China United Airlines

Is China United Airlines safe?

Yes, by its record since 2005. China United Airlines, the low-cost arm of China Eastern at Beijing Daxing, has had no fatal accident and no lost aircraft since it restarted as a civil airline in October 2005. It flies about 60 Boeing 737s and holds an IOSA registrationIOSAThe 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 as an IATA member. We score it 82.

What holds it back is not a crash. Its 737 fleet is older than most at China Eastern, and the CAAC publishes so few incident reports that a quiet record proves less than it seems. The last known enforcement action, a 10% cut to its flying in 2015 after 50 safety violations in one year, is now more than ten years old.

Is China United a military airline?

It used to be. The first China United was run by the People's Liberation Army Air Force and flew civil routes from Beijing Nanyuan, a military airfield. On 1 November 2002 it stopped all of its nearly 40 domestic routes, after China's Central Military Commission banned the army from running businesses.

The airline came back on 20 October 2005, two days after it received a new civil operating certificate. Shanghai Airlines held 80% and China Aviation Supplies 20%. When China Eastern merged with Shanghai Airlines in 2010, China United came with it, and China Eastern now owns all of it.

We score only the airline that has flown since 2005. The military-run years end before our 20-year window starts, and they were flown under a different organisation and certificate. The Aviation Safety Network lists no accident for that earlier airline either, so leaving it out does not hide a crash.

What happened in 2015?

In September 2015, the CAAC punished China United for a run of 50 safety violations that year. Three events in June and July were judged serious breaches of the rules. One was a physical scuffle between two pilots during a flight, reported in some media as a fist fight, though ch-aviation said it was a disagreement that escalated, not an all-out fight. Others involved violent clashes between staff and passengers, and aircraft flown when they were not fit for service. The CAAC cut the airline's flying hours by 10% from 1 September and barred it from launching new routes.

The same year, in May, a 737-800 on flight KN5958 from Fuzhou lost cabin pressure after an air-conditioning failure. The crew made an emergency descent and returned to Fuzhou. In 2013 another flight diverted to Lianyungang after an engine was shut down.

These events are now more than ten years old, outside the period our incident score covers, so they do not lower it. We found no serious incident since, and none on AeroInside, which carries the Aviation Herald's reports. But a 2015 penalty of that size says the airline once had real problems with discipline, and the CAAC publishes too little for us to show they are gone, so we keep incidents at 76 rather than at the top.

What does China United fly?

All Boeing 737s. China Eastern's interim report gives China United 60 aircraft at 30 June 2026. In January 2020, ch-aviation counted 8 737-700s and 43 737-800s, with three more 800s parked at Boeing waiting for space at Beijing. China Eastern does not publish an age for China United, so we use its whole 737 fleet, 277 aircraft averaging 11.2 years, as the closest figure.

That puts China United's fleet at 72, below the group's own score of 82. The 737-700s and -800s are a proven design, but they are older than the Airbus neos and 787s much of the group now flies, and they lack 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.

Flying from Beijing Daxing

Daxing opened in 2019 and is one of the best-equipped airports in China, with several runways and modern landing systems. China United moved there when Nanyuan closed to airlines on 25 September 2019, which also ended a year in which the airline could not grow for lack of space.

Beijing's weather is the main issue: winter fog and haze, and dust storms in spring, which mainly cause delays and diversions rather than risk. The domestic network includes cities with harder approaches than Beijing, which is why we score the environment at 74, the same as China Eastern and Capital Airlines, its neighbour at Daxing.

How to fly China United safely

• Book Daxing, not Beijing Capital. They are about an hour apart, and China United flies only from Daxing.
• On a codeshare, read the "operated by" line. An MU number flown by China United gets this airline's crew and fleet.
• Low-cost flights fill up. Board quickly, stow your bag and keep the aisle clear; in an evacuation, cabin bags block exits.
• Keep your belt on when seated. Spring and summer storms over northern China make climb-outs from Beijing bumpy.

How we scored it

The accident record (92) is clean for 21 years, the same as Juneyao and Spring Airlines. Oversight (80) matches other CAAC 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. The fleet (72) is the weakest factor: older 737s with no company age figure. Incidents (76) are not scored as clean because the CAAC publishes so little; the 2015 penalty falls outside our ten-year window. Overall 82.