China Eastern to operate London and Moscow

From 28th March Shanghai-based China Eastern will add the following European links:

• London Heathrow on a 4x weekly basis with A330-200 equipment
• Moscow Sheremetyevo on a 3x weekly basis with A330-300 equipment

China Eastern currently serves Paris CDG on a daily basis and Frankfurt on a 5x weekly basis - both with A330-200 aircraft.

It will face competition on the route from BA and Virgin, which both operate a 6x weekly service using B777 and A340 respectively.

IATA IS data shows that the London-Shanghai market is considerable, with 246,000 passengers flying the route from Oct 08-09. Virgin had the largest market share, with 52% of all flown passengers.

On the Moscow SVO sector, Skyteam carrier Aeroflot operates a daily rotation and last year carried over 63,000 passengers.