Hi, dear flight-report members and readers!
This FR continues my adventure with gambling on Air China B747-8i domestic flights, with PEK-SHA CA1557 flight already being reviewed (with the explanation how I chose the dates and flight numbers). Here I review the return SHA-PEK CA1558 flight, which will complement the previous FR in some details.
Shanghai Hongqiao Airport (SHA)
Shanghai has 2 major international airports - Pudong (PVG), the primary hub for China Eastern (I flew BUD-PVG with Shanghai Airlines and PVG-AKL with China Eastern in 2024 as a part of my round-the-world trip with 20-hours layouver in Shanghai, which was my first visit to China), located quite far from the city centre, but well-connected with the city by both maglev and subway lines, and Hongqiao (SHA), located much closer to the city centre and as well integrated into the city's subway system (in fact, subway line 2 connects PVG and SHA directly!)
Comparing to Tokyo airports, PVG is kind of analog of NRT (with the difference that PVG is close to the seashore) and SHA is a direct analog of HND (with the difference that SHA is not in the bay).
BTW, "Hong" means "Rainbow" and "Qiao" means "Bridge". The word "Qiao" is extremely frequent in Chinese toponimics.
Due to the extensive Shanghai's subway network, getting to SHA is very easy and fast, if you stay not far from the city centre.
SHA has 2 terminals: international T1 and domestic T2. All Air China Express Line flights to PEK are served from T2.
T2 has simple and quite unremarkable architecture, but it's clean and spacious and has quite a lot of shops, including Lawson's conbini, which allows to eat on a budget.
Near Lawson's one can see an interesting "Shanghai Life Tree", created from ancient TVs and cassette recorders.
Due to inability to create an account in CA app, I was not able to check-in online in advance, but, as my return flight CA1558 didn't suffer any perturbation, the seat selection (made weeks earlier after buying the ticket) retained, and I just confirmed it in a self-checkin machine.
As on previous flight, I decided to check my backpack to lighten my back, and, unlike PEK, when the belt took my luggage away, I was told to go to the special room where my luggage will be checked by security. Indeed! It took some time, but I had a lot of time to spare.
After a while I made my way to the airside. Being limited by 150 photos per FR, I'll show just 1 photo of the airside. The gate zone is spacious and have excellent spotting possibilities, and that's enough!
Planespotting From T2 SHA
SHA, being the Chinese analog of HND, have very diverse traffic with a lot of various widebodies and liveries, so one can easily spend hours here.
Air China B77W (B-2035), arriving from PEK. All the CA's B77Ws with B-20XX regs have premium-heavy 3-class layout F8_C42_Y261 with first class suites and business class seats being the same as in B748s, and with economy having spacious 3-3-3 layout with wide seats and ample row pitch. The only downside is the ancient IFE with large underseat power box. These B77Ws serve most of CA's flight to the major European hubs (with some exceptions like FCO, which usually gets newer B77Ws with quite dull high-density C36_Y356 layout with 3-4-3 economy). On the backdrop one can see international T1 with the tails of JL B77W, CX A333 and NH B78X.
China Eastern A333 (B-6507) in the special "Shanghai Disney Resort" livery. BTW, MU is the world's largest A330ceo passenger operator (counting A333s and A332s combined).
JAL B77W (JA740J), departing for HND as JL82 (this flight is also served by JL's international B789s and B788s with their unique Sky Wider economy with 2-4-2 layout). JL's B77Ws, having unique 4-class F8_C48_W40_Y147 layout with Sky Wider 3-3-3 economy, are definitely the most spacious B777s in the world (followed by a bit less premium-heavy SQ's B77Ws with 4-class F4_C48_W28_Y184 layout). Sadly, these birds are quite old, and JL is gradually replacing them with 4-class A35Ks (F6_C54_W24_Y155) with subpar ordinary Recaro CL3710 economy (though, also with generous row pitch). Recently JL retired JA732J - the 22-years old B77W prototype (this venerable aircraft, which definitely deserves to be preserved in a museum, will probably end being scrapped, which is sad).
