Chinese Charters

[Ray Finkle]

Re: China Southern Airlines

4 x weekly scheduled flight between BHX - 'Guangzhou and a seasonal flight between BHX - Beijing would be fantastic.

I've heard a possible routing of CAN-PEK-BHX-PEK-CAN mentioned, either 3 or 4x weekly. Who knows what's going on behind the scenes.

 

[andyc941]

Re: China Southern Airlines

There is nothing against BHX in this comment because i live the same travelling distance between MAN + BHX . But i think everyone is looking to much into all this. I heard a rumour at MAN in 2007 that Air China where starting a schedule service in 2009 now it is 2014.I dont know anything about all the political relations between the uk and china but have read that Air China have spent there own money to try and get a route to MAN with no real success up to now. I would love to see China Southern in BHX with a direct service to China 4x a week.But if MAN with Air China have been hitting brick walls fot 7 years. why really would BHX get a service with China Southern just because they have had 3 charters, Unless Paul Kehoe has a magic wand..I might be proven wrong on this but this is my opinion.

 

[User0001]

Re: China Southern Airlines

The thing is, it could all be down to timing.

MAN has been hitting brick walls for 7 years, but, if the changes to the bilaterals changes in the next few months, then it doesn't matter how late an airport is to the party.

Look at it this way. If you go to a concert, and the main act is on at 21:30, it doesn't matter if you arrive at the concert at 18:00 or 21:00, you will still see the main act at the same time.

Its all subjective until the bilateral changes anyway. All the airlines and airports can make all the grand gestures they want regarding China, but, until the governments involved put pen to paper, charter flights at BHX and Hong Kong from MAN is the closest the regions are going to get to a China flight for now.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: China Southern Airlines

Hi andyc, I pretty much agree with you and I'm definitely not reading too much into it as yet, but there are some interesting snippets that are worth discussing. Although these flights were only a couple of travel companies hiring their aircraft officials from China Southern Airlines still felt the need to travel to Birmingham, now it could simply be that they got an invite and thought they'd turn up, but it does seem a long way for one afternoons entertainment, especially if you had no interest in that destination. The same officials also 'expressed the positive's of securing Birmingham Airport as successful route outside London' mentioning both Beijing and Guangzhou, again this has to be seen as a positive. I'm not for one minute expecting an announcement anytime soon but positives are positives and if these events lead to a service starting in 1, 3 or even 5 years time then it will have been well worth it.

 

[Brum X]

Re: China Southern Airlines

Hi andyc, I pretty much agree with you and I'm definitely not reading too much into it as yet, but there are some interesting snippets that are worth discussing. Although these flights were only a couple of travel companies hiring their aircraft officials from China Southern Airlines still felt the need to travel to Birmingham, now it could simply be that they got an invite and thought they'd turn up, but it does seem a long way for one afternoons entertainment, especially if you had no interest in that destination. The same officials also 'expressed the positive's of securing Birmingham Airport as successful route outside London' mentioning both Beijing and Guangzhou, again this has to be seen as a positive. I'm not for one minute expecting an announcement anytime soon but positives are positives and if these events lead to a service starting in 1, 3 or even 5 years time then it will have been well worth it.

And "Birmingham" is being talked about, not MAN, or LHR or even LGW, China Southern were talking about BHX. this has to be positive.
Its not gonna happen overnight, maybe not even next year but if Air China were to start at MAN, China Southern may not wanna compete with the chinese flag carrier at MAN, so BHX would be a very nice alternative competion. My bet is on Air China at MAN and China Southern at BHX at some point in the future.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: China Southern Airlines

Tomorrows A332 should be B-6057 which is painted in the 16th Asian Games, Guangzhou 2010 special colour scheme. A nice one for the photographers :good:

Subject to change as course.

 

[Hassaan]

Re: China Southern Airlines

4 x weekly scheduled flight between BHX - 'Guangzhou and a seasonal flight between BHX - Beijing would be fantastic.

