Chinese Charters

[User001]

Yes the charters could be added to the Manchester route, but equally they could also have been added to the London routes. As the tours go to London, Manchester and Birmingham, what has changed? There has always been another point of entry into the country but they chose BHX. Has anything changed?

The thing that has changed is that Caissa Travel is owned by the HNA group. That said group own Hainan Airlines.

The fact Hainan Airlines have now announced the scheduled link to Manchester, means that they could keep the tours fully 'in house', and use the tours to bolster the scheduled flights passenger numbers.

Given the tours take in the lakes, Scotland and the Midlands/southern UK means that Caissa may not be overly concerned the point of entry could move 100 miles north.

Of course, the charters could return next summer, it could well be that Hainan hope that there is not enough spare capacity to run tour groups via Manchester (end of the day 34 B767 loads is a fair amount of capacity to take out of the seat only pool).

I suppose it will be a wait and see moment. What could also be interesting is that it seems the B767 fleet is spoken for next summer now, so, BHX is likely to need a different aircraft anyway.

 

[jfy1999]

The reason why the chinese are going to Manchester and not Birmingham is becouse there politicians are forward thinking, the problem for Birmingham is our politicians are backward thinking.

Meanwhile down the M6 we have only just been able to come to the conclusion that our area is to be called "West Midlands Combined Authority" which will only become "in force" next spring.

So they finally came to a decision about the name, just how long did that take?

I wish we could lose the awful 'West Midlands' tag once and for all though.

Has Solihull decided whether it is joining yet or is it just too posh?

Oh yeah Ray, Solihull are defo joining. Also Tamworth, Lichfield and i believe Telford (Yes Telford and Wrekin) want to join. Having said that this would mean that the West Midlands Combined Authority would be much bigger than Greater Manchester but as we know Bigger is not always Better.

I don't suppose they'll be moving any of the "Welcome to Birmingham" signs then?

Or will they have new signs saying "WMCA" or the West Mid...the thing that it's short for

 

[nwoody2001]

Yes the charters could be added to the Manchester route, but equally they could also have been added to the London routes. As the tours go to London, Manchester and Birmingham, what has changed? There has always been another point of entry into the country but they chose BHX. Has anything changed?

The thing that has changed is that Caissa Travel is owned by the HNA group. That said group own Hainan Airlines.

The fact Hainan Airlines have now announced the scheduled link to Manchester, means that they could keep the tours fully 'in house', and use the tours to bolster the scheduled flights passenger numbers.

Given the tours take in the lakes, Scotland and the Midlands/southern UK means that Caissa may not be overly concerned the point of entry could move 100 miles north.

Of course, the charters could return next summer, it could well be that Hainan hope that there is not enough spare capacity to run tour groups via Manchester (end of the day 34 B767 loads is a fair amount of capacity to take out of the seat only pool).

I suppose it will be a wait and see moment. What could also be interesting is that it seems the B767 fleet is spoken for next summer now, so, BHX is likely to need a different aircraft anyway.

But whilst Caissa and Hainan are part of the same company, they are not wedded to the hip. Caissa provided the first charter flights in 2012 and they were provided by China Southern Airways, not Hainan. Plus the fact, the charters will be provided in peak season, a season when the new PEK-MAN route would/should be producing its higher yields. Will Hainan really want to dilute their yields on the MAN route with what are likely to be circa 5,000 IT Pax paying rock bottom fares????

At the end of the day, I simply don't know the answers to the above questions, but all im saying is what we do know... and based on what we do know, I don't see any reason to think that this automatically means the end of BHX Charter flights, and hope the two routes cant co-exist together.

 

[User001]

I hope the BHX charters return, as I hope the MAN flights do well enough not to need a tour group to fill the flights.

Time will tell, and I would guess that BHX will continue.

What about a scenario B? Beijing and hopefully the rumoured Shanghai could be catered for by MAN, so, how about BHX get charters from say, Wuhan or Guangzhou?

Ties in with what Paul Kehoe has said in the last that he would like alternate origin points? Maybe he has known all along the MAN flight was coming, so has said to Hainan 'ok, they have that, but give us Wuhan Guangzhou etc charters instead'?

That in itself could be quite prestigious given even Heathrow doesn't have a Wuhan link? Or, maybe some of the other 10million plus cities that don't have direct UK links? Chingchinq, hangout, Xi'an and the such.

Huge confidence boost!

 

[Jon Dempsey]

My thought is that Gorgeous George opened his mouth too early announcing the Hainan flights last year. As a politician, he wouldn't do deliberately would he - no, not just prior to an election!

The man is just playing politics, and I wouldn't trust him as hard as I could punch him!

 

[Ray Finkle]

He's not exactly Mr Popular at the moment around here is he. There has been several MP'S use social media to express their unhappiness over his actions.

There may yet be more in the future which could spell bad news for Birmingham and BHX.

 

[nwoody2001]

Dear lord, can we all put the sharp instruments away and close any upper storey windows please and not go off topic!!!!

 

[richard winterbourn]

Quite right Nwoody2001, let's not turn Chinese Charters into Chinese Whispers! In my opinion there are more important links to be made before we think about China, most notably TAP into Lisbon and access to Brazil and South America.

Don't get hung up on China, look west and to the Americas.

 

[Jon Dempsey]

I'd still like to belt GO though!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

With the greatest of respect discussions often evolve organically away from the original topic, I see no problem with that. There are many instances where topics on this forum go in a direction that doesn't particularly interest me, often straying from the original subject, others are still interested however so I just ignore it until it runs it's course. Everyone has that option.

I'd still like to belt GO though!!

Me too mate :smile:

 

[Hassaan]

I'd still like to belt GO though!!

Is that a song?

I'm surprised there's not been a permanent service in place yet, the last two charters have been successful enough haven't they?

 

[Brum X]

It would be awesome to have a Hainan or China southern A330 on the pier again with all of our other morning visitors and the new Qatar 787 :rockon:

 

[nwoody2001]

im sure we will be... but at this rate, our plane wont all be on the same side of the international pier, we'll be running out of space!!!