Lucky Air A333 (B-1059). 8L is rather small (especially by Chinese standards) airline, whose widebody part of the fleet consists of just 4 A333s. 8L livery definitely has some allusions to the British Airways livery.
Juneyao Air B789 (B-226N) in the "Blossoming China" livery. HO, also being rather small airline by Chinese standards, has some of the most beautiful special liveries in China.
The Aircraft
And here comes the star of the show - 2014-built B-2487, landing from PEK. I took position near gate 50 in advance to be able to take photos from the proper angles.
As Jumbo is taxiing to the gate 48 (the most central gate of T2), I take photos from the best angles.
Then I go to the gates 26-40 to take photos of the Jumbo from the other side (in counter-light, because the sunny-side views are now obstructed by the jetbridges).
View of the Jumbo from the adjacent gate 47.
Jumbo's nose and hump.
Boarding
As in PEK, boarding was organised in 2 lines - one (to the 1L door) for first class, business class, premium economy and holders of high tiers of Phoenix Miles program, another one (to the 2L door) - for economy passengers.
A couple of views of the wing and portside GEnX engines from the jetbridge.
The First Class Cabin
Some clean views of the first class cabin. Let's remind that it consists of 12 Zodiac Aerospace Venus suites, arranged in 3 rows in 1-2-1 layout before 2L/R doors. It's the largest F cabin among all the 3 B748 operators, and its nonstandard location is conditioned by the size of the suites, designed for the widest part of B747 and B777 fuselages.
The Stair
A photo of the stair to the upper deck. Even though I've already been there on the previous flight on B-2485, it would be nice to visit the upper deck again. Let's see…
The Economy Plus Cabin
A couple of views of the economy+, located between 2L/R and 3L/R doors and consisting of 66 seats in 3-4-3 layout with increased row pitch compared to the regular economy. The seats are the same as in Y, but with fixed armrests, contaning tray tables (the consequence of the large pitch, making use of seatback tray tables inconvenient). The big drawback of this cabin is the impossibility to arrange "poor man business class" if you have 3- or 4-seater block at your disposal.
The Rear Economy Cabin
The regular economy consists of 233 seats in 3-4-3 layout, distributed between 2 cabins: the smaller front one (between 3L/R and 4L/R doors) and the larger rear one (between 4L/R and 5L/R doors).
Here are some views of the larger rear economy cabin. Due to the fuselage tapering in the rear, rows 60-62 have 2-seater (instead of 3-seater) lateral seat blocks, aligned to the aisle.
The Economy Seat
This time my seat is 45A in the front economy cabin right after the wing. A view of my 3-seater block (this time there was no empty seat near me).
The seat model is Collins Pinnacle with customized seatback. As I mentioned in the previous FR, for some strange reason CA ordered these seats with quite hard padding, making the seatback comfort underwhelming, which is atypical for this seat model. In contrast to B-2485, economy seats in B-2487 (at least my seat 45A!) are in much better condition with sturdy armrests, so I was able to precisely measure the seatwidth, which is expectedly 17.3". I remind not to trust blindly Aerolopa, which lists it as 18" and doesn't want to correct its numbers. The rule is that economy seats in any B748 have the same width as in 3-3-3 787.
The seat has adjustable headrest, IFE with rather small (by today's standards) display with USB port, coat hanger, upper hard seatpocket, bifold tray table with cup holder, soft lower seat pocket, underseat universal power socket and legrest. There is an underseat power box, though, rather slim and not bothersome. The row pitch is very good. Waiting on the seat was pillow (BTW, I found that use of the pillow helps to cope with hard seat padding). In the soft seatpocket a bottle of water was placed, which is a nice touch (I felt dry by that moment).
The seatpocket content: safety card, inflight magazine and waste bag.
The overhead panel is standard for B748, with no airvents.
The wing view from my seat. Apriori I thought that row 45 in CA layout is equivalent to row 47 in KE layout or row 31 in LH layout, but it turned to be more forward: the outer portside engine is not visible from here at all.
The Flight
The pre-departure moodlighting is turned on.
Some planespotting from the window.
