justinlee From China, joined Aug 2012, 302 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (5 months 2 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 2565 times:
It's a great news for CTU although it's a little bit surprising because CKG is only 300km away from CTU. I thought it should be somewhere else before. CTU is really a good choice and it's the largest hub in Western China. It has more domestic connections than SHA and also a gateway to Tibet.
Here is a list of international connections for CTU.
CTU-MEL 3U 3xweekly (From Dec 27,2012)
CTU-YVR 3U 2xweekly
CTU-AMS KL 3xweekly
CTU-AUH EY 4xweekly
CTU-BOM CA 3xweekly
CTU-BLR CA 2xweekly
CTU-KHI CA 2xweekly
CTU-KTM CA 2xweekly
CTH-HAN VN 3xweekly
CTU-BKK TG 5xweekly
CTU-NRT NH 4xweekly
CTU-ICN 3U 2xweekly, OZ 4xweekly
CTU-KUL D7 4xweekly
CTU-HKT 3U 3xweekly
CTU-SIN CA 7xweekly, MI 7xweekly
migair54 From Spain, joined Jun 2007, 1276 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (5 months 2 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 2504 times:
Quoting ojas (Reply 2): PVG, PEK, CAN have services which have the aircraft on ground for a long time. Cities like ICN, KIX and NRT also have the same pattern.
I know, it´s for connectivity in Doha and the arrival and departures waves.... but they could have plan a tag on if the route is not strong enough..... that´s what they have done in JNB and Maputo....
justinlee From China, joined Aug 2012, 302 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (5 months 2 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 2226 times:
Quoting leftyboarder (Reply 4): EY, KL and now QR. CTU surely must have some demand from Europe. Isn't this the busiest airport outside the big 3 in China? Congrats to QR!
Actually CTU is the 5th largest airport in Mainland China. Remember Shanghai has 2 airports.
justinlee From China, joined Aug 2012, 302 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (5 months 2 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 1832 times:
Quoting sw733 (Reply 9): Xi'an? Xiamen? Kunming? Wonder if any of those might work.
The business model of Gulf Carriers is really promising in China. Firstly, European countries are hot tourism destinations among chinese people nowadays. Secondly, there is an increasing chinese population in Middle-East and Africa where is underserved by current airlines. I hope both EK and QR can add more 2-tier destinations in China. But the biggest problem may be the traffic rights.
That is a very inefficient schedule , effectively chewing up a whole aircraft for 3pw operations.
the eastbound schedule looks good, surprised they didn't tighten up the west to feed into the midnight DOH-Europe bank
0210 - 1440 / 2000 - 2250
it would give them the following connections:
00:10 BEY QR 420
00:25 KHI QR 318
00:30 JED QR 764
00:35 SEZ QR 702
00:40 MHD QR 494
00:45 SAH QR 454
00:55 MXP QR 35
01:00 IKA QR 484
01:00 EBB QR 538
01:05 ELQ QR 760
01:05 ZRH QR 61
01:05 JNB QR 584
01:10 DXB QR 102
01:15 BAH QR 150
01:20 FRA QR 27
01:25 OSL QR 955
01:25 NBO QR 534
01:30 MCT QR 170
01:35 DMM QR 718
01:40 MAN QR 41
01:40 ARN QR 91
01:40 SYZ QR 496
01:45 TUN QR 550
01:45 BCN QR 65
01:45 CDG QR 21
01:50 LHR QR 7
01:55 TXL QR 57
02:00 MAD QR 69
02:05 FCO QR 81
02:10 CPH QR 97
02:10 MUC QR 9
02:10 KWI QR 138
02:15 AUH QR 120
02:20 GVA QR 47
02:20 DAR QR 546
02:30 VIE QR 93
02:30 BRU QR 939
LJ From Netherlands, joined Nov 1999, 4141 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (5 months 2 weeks 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 1325 times:
Quoting Fuling (Reply 12): This is surprising for me too! Interesting move for sure. It is similar to LH serving both NKG and PVG.
The difference being that QR doesn't fly daily into CKG whereas LH flies already daily (and during S12 twice daily) into PVG. KL flies to both PVG and HGH for the sole reason that it already flies 10 weekly to PVG (and at the time they started HGH it was 13 weekly). Thus additional flights to PVG don't make sense if you already fly virtually 2 daily (you already have a more than perfect schedule). However, CKG is served only 3 times weekly, which is different than the reason why LH and KL fly to NKG and HGH respectively.
Quoting Fuling (Reply 12):
EK has no more traffic rights into China at the moment, but how much more can QR add before reaching their maximum traffic limit?
