hainan
This whole episode is curious to say the least. There did seem to be serious indications that Hainan were about to launch scheduled to China from Manchester and Sarah's input by virtue of email correspondence with the airline bore this out. Also in previous posts i seem to remember someone saying that personnel were already in post at Man to see this service through.
So what happened? In truth, only Hainan can answer that. But we can all speculate....
Two options that appear to me might be a) Hainan have been impressed by the interest in this (charter) service and have decided to jump in with both feet to see it establish into a fully-fledged scheduled service, or b) the charter operation is not doing as well as it did last year on a much smaller offering and have decided/been persuaded to step in and increase pax.
Are there any other options? Have BHX made such a spectacular presentation to Hainan based on the commercial trade links between China and the Midlands region economy?. Only recently it was reported that the West Midlands region is the fastest growing regional economy outside the southeast; and much of this growth comes from trading links with China. Where historically so much of the West Midlands engineering structure was based on UK investment, so much of it now is China owned.
If what is happening with Hainan leads to a dedicated air link with China, then maybe Chinese airlines and businesses really do know where their future lies.