China Capital Xinjiang Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-11CF

Aircraft Photographed:

McDonnell Douglas MD-11CF | B-1506
General Electric CF6-80C2D1F
Delivered to China Capital Airlines, 1996
Leased to China Capital Xinjiang Airlines, 1996
Returned to China Capital Airlines, 2003
Retired from China Capital Airlines, 2015
Stored at GWO, 2016
Scrapped, 2018
Status: Scrapped

Ever since China Capital Airlines was conceived in 1988, the airline maintained a sizable subfleet of aircraft intended to serve specialized routes to the Xinjiang region of the country. These aircraft would operate under the banner of China Capital Xinjiang Airlines. Of these aircraft, the Il-86 served most famously, with the similarly-sized MD-11 replacing it during the mid-1990s. Only one MD-11 was dedicated to the route. In the morning, the aircraft departed PEK for URC. Once at Diwopu, after all passengers were unloaded, the MD-11 was towed to a cargo apron. It would then be reconfigured to carry freight and sent back to PEK in the evening. Despite being “one-of-a-kind” in its operations, the China Capital Xinjiang Airlines MD-11CF proved to be an important component of the China Capital Cargo system. It allowed for mass transport of goods to and from western China, without the need for a dedicated freighter to operate the route. The Xinjiang MD-11 service finally concluded in 2003, after only seven years. Since then, narrowbody aircraft such as the Boeing 737 frequent the route most often, allowing China Capital Xinjiang Airlines to operate to this day.

This aircraft, B-1506, was the second MD-11CF delivered to China Capital Airlines. Upon delivery in 1996, it was handed off to China Capital Xinjiang Airlines. The titles on the trijet reflected its new home base; a large “Xinjiang” label was painted on Engine 2 and the nose cone was adorned with a stripe of black to differentiate CCA and CCXA aircraft from afar. This jet left Xinjiang service in 2003, returning to mainline China Capital ownership. From that point, the aircraft supplemented the Boeing 747 to North American cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, eventually being dedicated to Asia-only routes as the 2010s pushed on and as Boeing 777s took over as the principle long-haul widebody. This aircraft was retired in 2015. China Capital decided against a freighter conversion for the aircraft, citing a dramatic downsizing of their cargo airline. Now left without an interested buyer, the trijet was parked at Greenwood-Leflore Airport, where it would eventually be scrapped in 2018.