Air China Ltd ( , , ) ( , Pinyin: Zhōngguó Guójì Hángkōng Gōngsī, literally "Chinese International Aviation Company", abbreviated ) is the People's Republic of China's state owned and second-largest commercial airline after China Southern Airlines. It is the flag carrier and the only airline to fly the national flag on its entire fleet. Its logo consists of a phoenix in the form of the acronym VIP, and "Air China" in both English and Chinese, which was autographed by Deng Xiaoping. It operates 5,090 flights each week worldwide and is also the 18th largest airline in the world by fleet size.
Air China's main hubs are Beijing Capital International Airport, Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport, with other focus cities at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, Tianjin Binhai International Airport and Hohhot Baita International Airport. Out of all Asian airlines, Air China currently flies to approximately 120 destinations; the most destinations from its own Beijing hub.
The airline flew 33.97 million passengers in 2006, with a passenger load factor of 75.9%. In the same year, it made a profit of 2.7 billion yuan, with an operating revenue of 44.9 billion yuan and total expenses standing at 42.4 billion yuan.
Air China Limited is currently the world's largest carrier by market capitalization. It overtook Singapore Airlines in 2007. It is the 4th largest airline in Asia, 5th largest in the world in terms of domestic cargo traffic and 17th largest airline in the world by terms of fleet size.
On June 20, 2007, Air China was ranked 461 out of the Worlds Top 500 Brands, an accolade in which Air China is the only airline known to be on the top 500.