Tibet Airlines A332 (B-8420). TV is a rather small airline, based in Lhasa. TV is one of the few airlines, operating rare A19Ns, which are non-sellers outside of China, but have their own niche in the Chinese domestic market due to their very good takeoff performance from some high-elevation airports in difficult conditions.
China Eastern second-youngest B77W (B-7883). MU B77Ws have premium-heavy 3-class F6_C52_Y258 layout with the best first class suites in China and quite comfortable (despite laterally dense 3-4-3 layout) economy with Safran Z300 seats. In March 2024 I flew its older sistership B-2002 from PVG to AKL, and it was a very pleasant flight. Recently, on 4 December 2025, in addition to this flight (MU779), MU launched PVG-AKL-EZE flight (MU745), operating twice a week - the longest direct 1-stop flight in the world, breaking LATAM's monopoly on the NZ - South America market.
China Southern A359 (B-324R) in 2-class C28_Y307 layout. CZ A359s are rather dull. The best part of CZ's widebody fleet are definitely their B77Ws in 3-class C28_W28_Y305 layout with spacious 3-3-3 economy. Some CZ flights between CAN and SHA are also served by B77Ws.
Pushback begins, flaps are set to the takeoff configuration.
Then safety video is played.
Takeoff, leaving our shadow behind.
Climbing out over Shanghai metro area.
Flaps off, turning towards Beijing.
When flying in late November, CA1558 has very unfavorable light compared to CA1557: the evening sun is low, blinding the left side passengers, the ground is hardly visible through the thick haze the sun cannot shine through…
The only interesting thing to see in such conditions is the reflections of the sun on the wing and in the water below…
A view of the seatback with the IFE menu on the screen.
Some examples of the films in IFE.
The current location on the map as we're slowly reaching the cruising FL.
An inflight view of the rear economy cabin (above the right aisle one can see the protrusion of the crew rest bunk)…
… and of the front one.
Wing views from 4R and 3R doors. The right side is in the deep shadow from the fuselage, the outside views are dull. As one can guess, this light is very unfavorable for taking photos of engine views from 2L/R doors. Thankfully, I made it on the previous flight, which had perfect light in the height of the day…
The crew hand out headsets by request.
"Transition" (from daytime to evening) mood lighting.
The inflight service begins. I expected the same level of service as on the previous flight, but this time came just rather small chicken sandwich plus small (but beautiful) snack box containing with chips and small apple juice. On the one hand, for such a short flight it's still more than OK. On the other hand it's definitely underwhelming comparing with what I got on CA1557. There was not separate drink service again and I felt dry again after the meal (I should've filled my bottle in T2 SHA, but forgot it).
Let's dive again into IFE content. Some additional (to the ones shown in the previous FR) screenshots from video about B748.
Almost 2/3 way to PEK is already behind.
One more inflight view of the rear economy cabin. The moodlighting is turned to the evening mode.
"Phoenix Pandas" hanging on the lavatories' doors. The lavatories itself are pretty standard for B748 (2 larger 777-style ones plus 6 smaller 787-style ones in total for economy+ and 2 economy cabins).
Choosing the seat on the left side, I was expecting a beautiful sunset sky reflection on the wing. But unexpectedly, despite the weather forecast promising clear skies, it turned out that the sky near Beijing was covered with non-transparent high-level clouds that completely damped the sunset! If only I heard my "avanturistic" part of intuition and chose instead CA1524 flight on November 28, I would've got the same B-2487, but with earlier arrival to PEK right at sunset with clear skies. Sometimes you have to risk and raise your bet to be well-rewarded…
As we've already started to descend, moodlighting is switched from "evening" to pre-landing mode.
Spoilers deployed. It's quickly getting dark outside.
Flaps in pre-landing configuration. It was already dark, and I had to max out my photographic skills to obtain satisfactory quality of the wing photo.
