China Southern Airlines became the first commercial carrier to accept the Airbus A319neo. The Guangzhou-based firm took simultaneous delivery of two 136-seat examples, which are currently understood to be China Southern’s sole commitments for the re-engined type.

On February 18, the narrowbody jets, B-328A (c/n 10239) and B-328C (c/n 10288), left the European airframer’s Hamburg/Finkenwerder production site one after the other bound for Guangzhou’s Baiyun gateway (for more information on the hub, see the Top 40 World Airports Guide in Airports of the World) via a technical stop at Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan.

According to ch-aviation, China Southern intends to deploy the A319neo on fare-paying rotations from July of this year, with a particular focus on services to/from airports that are characterised by hot and/or high operating conditions. Airbus performance data shows the type has a 3,700nm range and a maximum take-off and landing weight of 75.50 and 63.90 tonnes, respectively.

While the Chinese company celebrated the milestone of becoming the maiden A319neo airline operator, as of February 21, four aircraft had already been received by non-airline customers. These comprised examples from AMAC Aerospace, VP-CRR (c/n 10339), K5-Aviation, D-ANEO (c/n 8612), Shimao Group – operated by Jet Aviation Business Jets – VP-CSM (c/n 9012), and Sino Jet, 9H-HUA (c/n 10673).

At the time of writing, data from Airbus’ most recent orders and deliveries (up to January 31, 2022 and before the China Southern handover), shows the manufacturer had recorded 70 A319neo commitments. This consisted of orders from carriers such as Spirit Airlines for 31 airframes, along with a pair from Air Côte d’Ivoire. While seven examples are shown under ‘governments, executive and private jets’ – with four having already been delivered from this category – the remaining 30 are listed as ‘undisclosed’.