justinlee From China, joined Aug 2012, 306 posts, RR: 0 Posted (4 months 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 3170 times:
According to the online booking system of Air China, they will start to serve 3xweekly CTU-FRA from May 19th. CTU is the second largest hub for Air China and the busiest airport in West China.
FRA will be the 3rd EU destination of Chengdu. Now KLM serves CTU-AMS and BA plans to start CTU-LHR from September. Besides, EY now serves CTU-AUH and QR will start to serve CTU-DOH on March. It seems that the competition of serving West China to Europe becomes white hot now!
mdavies06 From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2009, 330 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (4 months 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 2961 times:
This is a big step forward for Chinese aviation and Western China. The first Euro airlink by a Chinese carrier west of PEK, PVG and CAN (except URC). I hope it works out for them. This is definitely a bold move to share the flow of European traffics. I bet EY and QR will be the most unhappy with this move as they are hoping to benefit from this untapped market. Geographically speaking Middle East is actually a long detour for Western China - EU so if enough carriers serve this market nonstop the prices of one stop will get so low it will become non profitable. Obviously I am talking about a few years from now.
I wonder if CA will try CKG-FRA also one day. I bet they will.
jsnww81 From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 1859 posts, RR: 17 Reply 3, posted (4 months 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 2832 times:
Great news for Chengdu. Seems like CTU is emerging as the leading international gateway for western China (a title that Xian and Chongqing seem to be also vying for).
acedriver From China, joined Nov 2011, 36 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (4 months 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 2681 times:
Interesting stuff, Chengdu really seems to be developing itself into the Western international hub of China. I really do look forward to seeing how this will affect intl traffic in CAN and PVG.
Just wondering, will LH code share this flight?
LJ From Netherlands, joined Nov 1999, 4149 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (4 months 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 2669 times:
Quoting mdavies06 (Reply 1): . I bet EY and QR will be the most unhappy with this move as they are hoping to benefit from this untapped market.
I doubt. I think KL will be most unhappy as they had a monopoly between Europe and Chengdu and suddenly see both BA and CA tap into their market. Don't know the schedules, but for QR and to a lesser extent EY) CTU - Africa connections would be an interesting market.
bogoss From China, joined May 2012, 18 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (4 months 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 2539 times:
Chengdu is on fire!
I agree KL will be the one that is going to worry, first BA joining to share the UK market(largest from CTU), now CA to the heart of Europe...
Also a real challenge for Chengdu, with 2 ME airlines and 3 direct European routes, I wonder if all of them can last...
Quoting mdavies06 (Reply 1): I wonder if CA will try CKG-FRA also one day. I bet they will.
CKG for CA is far less important than what CTU means to it, that's decided already by China Southwest when it was still around, after the merger CTU has become the 2nd biggest hub of CA, yet it still took CTU a decade for this day to come as CA always has PEK as priority for long hauls then PVG for some fun. And CKG in this case is poorly developed by CA, even in East Asia there's only 1 or 2 or 3 destinations I am not so sure, so unless CA is taking a strategic move, I don't see that coming soon, say, in 5 or 8 years...
justinlee From China, joined Aug 2012, 306 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (4 months 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 1978 times:
Quoting mdavies06 (Reply 1): I wonder if CA will try CKG-FRA also one day. I bet they will.
CTU is a large hub for CA, they operate some 100+ departures every day while CKG only has 40+ departures. So CTU provides more connections. And actually CKG is only 1:30 away by high speed train.
Quoting factsonly (Reply 2): In addition to these passenger servcies, please remember that CA already operates 3x/weekly B744F services on the route PVG-CTU-AMS-TSN-PVG.
CTU is a rising center for high tech manufacturing. The cargo market in CTU still has a big market potential.
SCQ83 From United States of America, joined Oct 2012, 461 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (4 months 3 days 3 hours ago) and read 1893 times:
Quoting justinlee (Reply 7): CTU is a large hub for CA, they operate some 100+ departures every day while CKG only has 40+ departures. So CTU provides more connections.
I guess that is a major reason for this CA flight. Decongest PEK, and transit instead at CTU. I wonder if CTU could become a "secondary" international hub for CA, like MUC is for LH.
Do you have your updated chart with Europe-China destinations and frequencies?... I think I have seen one from you.
777way From Pakistan, joined Dec 2005, 5205 posts, RR: 4 Reply 10, posted (4 months 3 days ago) and read 1734 times:
Three of CA's South Asian routes have also gone to Chengdu these are Bangalore, Bombay, latest being Karachi whih has lost its Beijing link, whata bout Kathmandu and Delhi?
justinlee From China, joined Aug 2012, 306 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (4 months 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 1488 times:
Quoting SCQ83 (Reply 8): Do you have your updated chart with Europe-China destinations and frequencies?... I think I have seen one from you.
It's tons of work to do . Basically the 1st-tier cities (PEK,PVG,CAN) didn't see a lot of changes. But the link to the 2nd-tier is a new trend. Now these 2nd-tier cities have links to the Europe:
Chengdu: LHR, AMS, FRA
Chongqing: HEL
Xian: HEL
Nanjing: FRA
Shenyang: FRA
Qingdao: FRA
Hangzhou: AMS
Xiamen: AMS
Quoting 777way (Reply 10): Three of CA's South Asian routes have also gone to Chengdu these are Bangalore, Bombay, latest being Karachi whih has lost its Beijing link, whata bout Kathmandu and Delhi?
justinlee From China, joined Aug 2012, 306 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (4 months 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 953 times:
Quoting 777way (Reply 12): So only DEL is from PEK all the rest now CTU, is KTM-Lhasa over?
For Delhi, CA is only operating non-stop from Beijing now. But AI and MU operate PVG-DEL, CZ also operates CAN-DEL. Besides, ET has fifth freedom on HGH-DEL!
And I checked the timetable for CA, the CTU-KHI is still 2xweekly. For the KTM route, it's a little bit complicated. CA has 2xweekly non-stop from CTU and 3xweekly from CTU via Lhasa.
Quoting Fuling (Reply 14): DolphinAir747 has asked, will LH code share? But I wonder if LH may eventually fill the gap on the days CA doesn't operate CA431/CA432?
According to the cooperation scheme of LH and CA, they will definitely code share on this route. They will also code share on some connection routes from CTU.
Personally, I really doubt whether LH will step into this market in the near future. Although LH is very aggressive in developing the 2nd tier markets in China, we can see that the competition on CTU will be fierce next year. But who knows, if CA can really get a good performance , why doesn't LH join the party
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From China, joined Aug 2012, 306 posts, 
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. Basically the 1st-tier cities (PEK,PVG,CAN) didn't see a lot of changes. But the link to the 2nd-tier is a new trend. Now these 2nd-tier cities have links to the Europe:
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