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Spring Airlines

Chinese airline

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ1340408
Source-derived summary

Spring Airlines is a low-cost airline headquartered in Changning, Shanghai, China.

Spring Airlines is the aviation subsidiary of Shanghai Spring International Travel Service. It reported a net profit of 950 million yuan ($143 million) in 2016.

History

The airline was given approval to be established on 26 May 2004. Its first aircraft, an Airbus A320 (formerly Lotus Air's), was delivered on 12 July 2005, at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. Spring Airlines started operations on 18 July 2005 and the first flight on that day was between Shanghai and Yantai. Daily flights to Guilin were also initiated.

To keep operating costs low, Spring sells tickets exclusively from its ch.com website (and some designated ticket offices), bypassing travel agents. Spring no longer offers complimentary on-board meals nor complimentary water; however, passengers may purchase meals and beverages on board. In December 2006, the airline offered a 1-yuan promotional price which caused trouble with government officials.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Spring Airlines” as chinese airline. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2016, 2004, 2005, 2006—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2004. The account is most persuasive where Spring, Airlines and Chinese can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as chinese airline. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1340408. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2016, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Spring Airlines”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Spring Airlines primary sources, Spring Airlines archive and Spring research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Spring Airlines”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Spring Airlines” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.