Spring Airlines

Spring Airlines (春秋航空, IATA code 9C) is a privately owned Chinese low-cost carrier based in Shanghai. It flew its first service on 18 July 2005, from Shanghai to Yantai, using an Airbus A320 delivered six days earlier at Shanghai Hongqiao. The company describes itself as one of the first private airlines in China, and it sits within the wider Spring group, whose travel business marked 40 years in November 2021.

The airline's approach has been low-cost in the conventional sense: one aircraft family, sales pushed through its own channels rather than travel agents, and complimentary onboard catering dropped in favour of food and drink for sale. Spring says online sales account for 85% of its business and mobile sales for 30%. It also built several of its core systems in-house, including its reservations, departure control, operations control and maintenance software. Fares are sold in tiers, with the cheapest tier carrying no free checked baggage.

Growing beyond the mainland

In 2009 China's civil aviation regulator approved Spring's plan to fly international routes. The first, from Shanghai to Ibaraki in Japan, opened on 29 July 2010, followed by Shanghai to Hong Kong that September and Shanghai to Macau in April 2011. Thailand followed in August 2012, and in October 2013 a Shanghai to Kaohsiung service made Spring the first private mainland airline to fly direct across the Taiwan Strait. In July 2014 it set up its first overseas base, at Osaka, and on 1 August 2014 a Japanese affiliate, Spring Airlines Japan, made its first flight. Shares in Spring Airlines were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on 21 January 2015.

By August 2026 the airline reported more than 210 routes across mainland China, North-East Asia and South-East Asia, and about 32 million passengers a year. Alongside its Shanghai headquarters it lists bases at:

• Shenyang, Shijiazhuang, Shenzhen, Yangzhou (Taizhou), Ningbo and Lanzhou
• Jieyang (Chaoshan), Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Dalian and Nanchang
• Jeju, in South Korea

The Xi'an branch, its first in north-west China, was set up in June 2021, and the Dalian base followed an agreement with the local airport group that September.

An all-Airbus fleet

Spring flies only the A320 family. It took its first A321neo on 18 September 2020, and that December the 100th, 101st and 102nd Airbus aircraft joined the fleet. Its own company profile, updated on 24 August 2026, gives a fleet of 140 A320-family aircraft with an average age of 8.4 years. The airline's September 2026 operating-data announcement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, published on 15 October 2026, also reported 140. On 29 December 2025 Spring agreed to buy 30 A320neo aircraft, with deliveries expected between 2028 and 2032.

Recent years

The airline marked 20 years of flying on 18 July 2025. Earlier that year it opened a hangar at Yangzhou in January, and in February its Shanghai flight-training subsidiary became the first airline training centre in mainland China to pass an ICAO TPP audit. In June 2025 the company reported four million hours of continuous safe flight. Its headquarters office building came into use in November 2024, alongside a new operations control centre opened that October.