This article is published in Air Transport World part of Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN), and is complimentary through May 16, 2026. For information on becoming an AWIN Member to access more content like this, click here.
China Eastern Airlines will debut its Vienna service in April.
Route additions between China and Europe, alongside Finnair’s expansion into Australia, reflect how airlines are adjusting long-haul networks in response to changing competitive and demand dynamics.
XI’AN-VIENNA
China Eastern Airlines is adding nonstop service between Xi’an Xianyang International Airport (XIY) and Vienna Airport (VIE) as Chinese carriers continue to expand across Europe, benefiting from ongoing access to Russian airspace.
The Shanghai-based airline will offer 3X-weekly year-round flights from April 20, using Airbus A330-200s on the route. The service marks China Eastern’s first scheduled route to the Austrian capital.
Xi’an, one of China’s oldest cities and the eastern terminus of the ancient Silk Road, is best known internationally as home to the Terracotta Army, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Beyond tourism, the city has emerged as a major educational, technological and industrial center in western China. The planned launch coincides with a major infrastructure upgrade at XIY, where the new Terminal 5 opened a year ago at a cost of about $2.8 billion. The facility significantly increases capacity, streamlines international transfers and strengthens Xi’an’s position as a growing long-haul gateway in western China.
Vienna currently has four nonstop routes to mainland China, served by Air China, Austrian Airlines and Hainan Airlines. The addition of XIY adds further depth to the market at a time when VIE is contending with near-term capacity reductions by several LCCs because of cost pressures and taxation.
Sabre Market Intelligence data show demand between Austria and China continuing to grow, with about 223,400 two-way O&D passengers in the 12 months to June 2025, up 37.5% year-over-year. Vienna-Beijing was the largest city pair, followed by Vienna-Shanghai and Vienna-Shenzhen.
China Eastern’s Vienna launch comes amid a broader reshaping of Europe-China aviation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The closure of Russian airspace to most Western airlines has forced European carriers onto longer, costlier routings, while Chinese airlines have retained access to more direct flight paths. As a result, Chinese carriers now control about 83% of Europe-China capacity excluding Russia, up from roughly two-thirds in summer 2019.
BEIJING DAXING-HELSINKI
Like China Eastern, China Southern Airlines is also further growing its European footprint. Flights between Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX) and Helsinki Airport (HEL) will run from March 29, initially operating 3X-weekly with Boeing 787-9s, before ramping up to daily.
The new route gives PKX its first nonstop link to the Nordic region, while Beijing becomes the third Chinese city served nonstop from Helsinki. In addition to Finnair’s 2X-weekly service to Shanghai, Juneyao Airlines operates four flights per week between Shanghai and Helsinki,
along with a weekly service from Zhengzhou, according to OAG Schedules Analyser.
Helsinki has historically positioned itself as a key gateway between Europe and Asia, a strategy long anchored by Finnair’s short polar routings. However, that advantage has since diminished to Western operators because of the Russian overflight ban.
Before the pandemic, Finnair operated five routes to mainland China, including services to both Beijing Capital and Daxing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Nanjing. Today, its China network is limited to 2X-weekly Airbus A350 flights to Shanghai.
As a result, Finnair’s two-way weekly seat capacity to and from China has fallen from nearly 13,000 in early 2020 to about 1,300 today, representing roughly 0.3% of total Europe-China capacity, down from about 3.6% before the pandemic.
By contrast, China Southern offers about 38,000 two-way seats between mainland China and Europe, excluding Russia, up from about 28,000 before the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. New routes added in recent years include Guangzhou-Budapest, Guangzhou-London Gatwick, Guangzhou-Madrid and Shenyang-Frankfurt.
HELSINKI-MELBOURNE
Although Finnair’s Chinese network has been constrained, the airline is expanding its Asia-Pacific network this autumn with the launch of the first-ever scheduled service between Finland and Australia.
Flights between Helsinki Airport and Melbourne Airport (MEL) will operate daily via Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) using Airbus A350-900s. The one-stop service is scheduled to begin Oct. 25, subject to government approvals. Finnair will become the third European
carrier to serve Australia, joining British Airways and Turkish Airlines.
Under the proposed timetable, the outbound flight will depart Helsinki shortly after midnight, arrive in Bangkok in the afternoon and, after a brief stop, continue on to Melbourne, landing the following morning. The return service will leave Melbourne in the afternoon, stop in Bangkok in the evening and arrive back in Helsinki early the next day. Finnair says the schedule is designed to align with its first morning departure bank across Europe while maximizing A350 utilization.
Finnair has already been operating a pair of A330-300s for oneworld alliance partner Qantas under a wet-lease agreement, flying Sydney-Bangkok and Sydney-Singapore services. The arrangement has helped Qantas boost capacity while allowing Finnair to utilize A330s that are less optimal for its own network following the closure of Russian airspace.
However, this wet-lease flying arrangement will end during the summer 2026 season with the two aircraft and their crews returning to Finnair’s network, while two A330s will continue to be dry-leased to Qantas.
The planned launch comes as Finnair continues to adjust its network in response to uneven market conditions. The airline has faced challenges in the North Atlantic, where softer demand and weaker yields have weighed on performance and led to declines in both unit revenues and load factors on transatlantic routes.
By contrast, Asia continues to perform strongly. Finnair will operate 28X-weekly flights to Japan during the 2026 summer season, making it the largest European carrier in that market by frequency. Yields and load factors across its Far East network remain robust despite longer routings, Finnair said.
Related Content
