Great news. Wasn't expecting that.

Good news indeed. A333 is the operating aircraft. Available now on Hainan website.

Well thats a route I wasn't expecting to see back given its poorish loadings before covid. Good news however, it seems to be a standalone flight this time.

Going to be a very busy airport, peak season - long haul on a Friday. Based on current aircraft listing.

7 x wide-body arrivals and departures
4 x 752 arrivals and departures.

Add all UK, Turkey, Greece, other European and bucket & spade routes. They’ll be queuing up like never before for a seat at Wetherspoons etc….

Excellent news for the Airport. Wasn’t expecting this. It is going to be super busy though come peak summer months.

Fantastic news, the airport is going from strength to strength.

5.5 hour turnround time????

Pleased to hear it's an A333 - BBC and others showing B737 which wouldn't get them very far.

I’m pretty sure it will be towed to a remote stand after disembarking and security checks etc. Stands with air bridges will be at a premium peak summer.

Nice plane to see again, I quite the livery. The interior though… yikes.
The loads even on a double drop with DUB were dire pre covid.. what will change this time?
Not a carrier for service /product Id select for 10hr trek I dont think.

Hainan starts in 46 days. Who books a long haul holiday to the other side of the world in that timeframe? It ends in 4 months time, before a single booking has been made. Something political here surely?

Are they aimed at the outbound market?

It has been widely reported that tens of millions of Chinese are desperate to travel internationally again. Not just for tourism. Student and family reunions. All the Chinese carriers in past few weeks have been ramping up route frequencies and re-starting others. A direct service will also surely perform better? We also don’t know for sure how long the tour operators in China have known about the resumption. Credit to EDI management for securing this.

I wonder will the eastbound pax get a fresh blanket this time? Worked on the Hainan at DUB & the cleaners just folded the used blanket for the next person, manky!

Maybe a rush of Chinese leaving the UK...

"Political" - As in?

Actually the CAA report 51% increase in passenger numbers from Edinburgh to Beijing in 2019 compared to 2018.

Someone's subsidising it, turns out it's being bankrolled at the Chineses end to allow middle classes with the desired credit score to be allowed to go on holiday. Think of it as a whole plane charter you can still buy seats on.
It's not really operating on a classic "commercial" basis but nice to see it back.

Any actual numbers? A 51% increase might just move you from very dire to dire!

LOL!
Suspect the historical complex triangle split load routing with DUB makes the extent of ‘dire’ loads might be tricky to tease out.
Seems its essentially a tour operator supported service over a shortish season rather than anything more substantial. Would be interested to hear in due course who would choose to use the service as a scheduled outbound ex EDI. Maybe with dirt cheap give-ways and an empty cabin might be right up frugal backpackers street! Presume therefore minimal impact on the two often cheapest eastbound services with QR and TK.

But much quicker