Quoting iloveboeing (Reply 13):
I would love to see nonstop service to places like Chongqing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Nanning, Kunming, Lahsa, Wulumuqi (Urumqi), Huhehaote (Hohhot), Shenyang, Changchun, Qingdao and much more. |
That's an interesting list, but several of those are really not major cities in the sense of demanding longhaul service. Lhasa, Ürümqi, and Hohhot, for example, are all urban areas of ~3 million or smaller with no notable ties to North America. Nanning is also in that ballpark and Kunming is closer to ~4 million, but both are hurt by being located in the far south of China. Tianjin and Hangzhou are both bustling cities, but suffer from being in the shadow of the larger
PEK and
PVG catchment areas in the same way that
SZX and
CAN have their longhaul services severely impacted by
HKG (and Shenzhen/Guangzhou are much larger markets).
From that list, I really only see Chongqing and Wuhan potentially supporting some level of service in the near future (and Wuhan is already set to receive the
CZ CAN-
WUH-
SFO service mentioned in the OP). Shenyang already has North American service as an intermediate stop on Sichuan Airlines'
YVR-
SHE-
CTU route.
The only factors that may change that are local subsidies, which I wouldn't necessarily rule out for any large-ish city in China, or the desire of some of the smaller Chinese carriers to spread their wings internationally without access to longhaul routes at some of the primary airports. I wouldn't be shocked to see Xiamen Airlines start a route like
XMN-
HGH-
LAX, for example.