MAN can have Air China and BHX can have China Southern. Perfect for both airports.

Depends if they want to play that nice I guess.

Based on what's happened recently, to believe a permanent flight would actually go ahead I'd have to see it on the tarmac more than a few times.

 

[Brum X]

China Southern A330 pushback

Good video on Youtube :good:


[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Giyv03K44[/video]

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: China Southern Airlines

Nice clip, thanks for posting it :hatsoff:

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: China Southern Airlines

Tomorrow's aircraft should be B-6058 which is in the standard colour scheme but needless to say it'll be a first visit.

 

[Brum X]

Re: China Southern Airlines

Tomorrow's aircraft should be B-6058 which is in the standard colour scheme but needless to say it'll be a first visit.

En Route to BHX as we speak.

 

[Hassaan]

Re: China Southern Airlines

Well, that's the three charters (almost) come & gone. Where it goes next is anyone's guess - whether they try and make those flights permanent. They'd be silly not to try at least.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: China Southern Airlines

They are definitely trying but there are a lot of hurdles to jump, not least the current UK-China bi-laterals.

 

[Brum X]

Re: China Southern Airlines

Its been great to see the China Southern A330's at BHX over the last couple of weeks, its kinda sad they wont be coming back next Tuesday, Oh well we still have the Air Transat A330's.

 

[Brum X]

UK-China Flights

UK-China Air Agreements.
So today Air China announces a new second daily flight from LHR ???

I was led to believe that there was no more room for any new China-UK flights so how has Air China managed to get extra flights out of LHR ?????? Also if they cannot make LGW a success, where does this leave BHX ????

We seem to have got hung up on the bilateral being a problem when it appears it isn't, at least as things stand.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: China Southern Airlines

It always seems the case that LGW is a sort of holding pen for LHR, as soon as slots become free they quickly up sticks and move, assuming that Air China will now not return to LGW.

We seem to have got hung up on the bilateral being a problem when it appears it isn't, at least as things stand.

Yes it appears so.

....(b) China—restricted to six points in the UK and six points in
China since 2004 with a current limit of 31 passenger services per
week by the airlines of each side allowed;"

So 31 flights allowed by Chinese Airlines to the UK. As it stands, with the new Heathrow services, I think the UK sees 25 flights per week from China, so should an airline be interested there still look to be 6 flights per week available.


Hopefully we'll hear something soon about how much of a success the three flights were and whether we'll see something next year, maybe with a few more flights. Apparently the Birmingham retail offering saw a nice boost in sales with some big spend on luxury goods, maybe the Bicester style outlet village opening at Resorts World will be a draw for next year.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: China Southern Airlines

A bit of a cheesy video but still nice to watch, I hope we hear something soon about plans for next year

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8npq0EC39k&index=1&list=UUU5Ryepd2eL0bVYKOFeo13g[/video]

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: China Southern Airlines

It's only a tiny snippet from the consultative committee agenda but it's good to hear feedback from China Southern has been positive, although a bit more detail would be nice.

Significant media coverage was achieved and feedback from the airline and tour operator has been very positive.

It's also good to see they are talking to local companies, a corporate contract from the likes of JLR, LTI or SAIC could be the difference.

A meeting also took place with Shanghai Automotive to discuss future Chinese business development.

 

[User0001]

Re: China Southern Airlines

Have they not already been given the backing from the big business likes of MG without success. The big advertising campaign that stated 'my business is in the midlands so why do I have to travel to Heathrow'?

Rather than all this talk, why don't these big business put their money where their mouth is. BHX has the chance to get a flight to China now there are 5 spare slots in the bilateral (9 altogether although MAN-PEK has already taken 4).

Come on Mr Kehoe, now is your chance. Lets see if you can walk the walk now you have talked the talk.

 

[Aviador]

Re: China Southern Airlines

With such a high manufacturing base in the West Midlands, it is well placed to sustain an air link to China arguably more so than Manchester.