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British Airways commenced operations from London Heathrow to Chengdu on 22 September. The service is currently operated three times weekly, and adds to the airline’s existing Beijing and Shanghai services. It will be upgraded to five times weekly next summer.

Analysis of Innovata / Diio Mi schedule data reveals that in the last 12 months a total of 16 airlines have started 25 major new long-haul services between an airport in Europe and an airport in Asia*. In total, year-on-year seat capacity (in October) between these two regions is up +3%, at a time when the economies of Europe are, on the whole, growing significantly less quickly than those in Asia. Despite this, 11 of the 16 airlines involved in starting new services are based in Europe.

London Heathrow still has most flights to Asia

Source: Innovata / Diio Mi for October 2013

Across Europe there are 30 airports that have at least one non-stop service to Asia, down from 32 a year ago. Athens, Kiev Boryspil and Kazan no longer have direct links to Asia, but Geneva has now joined the list thanks to its Air China service to Beijing, which launched on 7 May this year. Measured in terms of weekly departures, London Heathrow continues to have more non-stop flights to Asian airports than any other airport in Europe, still significantly ahead of Frankfurt and Paris CDG. Europe’s four major hubs take the top four places, with two Moscow airports, Istanbul and Helsinki rounding out the top eight. Among Nordic airports it is worth noting that Finnair’s focus on Asian destinations means that Helsinki has more Asian flights per week than Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm combined.

Frankfurt #1 for destinations

Source: Innovata / Diio Mi for October 2013

Frankfurt may still have 100 fewer weekly flights to Asia than London Heathrow, but they are spread across a larger number of destinations. Frankfurt serves a total of 28 Asian destinations non-stop, Heathrow is on 25, and Paris CDG is not far behind on 23. Airports with just a single service include Berlin Tegel (Hainan Airlines to Beijing), Düsseldorf (Air China to Beijing), Geneva (Air China to Beijing), Leeds/Bradford (PIA to Islamabad) and Warsaw (LOT to Beijing).

Norwegian joins the market with its 787s

If three weekly flights is considered to be a minimum requirement for a major new long-haul service between Europe and Asia, then anna.aero has identified 25 that are currently operating that have been launched during the last 12 months. This includes the first Asian routes operated by Norwegian, initially with leased A340s, but then with its own 787s. Norwegian was not the only carrier to find the 787 a useful aircraft for starting new long-haul routes between Europe and Asia, as Air India launched flights to Birmingham, and Japan Airlines used its 787s to start a new daily service to Helsinki. As the global fleet of 787s grows it will be interesting to see which other new routes will be started with this latest fuel-efficient aircraft.