Privately owned Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines is to inaugurate a three-times weekly flight between Beijing and Zurich this summer. The new service will be launched on May 31 and operated by an Airbus A330 configured with 34 lie-flat Business Class seats (2-2-2 configuration) and 179 Economy seats (2-4-2 layout). The Swiss city will be its sixth destination in Europe, adding to its existing flights from Beijing to Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Moscow and St Petersburg and from Shanghai to Brussels (see below table).
SCHEDULE ANALYSIS: HAINAN AIRLINES (China – Europe – Summer 2011) |
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Origin |
Destination |
Type |
Frequency |
Weekly Seats |
Beijing Capital International |
Berlin Tegel |
A330 |
4 |
776 |
Brussels |
A330 |
4 |
776 |
|
Budapest Ferihegy |
767 |
4 |
1,140 |
|
Moscow Sheremetyevo |
A340 |
3 |
834 |
|
St Petersburg |
767 |
3 |
855 |
|
Zurich |
A330 |
3 |
663 |
|
Shanghai Pu Dong |
Brussels |
A330 |
3 |
582 |
TOTAL |
24 |
5,626 |
Source: Flightbase (June 14-20, 2011)
The flights are scheduled to depart Beijing at 01:50, arriving in Zurich at 07:05 every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. They will depart the Swiss city at 12:30 the same day, arriving back in the Chinese capital at 17:20. These timings will enable passengers to make onward connections beyond both Beijing and Zurich, with Hainan offering over 500 flights per week across more than 100 destinations. Swiss International Air Lines already offers a daily connection to China from Zurich, but serving Shanghai, rather than Beijing. Approximately 214,000 O&D passengers travelled between Switzerland and China in 2010, with around 57,000 using the direct Swiss International link.