It might not set the record book alight, but if it wasn't profitable, surely they'd ditch it.
And i'd be surprised if "all seats are sold at that approximate level", they will surely push the fares up once they start selling or get closer to departure. That would also help with profitablility

Hainan to swap to the 787-9 on 1st July, then to the 787-8 after 20th July.

This all seems a little bit strange. Even if the bookings are a bit low you'd have thought they'd have given it two or three months to see how things went. Are the Dublin flights still in the system? Is the impending arrival of EK at EDI hoovering up Chinese tourists (many of whom like to visit Dubai en route to or from Europe).

Dublin doesn't seem to appear either for me at least. I'd be very surprised if they changed it to a seasonal route this early on. Hopefully it's just an error in the system.

Maybe the double drop arrangement will end from 27 October and Dublin and Edinburgh will each get their own flights thereafter?

HU only filed the current schedule into early Nov so I expect a finial decision will be due soon but given they announce things with a month or two could well be September.

I don't know what it is that attracts Chinese tourists to the middle east particularly. I can't say I've ever heard of them wanting to spend a day or two in Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi en-route in any sizeable figure anyway. They tend to be more interested in European cities as they are so vastly different to their own. The large groups often fly in, do a circuit of a country, or maybe a few neighbouring countries in a fully loaded, high impact tour and then go straight home.

As for HU. It is a bit of a mix and match, but then it is very early days. I've heard the route will go direct for DUB and EDI in winter, but then that's not from any kind of reliable source, just hearsay. I doubt they would have invested in the local staff, the GHA training and had the high profile launch to have a short summer only service. Not only that but EDI has also gone all out, updating signs in the terminal to show Mandarin way finding for the transit passengers and a large floor to ceiling set of instructions for said passengers in the baggage hall. They clearly have long term plans.

The road access at EDI has been inadequate for several years. The RHS (which IMO is in the wrong city anyway, it would be better placed in Stirling, Perth, or a location in Fife) just adds to an already strained network of roads and the whole thing fails. This year they have been particularly over enthusiastic and have closed off roads and made diversion routes a good week or so before the RHS actually starts. Extremely annoying for those of us who use the airport regularly. They have a solution for staff though. The old taxi ways and runway 12/30 has been opened up as an alternative exit from the staff car parks to avoid the main road out. That will take away a few hundred cards throughout the day, so that does help somewhat, but it's only for staff. I suspect this route will one day be an official road from the Maybury direction. Building a dedicated road to Gogarburn roundabout is one thing, but I hope they don't ignore the other direction too. I would argue that most traffic to EDI comes from the M8/M9 and once they hit Newbridge that's where the bottlenecks happen. The M8/M9 should have been extended to the Gyle as a spur road and the Airport/RHS given a proper dedicated route in and out. The traffic has no option but to build up when it goes from Motorway to A road to country lane in the space of barely 2 miles.

I can assure you that if you visit Dubai (as I do regularly) the place is hoching with Chinese visitors staying 24/48 hours. To some extent they have replaced the Russians. All the staff in the upmarket hotels now know at least a few phrases of Manderin.

But are they heading for Europe? More likely to their big projects in Africa.

After all heading to the UK from China via the ME3 is going the long way round.

They are tourists, not project workers. They are heading to or returning from Europe.

Who said it should?

It's in everyones interest for them to move. I'm sure the attendees of the Highland Show hate sitting in the inevitable queues just as much as the airport passengers do.

The land they are on will be worth a fortune to the airport - cash in, buy up a cheap plot of land in the middle of nowhere, and build up a new, larger venue, and still have some change left over.