Collecting model airliners can give you a window into other cultures, which can sometimes seem bizarre by Western standards. Chinese airlines have a wide variety of interesting special schemes, often based upon the destinations they come from or serve. Air Travel is one of China’s smaller airlines but has painted one of its new A320neos in a firey scheme, paying homage to its home province of Hunan and the women that reside there.
Air Travel Airbus A321neo B-30EH ‘Spicy Girls of Hunan’ by NG Models 1:400 scale
What is nowadays known as Air Travel (or Hunan Airlines in China) started operations in May 2016 following a quite extended startup process that had seen it gain preliminary CAAC approval in March 2015. The carrier was formed as Yunnan Hongtu Airlines. Hongtu meant ‘red soil’ named after the famous red earth of Dongchuan District of Yunnan province.
The airline had been founded by the entrepreneur Tang Longcheng (20%), Kunming Evergreen Financing (30%) and six other local businesses each with 10% stake. Initial equipment was a pair of 2014 build A321s, B-8318 and B-8285, that had formerly served with UTAir and Azur Air in Russia.
The original name and livery worn by the A321s has been made in 400 scale by HYJLwings. The pair of A321s were joined in August 2016 by an A320 and it has been the A320 that has formed the bulk of the fleet since. Unusually for a Chinese airline the carrier has gone through some significant changes since startup.
In 2017 the Chinese travel agency Tongcheng acquired a controlling interest and in 2018 the carrier’s English name was changed to ‘Air Travel’. Along with the namechange came a brand new livery:
That wasn’t the end of the changes though as in 2021 the airline’s Chinese name was changed to Hunan Airlines (湖南航空公司) when the entire airline’s operations were moved to the Hunan Province.
Below: An artist’s rendition of the new T3
‘it is said that Hunan girls, who may look sweet and delicate at first glance, get fired up, outspoken, and fearless when eating spicy food. Men, you better stand aside when a Hunan girl is fueled with spicy food! Thanks to this reputation, they have earned the name “辣妹子(làmèizi) Spicy Girls”, indicating that these girls are as enthusiastic as fire, independent, and bold. In Chinese, there is a popular song called 辣妹子(làmèizi), sung by the famous Chinese singer Song Zuying. The song praises the Hunan “辣妹子(làmèizi)”, fearing no spicy food.’
The above text is taken from here.
This is a video of the song – enjoy!
Air Travel’s fleet nowadays consists of 16 Airbus narrowbodies – the 2 original A321s, 3 A319s, 4 A320s and 7 A320neos. With the move to Changsha it seems well placed to benefit from the massive growth in air travel the hugely expanded Changsha Huanghua International will enable.
