(Yicai Global) June 14 -- Hainan Airlines has appointed its second new chairman this year, six months after the carrier’s parent company HNA Group handed the running of the aviation business to strategic investor Fangda Group Industrial.

Cheng Yong, 60, has replaced Wang Yingming, 58, as chairman and legal representative of Hainan Airlines, the Haikou-based company said in a statement released yesterday.

Cheng joined HNA as vice president last month, after retiring from China Southern Airlines, where he had been a deputy general manager since 2017. He joined Guangzhou-based China Southern in 2004. Wang, who is president and legal representative of HNA, had taken up the chairmanship of Hainan Airlines after Liu Lu resigned for personal reasons in February.

Since Fangda invested CNY41 billion (USD6.1 billion) in debt-ridden HNA late last year, the aviation giant has undergone several management changes, as former Chairman Bao Qifa and Supervisory Board Chairman Sun Mingyu were detained by police in March. The two were probably involved in the suspected criminal cases of former HNA Chairman Chen Feng and Chief Executive Tan Xiangdong.

Hainan Airlines’ net loss amounted to CNY3.6 billion (USD530 million) in the first quarter of this year, its earnings report showed. Revenue fell 17.6 percent from a year earlier to CNY6.4 billion in the three months ended March 31.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione