Several months ago, I wrote about an online auction from a major airline looking to dump some pre-enjoyed Dreamliners. There’s now an update, as these planes have found a buyer, and we know where they’re (probably) headed.
China Southern dumps fleet of 10 Boeing 787-8s
China’s largest airline, China Southern, has a massive fleet of nearly 700 jets. For quite some time, the airline has been trying to sell its subfleet of Boeing 787-8s. The airline has 10 of these, and they’re an average of over 12 years old, having been delivered in 2013 and 2014. The planes are configured with 266 seats, including 18 business class seats and 248 economy class seats.
China Southern hasn’t been very happy with these planes. The airline states that it wants to instead focus on larger wide body aircraft, which are higher capacity. Also keep in mind that while the 787-8 has great range, China Southern’s fleet doesn’t have the updated maximum takeoff weight, so these 787-8s aren’t as capable as some newer ones.
In 2024, the airline started a project to try and sell these aircraft to “further optimise its fleet structure,” though the process was suspended in early 2025, given the uncertainty related to tariffs. After several months, the airline resumed the process, with the idea being that China Southern wanted to take an “all or nothing” approach, and it was only willing to sell these Dreamliners if it could get rid of all of them, along with a spare pair of GE Aerospace GEnx-1B engines.
There’s now an interesting update. Bohai Leasing has announced that on February 27, 2026, it signed a Master Sale and Purchase Agreement with China Southern for the 10 planes plus the two spare engines. This is being done through its subsidiary, Avolon. The market value of this is around $532 million, and the final price will be determined through the exchange bidding process.
For those curious, China Southern’s 787-8s have primarily been operating out of Ürümqi (URC), in western China. Even though China Southern is a massive airline, its fleet overwhelmingly consists of narrow body planes. Aside from the 787-8s, the carrier’s wide body fleet consists of 22 Airbus A330-300s, 19 Airbus A350-900s, 15 Boeing 777-300ERs, and 20 Boeing 787-9s.
Are these Boeing 787-8s headed to Thai Airways?
It’s funny, because aircraft manufacturers have largely struggled to deliver aircraft on schedule, and so many airlines have complained about not having enough planes. Yet all too often when planes actually go on sale secondhand, there are just crickets.
So when we first learned about China Southern selling 10 Boeing 787-8s, many of us speculated about where the planes may go. Could Qatar Airways look to expand its 787-8 fleet? Could this be an easy entry point for Southwest Airlines to start long haul flying?
Well, nope, none of those. Instead, it appears highly likely that these 10 jets are haded to Thai Airways. While it doesn’t specifically reference this deal, the airline has made clear that it’s acquiring 10 787-8s through a leasing company, with deliveries expected starting in the coming months. If that’s unrelated to this deal, it would be a mighty strange coincidence.
Over the years, the Star Alliance airline has acquired all kinds of planes from other airlines, so that’s hardly surprising. While the airline does have dozens of factory fresh 787-9s on order, those will only be delivered gradually, and we know the airline is looking to grow ASAP, especially with the number of planes that have been decommissioned since the start of the pandemic.
Don’t expect Thai Airways to make huge changes to the interiors of these planes once it adds them to the fleet, as consistency definitely isn’t a priority for the airline when it comes to hard product.
Bottom line
Over the past several months, China Southern has been looking to sell its fleet of 10 Boeing 787-8s. The airline approached this in an unconventional way, by trying to auction off these planes, all at once. Many of us wondered if there would be interest for these planes, and it appears that there is.
A leasing company has agreed to buy these jets, and Thai Airways also seems to have plans to lease 10 787-8 starting in the coming months. So when you connect the dots, it seems clear what’s going on.
What do you make of China Southern selling its 787-8s, and Thai Airways potentially picking them up?
