China Eastern Airlines will launch two new nonstop routes to Italy in September, including the carrier’s first flights to Venice.
Beginning Sept. 26, the airline will operate from Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) to Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE) and from Xi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY) to Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP). Both routes will run three times a week using Airbus A330 aircraft.
The planned introduction will double the number of Italian routes operated by the Chinese carrier to four. According to OAG Schedules Analyser data, it currently serves Rome Fiumicino Airport daily from PVG and twice a week from Wenzhou. However, the latter route is scheduled to be paused at the end of the northern summer 2024 season.
China Eastern has offered scheduled service to Milan in the past, flying to the city for a limited time during the first few months of the pandemic. However, Venice will become a new destination for the airline.
The expansion comes as Chinese carriers continue to beef up their European networks—while at the same time some European counterparts are limiting their service to mainland China, citing the Russia overflight situation.
Excluding routes to Russia, analysis of OAG data reveals that Chinese airlines have added or announced 13 new routes to destinations in Europe so far this year. They include China Southern Airlines’ flights from Guangzhou to Hungarian capital Budapest and London Gatwick, and Juneyao Airlines’ operations from PVG to Athens, Greece, Brussels and Manchester, England.
Meanwhile, Air Serbia is the sole European carrier to schedule new service to China, with plans to offer Belgrade-Guangzhou flights from late September.
Overall, there are some 1.8 million two-way seats available between China and Europe during July 2024, equivalent to 91% of 2019 levels, with Chinese carriers accounting for about 75% of the capacity. This marks a change from the same month five years ago when the capacity split was 58% and 42% in favor of Chinese airlines.
China Eastern’s new routes to Italy follow news that fellow SkyTeam alliance member Virgin Atlantic has confirmed plans to end its sole route to China from late October. The UK carrier said operations have become increasingly costly as it is unable to overfly Russia, leading to lengthy diversions. Meanwhile, Chinese airlines continue to overfly Russia on routes to Europe.
Earlier this week, the Civil Aviation Administration of China announced that Chinese airlines carried 350 million passengers during the first six months of 2024, up 9% on 2019.
International volume reached 29.7 million passengers, marking a year-on-year improvement of 254.4% and back to 81.7% of pre-COVID levels.
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