Grand China Air was established in 2004 in an effort to merge the major aviation assets of
Hainan Airlines,
China Xinhua Airlines,
Changan Airlines and
Shanxi Airlines, and received its operating licence from the
Civil Aviation Administration of China in 2007. Scheduled flights were launched under the brand name
Grand China Express Air, using 29-32 seat
Fairchild Dornier 328JET aircraft. At that time, the company was China's largest regional airline, operating on 78 routes linking 54 cities. On June 8, 2009, the airline's name was changed to
Tianjin Airlines. though by 2012, the airline intends to fly on more than 450 routes linking at least 90 cities, taking more than 90% of the domestic regional aviation market. In mid 2015, Tianjin Airlines signed a contract for 22 Embraer aircraft (20
Embraer 195s and 2
Embraer 190-E2s). It is part of a larger agreement made in 2014 for 40 aircraft, the remaining 18 to be approved by the Chinese authorities. The first Embraer 195 will be delivered later in 2015 and the first Embraer 190-E2 in 2018. The airline plans to launch international long-haul services and is to take delivery of its first Airbus A330 aircraft in 2016 to serve destinations in Europe, North America and southeast Asia. In 2016, Tianjin Airlines launched long-haul services to
Auckland in New Zealand,
London-Gatwick in the UK and
Moscow-Sheremetyevo in Russia. Long-haul services to
Melbourne are to begin from October 2017. In March 2018, Tianjin Airlines has replaced previously planned Xi'an -
London Gatwick service to
London Heathrow, starting May 7, 2018. ==Destinations==