Travelore News: Hainan Airlines Launches Three New Non-Stop Flights Between U.S. And Mainland China

New Routes to San Jose, Boston and Seattle Double Hainan's Service to the U.S.

 Hainan Airlines today launched the first of three new direct routes

 between the U.S. and Mainland China, part of the airline's large-scale expansion of its service in North America.

 Hainan is inaugurating service between Silicon Valley (SJC) and Beijing on June 15, between Boston's Logan

 International Airport and Shanghai-Pudong on June 20, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Shanghai-

Pudong on June 22.

The Silicon Valley and Boston routes will be flown by Boeing 787 Dreamliners, making Hainan the airline

 with the most nonstop 787 Dreamliner routes between China and North America. Hainan currently offers

 daily non-stop service between Beijing and Seattle, Boston and Chicago. Hainan first launched U.S. service

 in 2008 with non-stop flights between Seattle and Beijing.

"Since we began our Beijing-Seattle route, hundreds of thousands of people have experienced the award-

winning service and elite experience Hainan Airlines provides our travelers," said Hou Wei, vice president of

 Hainan. "With expanding trade, stronger bilateral ties, and now reciprocal ten-year visas between China and

 the United States, this market is continuing to grow, and Hainan is making a long-term commitment to our

 customers in China and the U.S."

Hainan Airlines is Mainland China's largest independent airline, and is the only Mainland Chinese airline with

 a perfect five-star rating from Skytrax, the international airline ratings agency, four years in a row. Recently,

 Hainan acknowledged an order of 30 new 787-9 Dreamliners was in process.

"These new flights will provide non-stop service for many customers who, until now, have not been able to

 fly directly to China from their home airports," said Mr. Mu Weigang, deputy chairman of Hainan. "This is the

 first direct flight from San Jose to Mainland China, and Hainan provides the only non-stop service between

 Boston and China. It is our priority to serve communities that otherwise would not have direct access to

 China, and we are proud to use state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliners to do so."

Learn more about Hainan Airlines at http://www.hainanairlines.com/US/US/Home.

Read the Hainan Airlines history and profile at http://www.hainanairlines.com/HUPortal/dyn/portal/DisplayPage?COUNTRY_SITE=US&SITE=CBHZCBHZ&LANGUAGE=US&PAGE=CHAP.

Why It's Never Been Easier to Fly To Asia

Photo by Bayne Stanley / Alamy

A China Southern 787.

Until 2012, most trips to Asia followed a familiar and exhausting pattern. Travelers would hop a flight to connect at a major U.S. hub—Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, or San Francisco—then continue to a major Asian city—Beijing, Seoul, or Shanghai—where they might then catch another flight. But in the past three years, new and more fuel efficient aircraft have made many of these stops unnecessary, and airlines have started connecting smaller cities with point-to-point flights more convenient for business and leisure travelers.

Airlines are using the 787 on many of these new flights. Older planes like the Boeing 777 and Boeing 747 have the range to fly these routes, but they cost more to operate and, because they have more seats to fill, airlines were disinclined to fly them to smaller markets. With airlines expecting hundreds of new 787s in the next five years, even more mid-sized cities should see better connections to Asia.
"You can expect any airline that has long-range ambitions is going to look at the U.S. market," says Addison Schonland, an aviation industry consultant at AirInsight. "When you consider that to be the case, you see how many Chinese airlines there are and you see what airplanes they are buying. Sooner or later they are going to look for where the money is. The money is in America."
The trend has greatly benefitted Boston. Until 2012, when Japan Airlines started flights to Tokyo, Boston had never had a nonstop flight to Asia. By June, it will have four. China's Hainan Airlines, which began flying to Beijing last year, will add Shanghai on June 20, while Cathay Pacific launches Hong Kong on May 3. All flights except Hong Kong are on 787s.

Other airports have had similar success. In 2013, Silicon Valley got its first Asian route in seven years when Japan's All Nippon Airways launched new 787 service between San Jose and Tokyo. This June, Hainan will connect San Jose with Beijing with a 787. Other new Dreamliner routes include Japan Airlines' flights from San Diego to Tokyo and United's from Denver to Tokyo.
Chinese carriers like Hainan have been the most aggressive players when it comes to adding routes. The country's fourth-largest airline, Hainan ordered 30 new 787s in March worth $7.7 billion at list prices. And other Chinese carriers are expanding, too. In December, China Southern started the first flights from Wuhan to San Francisco, while China Eastern soon plans to fly from Nanjing to Los Angeles. Air China hasn't yet added new flights from non-traditional hubs, but it's monitoring the trend, says Zhihang Chi, the carrier's vice president of North America.

As for what to expect onboard, Japanese airlines have high service standards, but Chinese carriers are generally less polished than U.S. and European carriers, and cabins tend to be far less luxurious than the ones offered by Middle Eastern airlines like Emirates and Etihad. Travelers report that, on some Chinese airlines, flight attendants speak broken English and provide spotty service. But the airlines flying to the U.S. are safe—China has the top safety rating from the Federal Aviation Administration, and in April the International Air Transport Association commended China for its "exemplary safety record"—and most observers expect they'll improve their onboard products.
"They are going to go about their business making things better and picking up traffic," Schonland says. "Right now the brands aren't well known. But once you fly Hainan—and you realize it's pretty good—you'll fly them again."

Contributed by Brian Sumers, www.cntraveler.com

 

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Travelore News: Chongqing Non Stop To Rome Now On Hainan Airlines

Hainan Airlines Co., Ltd. initiated non-stop flight service between Chongqing and Rome on April 27, 2015. Codenamed HU7991, the inaugural flight took off from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport at 1:30 am on April 27 Beijing Time and landed at Rome's Fiumicino-Leonardo da Vinci International Airport at 7:50 am local time. Rome has been added to the roster of Hainan Airlines' destinations in Europe following Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. As one of the gateway cities to western China, Chongqing now has its first direct flight to Western Europe.

On the afternoon of April 26, Hainan Airlines held a brief inaugural ceremony in Chongqing. When flight HU7991 landed in Rome, airport staff greeted the passengers arriving from China with the traditional practice popular in the aviation sector, of spraying the entire exterior of the aircraft just having completed the maiden voyage of a newly-opened route with water.

Hainan Airlines CEO Xie Haoming said, "The opening of the Chongqing-Rome route has further improved our network of European routes, which, in turn, will provide a more comprehensive set of services to meet the growing travel demands of passengers who need to shuttle between China and the various countries in Europe as well as go a long way in nurturing economic and cultural exchanges between China and Italy."

When it comes to the globalization process which Hainan Airlines has actively embraced and been constantly pushing forward in recent years, Xie Haoming added that although the Chinese economy has entered what has been termed as the "new normal", China's outbound travel and international business travel will become the main sources of demand across the aviation sector as well as the key driving force for accelerating Hainan Airlines' globalization process, in tandem with the "One Belt, One Road" initiative being undertaken by the Chinese government.

Following the opening of the Chongqing-Rome route, Hainan Airlines will plans to shortly open several more international routes, including Beijing-San Jose, Shanghai-Boston and Shanghai-Seattle. The opening of new routes will further improve the airline's network through close cooperation with international partners.

Hainan Airlines' Chongqing-Rome route is serviced by the twin-aisle Airbus A330-200 capable of transporting 260 passengers. The business class section comes equipped with 18 fully reclining seats while economy provides seating for 242 passengers. Every passenger, no matter what class of seat, has access to a personal TV entertainment system.