GallopAir has signed a Letter of Intent with COMAC (Shanghai Pudong) for thirty aircraft, including undisclosed numbers of C909s (some in VIP configuration), ARJ21-700Fs, and C919s. The start-up would be the second non-Chinese ARJ21 operator, should the deal is finalised.
Incorporated in Singapore in October 2021 as a passenger airline with freight operations as its secondary area of business, GallopAir has thus far been dormant. However, it plans to operate out of Bandar Seri Begawan, complementing Royal Brunei Airlines (BI, Bandar Seri Begawan), but has not disclosed any further details of its business plan, network, or timeline. GallopAir is backed by China's Shaanxi Tianju Group, whose chairman, Yang Qiang, is also the airline's chairman.
Shaanxi Tianju's Tianju Airlines (Urumqi) ordered thirty ARJ21-700s in 2018, but none have ever been delivered, and the Chinese start-up has yet to launch. Tianju Group also has an LOI for ten ATR42-600s, which similarly has never been finalised. The group owns an active flight training and air services provider, Tianju General Aviation (Xi'an Xianyang).
GallopAir did not respond to ch-aviation's request for comment.
Indonesia's TransNusa (8B, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) currently operates two ARJ21-700s, with plans to add 28 more, as the type's only non-Chinese operator. The carrier is majority-owned by Chinese lessor CALC and recently hinted at plans to add C919s, too. The C919, which only recently entered revenue service with China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao), does not have any confirmed foreign customers at this time.
