Major airlines are cutting services to China

Some prominent airlines of the aviation world are drawing out their facilities from China all together.  The main reason behind withdrawing services to China is the closure of Russian airspace, leading to increasing operational cost, while demand has been reduced. 

Airlines like Scandinavian Airlines and Virgin Atlantic are no longer providing their premium services to China. All the flights of Virgin Atlantic to Hong Kong has been finally terminated. Because of this decision, 30 year presence in the Asian Financial hub has come to an end. 

A statement has been stated by John Grant who is at the position of Chief Analyst at the aviation intelligence company OAG, “going to get more pronounced, before it gets any better.” 

Airlines who have decided not to continue their flight services in China are as follows: 

• Qantas Airlines has discontinued its flight from China, and the flight route is from Sydney to Shanghai. 

• On October 26, all the flights from Virgin Atlantic between London and Shanghai came to an end. 
• Finnair has taken a decision that it will minimize the number of flight in winter between Helsinki and Shanghai. 
• Earlier, Lufthansa had the facility of the non-stop flight between Frankfurt and Beijing, but sadly, now the airlines have ended the flights.  
• On November 8, SAS Scandinavian decided not to continue offering flight services between Copenhagen and Shanghai. 
• For winter, passengers will not be able to avail the facility of flights of LOT Polish flying between Warsaw and Beijing.  
• One of the popular airlines, British Airways, has narrowed its flight services by 50% to the routes between Heathrow and Hong Kong. All the flights between London and Beijing have been pronounced to pause. The decision will be effective until November 2025. 

The majority of European airlines are discontinuing their services from China as an impact of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. In 2024, low demand is being observed in the number of travelers coming to China. In 2019, as per the records of the Chinese Government, approximately 49.1 million travelers came to China, but only 17.25 million travelers from all across the world visited China this year as of July. 

It is true that significant airlines have quit providing their facilities in China, but the good news is a few European passenger carrier airlines are taking it as an opportunity; for instance, Air Serbia has opened a flight between the route of Belgrade and Guangzhou. This flight will be direct, and this will be functional since January 2025.