China National Aviation Corporation

China National Aviation Corporation
An Air China Boeing 747–400
Traditional Chinese	中國航空公司
Simplified Chinese	中国航空公司
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Zhōng guó háng kōng gōng sī
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese	中航
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Zhōng háng

The China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) is a fully owned subsidiary of the state owned aviation holding company China National Aviation Holding in the People's Republic of China, possessing a majority of Air China and Air Macau. Prior to the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, it was a major airline in the Republic of China.

History

In 1929, it was established as China Airways by Curtiss-Wright, under the leadership of U.S. airline magnate Clement Melville Keys. In 1933, after a series of disastrous accidents and disagreements with Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, Keys sold the company to Pan American Airways, under the control of Keys' arch-rival Juan Trippe. Pan Am placed the company under the control of banker and aviator Harold Bixby. When the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 overran all of China's maritime access, its Chinese Air Company was merged with China Airways into the China National Aviation Company (CNAC), with Pan Am owning 45% of the operation and the government the remaining 55%.

Between 1937 and December 1941, CNAC flew many internal routes with Douglas Dolphin amphibians (Route No. 3, from Shanghai – Canton, via Wenchow, Foo-chow, Amoy & Swatow), and Douglas DC-2s and DC-3s. In addition, three examples of the Vultee V-1A single-engine transport that "missed the boat" to Republican Spain ended up in China. Initially, the Nationalists maintained contact with the outside world through the port of Hanoi in French Indo-China, but the Japanese put pressure on the new pro-Vichy regime there to cut off relations with them in 1940–41.

During World War II, CNAC was headquartered in India, and flew supplies from Assam, India, into Yunnan, southwestern China through the Hump Route, after the Japanese blocked the Burma Road. Despite the large casualties inflicted by the Japanese and more significantly, the ever-changing weather over the Himalayas, the logistics flights ran around the clock, from April 1942, until the end of the war.

On 8, 9 and 10 December 1941, eight American pilots of the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) and their crews made a total of 16 trips between Kai Tak Airport in the British Crown Colony Hong Kong, at that moment under attack from Japanese forces attack from Japanese forces, and Chongqing (then known in English as Chungking) in China, the war time capital of the Republic of China. [Republic of China]. According to articles in the New York Times and the Chicago Daily of 15 December 1941, the pilot's names were Charles L. Sharp, Hugh L. Woods, Harold A. Sweet, William McDonald, Frank L. Higgs, Robert S. Angle, P.W. Kessler and S.E. Scott. Together they made 16 sorties and evacuated 275 persons including Mme Sun Yat-Sen (the widow of Sun Yat-sen), and the Chinese Finance Minister H.H. Kung.

After World War II, in 1946, CNAC moved from India to Shanghai, specifically Lunghua Airport (龍華機場), which was located on the western shore of Huangpu River (黃浦江), 10 km from the city center of Shanghai. The company was a huge organization, with departments for transportation, mechanics, medicine, food, finance, etc. The employees who numbered in the thousands were housed in dormitories located in the French Concession District of Shanghai. Every morning, the company took the employees by a car convoy from the dormitories to the airport.

CNAC eventually operated routes from Shanghai to Beiping (also known as Peking, then known in English as Peiping; now Beijing), Chongqing (Chungking) and Guangzhou (Canton), using Douglas DC-2 and DC-3 aircraft. Apart from purchasing war surplus planes, CNAC had also acquired brand new Douglas DC-4s, to serve the route between Shanghai and San Francisco.

The downfall of CNAC's operations came on 9 November 1949, when managing director Colonel C. Y. Liu, general manager of CATC (Central Aviation Transport Corporation), Colonel C. L. Chen and some of the staff declared their wish to be Communist. On the day, 12 aircraft from CNAC and CATC were flown, without acknowledgment, from Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport to Communist controlled China. One aircraft arrived in Beijing, while the other 11 arrived at Tianjin. More remaining staff also moved to Mainland China, at a later date. Remaining aircraft in Hong Kong had transferred to the Civil Air Transport Inc., managed by the Nationalists, in an effort to save the aircraft from the Communists.

CNAC ceased operations in mainland China, following the Communist revolution of 1949, when the Civil Aviation Administration of China took over to become the sole airline of China. However, CNAC remains a subsidiary of CAAC and incorporated in Hong Kong.

In the 1980s, CNAC acted as the overseas ticket agency of CAAC. CNAC launched its own airline, CNAC Zhejiang, in Hangzhou, with Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft and later, Airbus A320 and A319 aircraft, with the same logo painted on the aircraft's tails as in 1929. It had some 3 Boeing 737-300 in service. CNAC merged into Air China, along with China Southwest Airlines, in 2004, when the CAAC decided to consolidate the nine major state-owned airlines into three groups. The new Air China is in turned owned by the China National Aviation Holdings Company (CNAH) and is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (code 1110).

CNAC is currently in talks with China Eastern Airlines, to purchase up to 30% of the latter airline.

Subsidiaries

China National Aviation Corporation is the majority owner of several airlines and subsidiaries, including:
Airline share ownership and subsidiaries:

• Air China 100%
  • Air China Cargo 51%
  • Shandong Airlines 100%
    • Sichuan Airlines 10%
• Air Macau 52,25%
• Shenzhen Airlines 51%
  • Henan Airlines 51%
• Cathay Pacific Airways 29.99%
  • Dragonair 100%
  • Air Hong Kong 60%
• China Eastern Airlines 11%
  • Shanghai Airlines 100%
    • Sichuan Airlines 10%

Other operations:

• Ameco Beijing 60%, Lufthansa holds the remaining stake
• China Aircraft Services Limited 40%

Fleet

As of April 2013, the China National Aviation Corporation subsidiaries fleet consists of the following aircraft.

See also

• Civil Aviation University of China
• List of defunct airlines
• state-owned enterprise
• George Conrad Westervelt - retired USN captain and advisor to CNAC from 1930 to 1931
• William Langhorne Bond, vice president of operationgs 1937-1948

References

• Combat aircraft of World War II / compiled by Elke C. Weal ; colour plates by John A. Weal ; line drawings by Richard F. Barker ; editorial consultant, J. M. Bruce. New York : Macmillan, c1977. ISBN 0-02-624660-0 (United States aircraft; Curtiss T-32 and AT-32 Condor II)

External links

• China National Aviation Corporation Official website
• China National Aviation Holding Company Owner China National Aviation Holding official website
• China National Aviation Corporation Official site for CNAC Association, a club formed in remembrance of the US staff who worked in the Republic of China-era CNAC.

More reading

• Gregory Crouch, China's Wings: War, Intrigue, Romance and Adventure in the Middle Kingdom during the Golden Age of Flight, Bantam Books New York, 2012 ISBN 978-0-553-80427-0