AFAIK China has (or at least used to have) incentive programs running for flights to secondary destinations. At the time that KL was restricted in the billateral it was very easy to get permission to fly to CTU, hence why KL started. I reckon that if QR wants to open another secondary destinatons, it can work something out with the Chinese government (AFAIK the Chinese try to lure airlines to URC, but no takers yet).
Quoting 6thfreedom (Reply 11): the eastbound schedule looks good, surprised they didn't tighten up the west to feed into the midnight DOH-Europe bank
I reckon they aim at passengers between China and Africa, though Chengdu is not your typical destinations for African bound traffic.
lightsaber From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 10649 posts, RR: 100 Reply 14, posted (5 months 2 weeks 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 1316 times:
This is exciting and useful for some individuals I know...
No wonder EK is frustrated with lack of further rights into China.
Quoting Fuling (Reply 12): EK has no more traffic rights into China at the moment, but how much more can QR add before reaching their maximum traffic limit?
SCQ83 From United States of America, joined Oct 2012, 456 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (5 months 2 weeks 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 1257 times:
Quoting LJ (Reply 13): I reckon that if QR wants to open another secondary destinatons, it can work something out with the Chinese government (AFAIK the Chinese try to lure airlines to URC, but no takers yet).
Interesting, I thought URC used to have service to DXB (from a Chinese carrier), but I can't see it anymore. I think URC is more of Turkish Airlines (that has a strong presence in Central Asia), Air Arabia or FlyDubai destination (assuming Air Arabia / FlyDubai could fly there in terms of UAE-China bilateral) than the likes of EY/QR/EK (esp. EK).
URC is a particular destination within China and China-Gulf relations, because of the Turkic Muslim majority (for instance, many Chinese from that region travel to Saudi for the pilgrimage and their language/ethnicity is Turkish-related), and because from the Gulf is more of a medium-haul flight compared to the coastal cities (flying distance from Dubai to Urumqi is roughly half of that to Shanghai or Beijing).
justinlee From China, joined Aug 2012, 302 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (5 months 2 weeks 1 day ago) and read 1234 times:
Quoting SCQ83 (Reply 15): Interesting, I thought URC used to have service to DXB (from a Chinese carrier), but I can't see it anymore.
In 1996, China Southern opened URC-SHJ and it's the first chinese carrier flying to the Middle East. This line worked not so good. It closed and reopened for several times...
In 2003, China Southern started URC-DXB and struggled in the crisis of Dubai in 2008. They no longer operate this line but I think the market is still there.
CZ might have been the first Chinese carrier to link URC to Middle East but it was not the first Chinese carrier to serve the regiion, CAAC holds that title, they served Sharjah, Dubai, Kuwait, Baghdad and Cairo as well as Istanbul (via URC and SHJ) if you condier it Middle East.
China Eastern was the second with Bahrain service in early 1990s, which makes China Southern the third or technically the fourth Chinese airline to enter ME if you take Air China as a seprate carrier to CAAC.
Also CZ flew Urumqi-Jeddah via SHJ for one season using 737-700 around 2005.
Quoting LJ (Reply 13): (AFAIK the Chinese try to lure airlines to URC, but no takers yet).
How is that? since the past ten years or so just about every Chinese airline that matters is serving Urumqi, as well as Korean Air with seasonal charters, all of the regional carriers are flying there S7, Uzbekistan Airways, Air Astana, Tajik Air, Somon Air, Kyrgyzstan Avia, Ariana Afghan in the past PIA were there with A310 from Islamabad twice weekly and Kam air also operated the route seasonaly from kabul for some years as did Aeroflot way back in USSR era.
ANA and Dragonair too have done charters there.
Yes URC is more of an LCC destination from Middle East, with Saudia as the only likely major airline to fly there and that too seasonally, other major carriers could be Aeroflot and PIA return, Turkish and British Airways should BA want to expand in the region, infact they were looking through BMed doing that.
justinlee From China, joined Aug 2012, 302 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (5 months 2 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 889 times:
Quoting 777way (Reply 17): How is that? since the past ten years or so just about every Chinese airline that matters is serving Urumqi, as well as Korean Air with seasonal charters, all of the regional carriers are flying there S7, Uzbekistan Airways, Air Astana, Tajik Air, Somon Air, Kyrgyzstan Avia, Ariana Afghan in the past PIA were there with A310 from Islamabad twice weekly and Kam air also operated the route seasonaly from kabul for some years as did Aeroflot way back in USSR era.
Here is the international flight schedule for URC this winter.
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