fleet. Oversight (80) is the standard score for a Chinese airline with IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary. Incidents (74) and fleet (70) are held down mainly by missing data: no public incident reports and no fleet count or age of its own.