About

Now with over 500 aircraft in its fleet, China Eastern Airlines is a major player in the global airline industry and looks set to expand even further, with ambitions to be a “Silk Road in the sky” in support of the Chinese government’s expansive Belt and Road initiative. The legal team working within the company to achieve these ambitions and more, led by chief legal advisor Guo Junxiu, is gearing up for this expansion. New internal processes have been developed, new talent brought into the legal team and new deals signed with external counsel to provide a more comprehensive global coverage for the airline’s operations. Commercial deals have also been signed in support of this objective. In March 2018, a deal with GE was signed for the latter to provide digital analytics; in July 2018, it signed a major deal with Air France-KLM for the Franco-Dutch maintenance company to provide support services for China Eastern’s on-order fleet of Boeing 787-9 aircraft.