it was never in doubt in my opinion that BHX would get a service to China
I don't think anyone doubted it, but, from a MAN perspective, the fact it has a larger China market, proven larger long haul market than BHX and a generally higher yielding market than BHX, that MAN would get a scheduled link first.
Cathay has stated MAN is likely to be served from 2016, Air China reps/bigwigs have been to MAN more than 3 times in the past 6 weeks, MAN saying they are in the final stages in a new route and Hanian have also been to MAN numerous times, I honestly expected it to get the scheduled link first. The BHX charters are for a specific purpose so MAN may yet get the first scheduled link, but, BHX does now have a good lead-in with these flights. The only thing I would say is that testing the waters may not be the case, as CZ's main hub is Guangzhou so could be a different market dynamic yet again.