Flaps in landing configuration, in which the B748 wing looks most impressive. Sorry for the blurry photo: it was already so dark, that it was the best quality I managed to obtain. If only I chose CA1524 2 days later, I would've been able to take such wing photos in more light. But at least I've already seen the B748 wing in full landing config in daylight earlier on LH MEX-FRA flight in 2016 and on KE CDG-ICN flight in 2023…
We arrived at E-gates (international) concourse of T3 as B-2487's subsequent flight was PEK-JFK. We parked near Turkish Airlines B77W (TC-JJL), which was preparing for departure to IST. On this very aircraft I flew from IST to CMN in the very end of pandemic 2020. TK's most B77Ws have 2-class C49_Y300 layout with obsolete 2-3-2 business class layout (but with very spacious seats with unlimited footspace), but with one of the best economy class in the world in spacious 3-3-3 layout: older B77Ws (like this one) have Weber 5751 seats of 18.5" width, the newer ones have Safran Z300 seats of 18.1" width (do note that aerolopa is again wrong about the seatwidth). The seatpitch, though, is standard (but still very good) compared to JL or KE B77Ws. As TK received a huge number of very fuel efficient A359s and B789s, less efficient B77Ws was shifted from longest-range TK flights to 10ish-hour flights, like this one and other flights to East and South-East Asia from IST.
My 3-seater block in row 45 after the flight. This row has 2 windows, but not perfectly aligned. One can notice that the preceding row 44 also has 2 windows, but with better alignment.
The Front Economy Cabin After The Flight
A couple of views of the front economy cabin upon disembarkment.
The Economy Plus Cabin After The Flight
Some views of the economy+ cabin upon disembarkment. One can note on the 3rd photo in this gallery, how well-aligned are the rows 34-36 with the windows even though it's the zone near the engines, where 4 windows are missing due to technological reasons, which is common for any Boeing airplane with aluminium fuselage (Dreamliners with their composite fuselages have missing windows in the very front and in the very rear parts of the fuselage).
The Upper Deck Business Class Cabin After The Flight
And - hallelujuah! - the crew permitted me to visit the upper deck again! Many thanks to them for helping avgeek dreams come true!
Compared to the previous flight, now I see the upper deck in the nighttime lighting with much less light.
A general view of the upper deck from the rear.
The left exit door of the upper deck.
A general view from the front.
Rows 80-82 in details. As was said in the previous FR, Collins Parallel Diamond seats, that CA chose for the business class cabins, are so massive, that it required removal of sidewall storages (which are distinctive feature of the 747 upper deck). Note the guy on the 1st photo it this gallery: once again, I wasn't the only avgeek here!
General view of rows 83-87.
Rows 83-87 in details.
And this time I didn't forget to take a photo of the starboard engines from 87L seat!
The crew's jumpseat near the stair. As one can notice, the portside engines are visible from the window over the stair, but it's tricky to take a good photo of them.
Time to go downstairs…
The First Class Cabin After The Flight
And now some views of the first class cabin with more accent on details of the suites (which complement the photos from the previous flight).
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The Second Business Class Main Deck Cabin After The Flight
A brief glance on the 2nd business main deck cabin, located between 1L/R doors and the first class cabin.
I was not able to visit the nose business class cabin again (thankfully, I was able to see it in details on the previous flight!) as it was occupied by the crew and the cleaning staff. I was told to leave the aircraft via 2L door.
The last glance on the stair. Not a bad score - I've visited the upper deck on 50% of my 6 B748 flights! Thanks to KE crew on ICN-CDG KE901 flight 2 years before, and many thanks to CA crews on these PEK-SHA-PEK CA1557/1558 flights!!!
The 2L door.
The Aircraft After The Flight
Views of the fuselage, wing and the portside engines from the jetbridge.
As the aircraft arrived to the international T3E concourse for the subsequent US flight, passengers had to be bussed to the domestic T3C concourse. As I was the last one to exit the plane, I was guided to the bus by the an airport staff (thanks her for waiting). On the from the jetbridge to the bus I was able to take photo of B-2487 from above.
The last glance on the Jumbo from the bus.
In the T3C arrival zone I had I conversation with the Chinese guy who is present on one of the photos from the upper deck. He is a passionate avgeek and has a proper paper flight logbook to collect data and memories from the flights. He allowed me to take pictures of some pages. For example, he once flew on a MU C919 from SHE to SHA. We didn't have much time to talk as he was connecting to another domestic flight, but it was nice to meet him!
Thank you for your attention and see you in the next FRs!
