Quote: "
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."
Quote: "
KLM already fly there. Presumably they saw a reason why"
Exactly, BA need to be there! Take the subsidy and go, for Pete's sake. Look ahead and long term for once.