Originally Posted by
WHBM
I suspect the talk about Chinese routes may be significantly overstated.
The two principal commercial centres in China are Beijing and Shanghai. Nowhere else comes close. And yet BA cannot even justify a daily service currently to either, they are only six a week to both places. Virgin Atlantic also has not been able to work their Shanghai route up to daily yet. I would expect at least a daily service to both before lesser places start/need to be exploited.
From a passenger demand point of view, you are absolutely right.
Bear in mind, though, that secondary Chinese airports (and their associated regions) are throwing subsidies at European carriers as though money was going out of fashion. Having a Western flag carrier provide direct service from your airport is very prestigious. For example,
here's a French report from earlier this year about the subsidies for AF's CDG-Wuhan - it suggests the airline is being paid €30,000 per flight for the first year. Even if "flight" is journalistic shorthand for "round trip", that's still €4.7m of annual subsidy.