China Express Airlines

Is China Express Airlines safe?

Yes, on its accident record. China Express, based in Chongqing, has flown since 2006 without a fatal accident or the loss of an aircraft, and it is an IATA member, so it passes the IATA safety audit. Its fleet, at an average of 6.45 years in June 2026, is one of the youngest of any Chinese airline. We score it 80.

The catch is the kind of flying it does. China Express connects 101 small airports, many in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and the mountains of Guizhou, with lots of short hops a day. Two incidents on its CRJ900 regional jets, at Tongliao in 2018 and Aksu in 2021, went wrong in the last seconds of a landing. Those keep the score below Tianjin Airlines (83) and Chengdu Airlines (82).

What is China Express?

China Express (华夏航空, sometimes written Huaxia Airlines) was set up in Guizhou in 2006 and is listed in Shenzhen. It calls itself China's only large independent regional airline: Chengdu Airlines and Tianjin Airlines belong to larger groups. By June 2026 it flew 202 routes, all but one domestic, from 14 bases: Chongqing first, then Guiyang, Chengdu, Tianjin, Hohhot, Baotou, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Korla, Aksu, Kashgar, Hami, Quzhou and Zhoushan. On 90% of its routes it is the only airline, and more than half are backed by regional subsidies.

That model shapes its safety picture. Small regional airports have short runways, fewer landing aids and less weather data, and the airline's own half-year report describes the regional airports it serves as having poor facilities.

What happened at Tongliao and Aksu?

Tongliao, July 2018. A CRJ900 from Hohhot with 85 passengers and 8 crew was 30 ft above the runway when both engines shut down. It touched down without power, the brakes worked without anti-skid, and all four main tyres burst, stopping the jet on the runway. Nobody was hurt. The airline then told its pilots not to put their hands below the thrust levers when moving them, and Chinese aviation forums took that to mean the engine cut-off levers had been moved by accident in the flare. We found no published final report.

Aksu, August 2021. A CRJ900 from Korla with 64 passengers and 9 crew landed on runway 27 at Aksu during a thunderstorm with rain. As it landed, the wind swung from a headwind to a tailwind. The CAAC's preliminary findings were that it touched down nearly a third of the way along a wet runway at high ground speed and the crew braked late. It overran the end by about 80 m onto soft ground. The passengers left by the slides, and four had minor injuries. The aircraft was not damaged.

Neither event cost a life or an aircraft, but both are the kind of problems at the end of a flight that turn into accidents on shorter or less forgiving runways. Smaller events since then (a windshield broken by a bird strike at Hangzhou and a loss of radio contact near Guiyang, both in January 2023) were handled normally. We score serious incidents 64. As for other Chinese airlines, the CAAC publishes little, so the record we see is incomplete.

The 2014 Chongqing runway event

At about 02:20 on 26 August 2014 a CRJ900 was cleared for take-off at Chongqing on a runway due to close for night maintenance at 02:30. Workers had started about 30 minutes early. About 30 seconds after the take-off clearance, the tower told the crew to stop. They rejected the take-off at about 110 knots but hit maintenance signs and other objects, damaging the right main gear and the belly in six places. Nobody was hurt. The error lay with the airport's work control, not the crew, so under our rules it counts only lightly in the accident record (91).

What does China Express fly?

At 30 June 2026 it had 77 aircraft, averaging 6.45 years:

The A320-family jets are modern 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 aircraft and go on busier routes. The CRJ900 is a stretched version of a 1990s regional jet with a good record, and China Express retired three of its oldest in the first half of 2026. The C909 is new. Its whole fleet has flown fewer than a million flights, too few to show how safe it is, so we do not count it as proven. Young but with a large share of older-design and unproven types, the fleet scores 74.

How we scored it

The accident record (91) is the strength: no fatal accident and no write-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 in 20 years. Incidents (64) and environment (64) are the weak spots, for Tongliao, Aksu and a network of small, often remote airports. Oversight is 80, as for other Chinese airlines 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, and fleet 74. Overall 80.

If you are flying to a small airport in Xinjiang or Inner Mongolia, check the forecast the day before. Wind shifts and storms close these fields more often than big hubs, and a cancelled flight is far better than a landing pressed on in a tailwind.