The major US carrier is making strides in one of the fastest growing markets in the world, with a third secondary Chinese city route in their schedule. United will serve routes to Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu and now Hangzhou.
Hong Kong-based HK Express is taking a leading role in the formation of the new U-FLY low-cost carrier grouping, which it describes as a game-changer for the airline industry and which will work to make travel more affordable and accessible than ever before. It will be joined by Kunming-based Lucky Air, Urumqi-based Urumqi Air and Chongqing-based West Air and others could follow in the future.
Emirates has confirmed it will introduce a four times weekly link between its Dubai International Airport hub and Yinchuan’s Hedong International Airport from May 3, 2016, with an additional onward leg to Zhengzhou’s Xinzheng International Airport. The flight will be operated by a 266-seat Boeing 777-200LR and will bring its offering mainland China to five points, adding to existing flights to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.
MIDT data from Sabre shows an estimated market of around 135,000 O&D passengers a year between Manchester and China, although the real market size will be notably higher when you include ground leakage to London for the existing non-stop flights to the Chinese cities of Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shanghai. When you add the obvious stimulation a new direct flight can add then you could realistically see a market of around 200,000 passengers, which will grow year-on-year.
The global network development forum makes its return to mainland China in September next year after a successful first outing in Beijing in 2009. It will be hosted by Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, which successfully delivered an exceptional Routes Asia forum in 2012.
In recent years China has overtaken both USA and Germany to become the largest outbound market in the world with Chinese travellers now the top source of tourism cash with an annual spend estimated at $165 billion last year.
Qantas and China Eastern have finally had the opportunity to welcome the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) authorisation of their joint business for a period of five years.
It extends the recently announced three-year arrangement, as part of the new Free Trade Agreement between Australia and China (ChAFTA), with the initiative expected to boost repeat visits from Chinese travellers.
Under the revised air services agreement, both countries’ carriers will immediately be able to operate 26,500 seats a week between Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to the major gateway cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth – an increase of 18 percent on the routes.
At Routesonline we've decided to take a look back at the news breaking the same week in previous years and revisit it one or two years later to see what’s happened since we released the news.
Ahead of next year's Routes Asia forum we look in more detail at the continued growth of the Chinese market, and in particular aviation in Kunming and the Yunnan province, which will play host to the event between March 15 - 17, 2015.
