European airlines fly less and less to China, even British Airways cancels flights to Beijing
The war in Ukraine does not seem to have an imminent end, this means that you will not be able to fly over space [...]
Virgin Atlantic
British Airways
Oneworld
PKX
China
The war in Ukraine does not seem to have an imminent end, this means that you will not be able to fly over Russia's airspace for much longer, and this is a huge problem for the companies. Longer routes to pass over the North Pole or through the southern Mediterranean cost more in terms of both economics and machine utilization, and if To all this we add a low demand from the domestic market you can see why from the Post-pandemic border reopening things did not go as planned.
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To boost travel to China. the government has exempted citizens from visa requirements of many Western nations, but this is not enough to fill the flights if there is a shortage of Western-bound Chinese passengers.
The situation is also made more complicated for non-Chinese carriers by the fact that the "china" companies can fly over Russia without any problems whatsoever and this is compounded by the really low fares these carriers charge to fly to mainland China, but also to onward destinations.
British Airways cancels Beijing and downsizes Hong Kong
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The news today is that at the end of the summer schedule British Airways will no longer fly to Beijing, where it now flies 4 times a week with 777s outfitted in 4 classes. The only operational route to China will therefore remain Shanghai.
In addition to the flight to Shanghai, the flight to Hong Kong remains operational; the former British protectorate before covid was connected with 3 daily flights from London, often all operated with the A380. Now BA flies only once a day and with one of the smallest planes in its fleet.
Virgin Atlantic escapes from the East
In recent weeks it was Virgin Atlantic that had announced a farewell to its last eastern destination. After never resuming flights to Japan and Asia, it has now also announced a farewell to Shanghai where it flies the 787 and where it had only begun flying again in the fall of 2023.
Low demand is a problem for all carriers
In recent weeks, Lufthansa has justified below-expectation performance precisely by highlighting services to and from Asia as a particular source of weakness. One symptom of this can be seen in the frequency with which routes to this area of the world are being offered by the various carriers, at this time LH Discounts of 52% on business class award tickets just to Beijing.
ITA Airways never flew to China, indeed Alitalia had stopped flying to China well before the outbreak of the pandemic, Air France KLM have reduced frequencies, and many carriers have also put in less-capable machines to cope with the drop in demand.
However, all this contrasts with the quantity, but seen before, of Europe/China flights operated by local carriers. There have never been so many flights in Italy, for example short direct flight from Venice to Shanghai will take off, and direct connections to Xi'an arrive from Milan.
