Anyone traveling in Hong Kong and China, or just reading the news here or on other sites, may be confused with Hong Kong Airlines and Hainan Airlines. These two separate airlines seem to share the same aircraft livery and have a similar company logo. This is no coincidence. The same parent company owns the two airlines, as this article explores.
Two airlines – both owned by HNA Group
Hong Kong Airlines and Hainan Airlines are two separately run and controlled airlines but have the same majority owner, HNA Group.
HNA is a major Chinese conglomerate headquartered in Haikou, China. It has a large number of investments both within China and overseas. These two airlines are its major airline acquisitions, and the Group reflects this using the same livery for each. The red and yellow design also bears similarities to the corporate logo for the HNA Group (red lettering with a yellow streak to the ‘A’).
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Hainan Airlines
Hainan Airlines is the older of the two airlines. It was established in 1989 as Hainan Provincial Airlines and funded by the Hainan government and institutional shareholders. It was later renamed to Hainan Airlines in 1996, and shareholding transferred to the HNA Group when it was set up in 2000.
HNA Group is now the largest shareholder in the airline. This is handled through a complicated
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