China 1933-1949

In 1929, the airline was established as China Airways by Curtiss-Wright under the leadership of Clement Keys. In 1933, Keys sold the company to Pan American Airways. When the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, its Chinese Air Company was merged with China Airways into the China National Aviation Company (CNAC), with Pan Am owning 45% of the operation and the government the remaining 55%. During World War II, CNAC flew supplies from India, into southwestern China through the Hump Route from April 1942, until the end of the war. CNAC eventually operated routes within China and to San Francisco. The downfall of CNAC's operations came on November 9, 1949, when the managing director and general manager of CATC (Central Aviation Transport Corporation), declared their wish to be Communist. On that day, 12 aircraft from CNAC and CATC were flown, without acknowledgment, from Hong Kong to Communist controlled China. Remaining aircraft in Hong Kong had transferred to the Civil Air Transport Inc., in Taiwan. CNAC ceased operations in mainland China, following the Communist revolution of 1947, when the Civil Aviation Administration of China took over to become the sole airline of China. However, CNAC remains a subsidiary of CAAC and incorporated in Hong Kong.