Chinese Charters

[Ray Finkle]

Re: Hainan Airlines

I wouldn't even like to guess.

The Chinese generally tend to play their cards very close to their chests and without being 'in the loop' it's very difficult to gauge what's happening. Waiting to see how the BHX flights perform (possibly gauging the inbound UK market as a whole) could be a reason but I'd imagine they would have done their homework beforehand. Cathay hitting the ground running, going up to daily soon, and the recent big expansion from the Gulf airlines may have been more likely to have put them off for now.

There will be alot going on behind the scenes that we don't know about and probably never will. What we don't know is the extent of BHX's relationship with Hainan, is it something which could evolve over time or is it simply the hire of their aircraft? BHX have suggested there is a 'partnership for the future' but last year we had a 'joint initiative' with China Southern which hasn't led to anything as yet.


Changing track slightly I haven't seen it mentioned whether United Travel are selling packages from the UK to China, similar to last year, or whether they're going simply for the one way inbound traffic? Advertising the positioning flights makes me think they may be going for the latter, it would be great if every seat was filled completely with inbound Chinese travellers.

 

[Brummiegem]

Re: Hainan Airlines

A quick update to the summer flights:-

http://airlineroute.net/2015/03/30/hu-bhx-jul15/

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: China Southern Airlines

Interesting reply on social media about the possibility of a CAN-BHX route:

Hi, it is possible we may have a couple more charter flights this summer, but no permanent plans for 2015.

A couple of weeks ago Mr Kehoe Tweeted that he had just returned from four days in China, could we see the late addition of a couple of China Southern charters to Guangzhou this summer?

 

[thunderchild]

Re: China Southern Airlines

After another false alarm re Hainan MAN-PEk it's been reported the charter flights from BHX have been loaded to Amadeus? Read into that what you will.

Edit - Forgot we had a separate thread for Hainan, could the China Southern/Hainan threads be merged into a "Chinese charters" one?

 

[andyc941]

Re: China Southern Airlines

After another false alarm re Hainan MAN-PEk it's been reported the charter flights from BHX have been loaded to Amadeus??

Ye an email was sent from Hainan saying the MAN flights were a mix up with the BHX flights and they were sorry. Because it was reported that MAN scheduled would be bookable from today. Also i cant remember the China Southern charters being avalible on any other system last year so heres fingers crossed for BHX.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Re: China Southern Airlines

Edit - Forgot we had a separate thread for Hainan, could the China Southern/Hainan threads be merged into a "Chinese charters" one?

Done :good:

After another false alarm re Hainan MAN-PEk it's been reported the charter flights from BHX have been loaded to Amadeus? Read into that what you will.

That's interesting, as far as I know last year the flights were only bookable through Caissa or United Travel.

 

[thunderchild]

Either way given how Hainan seemed to have messed MAN about perhaps it's wise to treat any rumour/snippet etc with more than a hint of caution.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there ray, regarding these chinese charters that we have now heard about, are they still going ahead, or is there some mis communication gone on.. Andyc

 

[Brummiegem]

Hi there ray, regarding these chinese charters that we have now heard about, are they still going ahead, or is there some mis communication gone on.. Andyc

Andrew,nothing to worry about.The confusion seems to be coming from the will they won't they start flights from MAN.
As far as BHX is concerned it is 2 a week thru,July and August.

Guanzhou(CAN) flights would be interesting as this is where most of the business is done.It is also the home of the Chinese motor trade,so I would imagine there is plenty for the various agencies to lure passengers.I really hope something comes from this 😉

 

[Ray Finkle]

The mention of China Southern charters was just me putting a couple of pieces of the jigsaw together and seeing what people thought.

China Southern have said there is the possibility of a couple of summer charters from BHX this year and Mr Kehoe has recently been in China, add to that Jo Lloyd stating they hope to see similar flights from Guangzhou and Shanghai in the future and I wondered whether we may also see a couple of flights from CAN this year?

After another false alarm re Hainan MAN-PEk it's been reported the charter flights from BHX have been loaded to Amadeus? Read into that what you will.

BHX has also appeared on the Hainan route map on their website, although I wouldn't get too excited as when you try and book it still routes through Brussels with SN.

