News
China and Britain agree to double flights as CAAC approves 100 new international routes
October 14th 2016
China and the UK are intending to increase flights between the two countries from 40 a week to as many as 100 every seven days to satisfy Mainland travel demand and create deeper China-UK economic ties following Britain’s pro-Brexit vote in June. Read More »
Chinese airlines offer a combined 38 weekly round trips to the UK. British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic Airways have 29 slots, primarily because the slots offered to the two British airlines have offered impractical onward connections.
In August, BA launched a codeshare with Shanghai’s China Eastern Airlines, which will see BA add its code to China Eastern’s ex-Shanghai flights to Kunming, Xian, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Chongqing. China Eastern will have its code on BA flights to Aberdeen, Belfast City, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has approved 113 new routes in the third quarter ended September 30. Sixty five new destinations were granted to local carriers and 48 to “foreign” airlines.
They were: China Eastern to Abu Dhabi, Cebu, Manila, Okinawa, Prague, Shizuoka, Sydney and Vancouver; China Southern Airlines ex Guangzhou-Urumqi-Vienna, Guangzhou-Vancouver-Mexico City, Guangzhou-Adelaide, Shenzhen-Jakarta, Lanzhou-Urumqi-Moscow and Beijing-Urumqi-Tbilisi.
Air China will add Beijing-Warsaw, Chengdu-Urumqi-Rome and Lanzhou-Chengdu-Paris to its network.
Hainan Airlines was approved for Beijing-Tijuana-Mexico City and Beijing-Cairo flights, and Tibet Airlines for Sanya-Chengdu-Sochi.
It emerged this week that HNA Group carrier, Beijing Capital Airlines, plans to open a Hangzhou-Beijing-Lisbon A330-200 flight from June, which would be the first non-stop link between China and Portugal.
HNA has equity in Azul Brazilian Airlines, which links it to Portuguese flag carrier and Star Alliance member TAP Portugal. Orient Aviation understands HNA plans to make Lisbon its European hub for flights to South America.
At press time, Qantas Airways announced its return to the Chinese capital from January 25, with daily A330-200 Sydney-Beijing flights. The re-opened route is an expansion of Qantas’ joint venture with China Eastern. The Shanghai airline will codeshare on the Qantas flights as Qantas does on China Eastern’s Sydney-Hangzhou, Sydney-Kunming and Brisbane-Shanghai routes.
