OAG Travel News

As I’ve stayed up late each night the past 10 days watching amazing performances of athletes from around the world perform at the Beijing Olympics, my mind has wandered a bit to China’s international air service.  I would argue that this is a perfectly natural occurrence for someone who works in the aviation industry!

From the United States, travelers can reach only four destinations in China with a nonstop flight: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou.  The Chinese would like to increase the number of gateways, and the aviation bilateral agreement between the U.S. and China gives some priority to secondary gateways that are not currently served.  But in recent months we’ve seen that U.S. carriers have delayed new services to China, and the frequencies on current services have been reduced.  It is not likely that new gateways will be added in the near future.

Service between Canada and China has remained relatively static over the past five years.  Not surprisingly, Vancouver ranks as the largest Canadian gateway to China, with service to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Toronto is the only other Canadian city with service to China – both Beijing and Hong Kong are served nonstop.  And the only other city in the Western Hemisphere to enjoy nonstop service to China is Tijuana, Mexico.  Aeromexico inaugurated the twice-weekly Mexico City-Tijuana-Shanghai service in May 2008.

Service between China and Europe is nearly double that of service between China and the United States in terms of daily flights, and with recent additions, the number of destinations served is almost double.  In addition to the four cities listed above, three other Chinese cities – Chengdu, Nanjing and Urumqi – have service to Europe.  KLM began service between Amsterdam and Chengdu in May 2006, and SkyTeam partner China Southern will increase service between the two cities beginning in October 2008.  Ranked as one of the busiest airports in China, Chengdu’s connection to Amsterdam is likely only the first nonstop link to Europe for the city.  As the region continues to grow, I would anticipate future service to major European gateways including Frankfurt and London.  Nanjing, a city of six million people, is less than 200 miles west of Shanghai.  But Lufthansa sees potential in the market and initiated Frankfurt-Nanjing service in April 2008 – the first nonstop service between Europe and Nanjing.  Urumqi, the largest city in western China, is actually 1,000 miles closer to Almaty, Kazakhstan than to Beijing.  Currently, service from Urumqi to Europe is limited to Moscow two times per week on China Southern Airlines. 

Other interesting routings between Europe and China include Berlin-Beijing – new service that will begin on Hainan Airlines in September 2009 – and Finnair’s service between Helsinki and Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Guangzhou.  Although the Helsinki-Guangzhou service will end in November 2008, Finnair’s commitment to serving China remains an important part of the carrier’s long-term strategy.

The only nonstop services between China and Africa connect Shanghai with Johannesburg, South Africa, and the island country of Mauritius.  Flight volume between China and Africa has been static over the past five years with three carriers – Air Mauritius, Cathay Pacific and South African Airways – providing service.  In contrast, service between China and the Middle East has grown substantially over the past five years.  Not surprisingly, the top two carriers providing service between China and the Middle East are Emirates and Etihad, respectively.  Gulf Air joined this group when new service between Shanghai and Bahrain began in June 2008.  Despite the increase in service, only five Chinese gateways are linked nonstop to the Middle East – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Urumqi.

The number of flights between China and Australia/Oceania is double that of the China-Middle East service.  Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand account for the majority of service.  Finally, it is no surprise that the largest volume of international air service from China is to other countries in Asia.  And in this case, there are many more Chinese gateways than to other regions of the world given the shorter distances.  In fact, nearly 40 Chinese cities have service to destinations across Asia.

With the rapid pace of airport development in China and explosive economic growth, new gateways into China will most certainly appear in our OAG flight guides in the near future.  Given the recent challenges facing the aviation industry, I would suspect that many of the new gateways are likely to be from Europe and the Middle East and not necessarily from North America.  One of the major benefits attributed to hosting the Olympic Games is subsequent increases in tourism.  Time will tell if China will benefit from the world’s attention with increased air service.

Source: Laura Jackson for OAG