Also Air China had indicated long haul growth into Europe with new routes to Munich, Vienna and Barcelona (Barcelona served via Vienna). Positive signs that they are still planning expansion into Europe. Lets hope the signs are good for Manchester. Were they rumoured to be starting MAN via Zurich?
Repeat of my comments to the same debate elsewhere and i think relevant
So I understand Vienna a bit its a *A regional hub of sorts but Barca' lost its *A cred when Spannair folded and worse still a tag !
Combined with a Shanghai (Not a CA base !) - Munich service !
So heres thing thing hows about a PEK-MAN-DUB viz if the above is seen as viable and initially boardings seen to be weak for one stop services.
We already know Manchester alone has more than 127,000 annual boardings to mainland China and a further 140,000 to Hong Kong ( many going on to the mainland )
We have seen new service launched by Chinese carriers all over the world on similar or lower boarding numbers -Example Boston is recent months.
There really is something keeping the Chinese out of the UK and its almost certainly political in nature.
I read somewhere from an apologist that China- CAAC are primarily targeting domestic growth rather than international - Thinks that's utter rubbish myself what with evidence of new international services from one of the brands (used carefully given the 4 main carriers remain largely state owned !) almost every week.
In other news the Russian Aviation ministry and the UK are said to be working on a deal to allow a second British Carrier into Leningrad/Saint Petersburg with up to 7 weekly slot pairs - An opportunity for EasyJet one presumes.