 

[Manniashraf]

Thought I will ring Hainan this morning and speak to a manger.. I asked if the Manchester service would ever happen? The reply was we will update our websites once confirmed and relevant press conferences will be held?
I then thought to ask on the Birmingham service if they had plans to start a scedhuled service in the future. They replied that "we can't stress more to you about this limited period of flights and Hainan have no plans to start a scedhuled service to Birmingham as they are one of flights..

I really don't understand this airline :aggressive:

 

[Ray Finkle]

Chinese tour company Caissa have hired a Hainan aircraft to operate a series of charter flights to/from BHX for two months over the summer, it's nothing more than an aircraft lease.

When Hainan decide to start direct scheduled services to MAN details will be released through the relevant channels.

Sounds pretty straightforward to me :s_dunno

 

[Ray Finkle]

United Travels reply when asked about the potential of a permanent service:

We do hope so. It is Brum time! We have so many tours flying in and out of Birmingham throughout the year too. Brum needs this!

It's great to see them so enthusiastic and good to hear that many tours are still using the existing connections to/from BHX year round. Anything that adds weight to BHX's cause has to be a good thing 🙂

 

[Ray Finkle]

Whilst not directly BHX related it appears there is some potentially huge investments from China and Taiwan on the horizon with Greater Birmingham the 'principal focus'. It can only help the airports efforts.

Full article: Chinese investors' plan to fund major Birmingham regeneration schemes

She said: “We consider Birmingham to be the best city for this.

“It is developing. Everyone knows about London – it is a great city but it is saturated and hasn’t got much room to grow.

“We want to be building something new.

“We believe there is a very bright and interesting project here and it could change the relationship that Birmingham has with the Chinese.

“We want to offer job opportunities and help improve the lifestyle of British people and provide a demonstration of how to invest in a city for the 21st century.

“There is money ready and waiting for us to do this.”

Ms Li has established an equity company to invest in the UK, aided by Birmingham property developer Anthony McCourt and James Ng, a consultant at Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co in the city.

“We don’t want to be limited by numbers,” she said. “The amount will depend on the needs of the city.

“We already have some projects in mind but we are looking to build gradually.

“In the short-term, we would like to build things up and this year maybe £10 million, but long-term it could be several billions of British pounds – it depends on the requirement.

She said she was keen to use Birmingham to demonstrate how much could be achieved using this rising wealth.

Ms Li added: “We are not just coming here with a brain, we are coming here with a heart.

“We are a global ambassador and Birmingham is the right place for us.

“We want to build something that helps Chinese people to invest and helps Birmingham and the city government here.

“We see Birmingham as Boomingham – there is lots of construction going on. We have been speaking to Ian Ward about it and we have some tentative potential sites we would like to build.”

 

[Brum X]

Its great that people from overseas see the "huge" potential of this great city and interesting that they dont see London as there main priority. Cant wait to see and hear more news on this.

 

[juliet-fox-9]

I was wondering if these flights do become scheduled, which airline would operate them?

 

[Brum X]

I was wondering if these flights do become scheduled, which airline would operate them?

That is the 0ne billion trillion question my friend ???????

Would the new Norweigan 787-9 aircraft be able to get there ????

 

[Ray Finkle]

PEK - BHX 5,061 mi

788 range 7850 mi, 789 range 8300 mi

No problems on that front, China Southern use their 788's into Heathrow.


It's pure speculation but I've seen it suggested that after their US expansion TCX may now look East for new long haul destinations from MAN. China has been mentioned amongst others.

If true I wonder if it could have anything to do with Hainan delaying the start of the flights from there, and if so, could BHX take advantage? There is also the bilateral issue to be sorted out.

Pure speculation though.

 

[Brum X]

As mentioned on the MAN thread, Hainan airlines have announced flights to Prague. Mmmmmmmmmm Prague.

This seems a strange choice, you dont really associate the Czech Republic and China.

However if they can launch places such as Prague, this makes BHX a defo possibility in the future for a scheduled flight.


Hainan do appear to be a bit mish mash if you know what i mean.

 

[Brum X]

Anybody going to see the Hainan 767 on friday ????



Also noticed that they are putting this aircraft on there new Prague route from September so the 767 is still being used for scheduled flights in the future.