In 1988, the State Council decided to split CAAC airline into six separate airlines, each named after the geographic region of their main operating areas: CAAC used the IATA code CA on international flights only; domestic flights were not prefixed with the airline code.

CAAC's aircraft livery featured the Chinese national flag on the vertical stabilizer, with blue stripe cheatline and Chinese version of CAAC logo (designed by Lu Shifang in 1965,[1] with the calligraphy of Premier Zhou Enlai) on a white fuselage.

Most of the livery designs, especially the blue stripe cheatline, were also used by Air China.

In 1962, CAAC began operating international services, initially to other countries in the communist bloc, such as the Soviet Union, Mongolia, North Korea, Laos, Burma, Bangladesh, North Vietnam, and Cambodia.

[2] By the mid-1980s, CAAC had long-haul service to the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia, mainly using American Boeing aircraft, while continuing to use Soviet aircraft on routes to Eastern Europe.