Heathrow welcomes China’s largest airline, and a new trade route to Guangzhou

Date added: 18 March, 2012

China Southern, the largest Chinese airline, has now been able to get take off and landing slots at Heathrow for 3 flights a week to Guangzhou. This is the first direct flight to Guanzhou from the UK, though there are many other flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, from where connecting flights can be made to all the regional Chinese cities.  BAA complains that it is limited in how many flights it can provide to China, that its European rivals have more, and that they have more direct routes. BAA says Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam airports will boast direct flights to Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Xiamen, Nanjing, Shenyang and Qingdao this year. However, Heathrow manages around 21 flights per day to Miami, and large numbers to other non-business but profitable routes.  Heathrow appears to have many more passengers each year travelling to China (Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong) than Frankfurt, Paris or Schiphol. See Comparison.

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27 February 2012  (Heathrow Airport press release)

• China Southern will operate the first ever flights between London and Guangzhou from June
• New route expected to boost trade
• But UK falls further behind France, Germany and Holland in race for new routes to China

China Southern Airlines will begin flights on 6 June 2012 between Heathrow and Guangzhou, China’s third largest city. There will be three flights a week from Terminal 4 and Heathrow will be the only UK airport served by the airline. China Southern Airlines is the largest airline in China and the sixth largest in the world, operating a fleet of more than 300 aircraft.

The new route will be the first between the UK and Guangzhou and is expected to boost trade.  More than 25% of all global economic growth over the next five years is expected to come from China and Guangzhou is the country’s third largest city. A recent report by Frontier Economics found that UK businesses trade 20 times as much with Emerging Market destinations that have a direct daily flight to the UK as they do with those countries that do not.

The deal has taken eight years to come to fruition with BAA first talking to the airline in 2004.  Because Heathrow is full, operating at 99.2% of its permitted capacity, China Southern has had to wait for suitable take-off and landing slots to become available from other airlines before it has been able to add the new route.

The UK has missed out on trade, jobs and economic growth because of the Government’s cap on flights at the UK’s only hub.  In the meantime the airline has flown to Paris, giving French companies an eight-year head start in building new trade links with China. Even now, Paris will have four times as many flights to Guangzhou than the UK.

While the UK is adding one new route to the world’s most important emerging market in 2012, its European competitors will serve a further seven additional routes to China’s interior. Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam airports will boast direct flights to Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Xiamen, Nanjing, Shenyang and Qingdao this year, in addition to the flights to Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai served from the UK. [These flights to Paris etc don’t yet exist – all currently involve having a stop over, as do the flights from Heathrow].

Other airlines from major emerging economies would like to add new routes at Heathrow, but are unable to do so because of a lack of take-off and landing slots. A recent report by Frontier Economics found that there were twenty-one emerging market destinations with daily flights from Continental European hubs but not from Heathrow. This lack of connectivity is estimated to be costing the UK economy £1.2bn a year in lost trade.

Colin Matthews, Chief Executive Officer of BAA, said

“It is great news for the UK that China Southern is opening up a new route between Heathrow and Guangzhou. We are delighted that China Southern has chosen Heathrow, and we would like to welcome more flights from China Southern and other airlines that could bring jobs and growth to the UK. The centre of gravity in the world economy is shifting and Britain should be forging new links with economies like China. Instead a lack of hub airport capacity is causing us to fall further behind the rest of Europe.”

http://www.heathrowairport.com/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/heathrow-welcomes-china%E2%80%99s-largest-airline,-and-a-new-trade-route-to-guangzhou

Number of passengers to China from Heathrow and its rivals

The data  below  show that there are many more passengers flying to China from Heathrow, (considering Hong Kong as China) in years for which data can be found. Though Heathrow may lack a few direct flights to a couple of regional airports in China, it appears to have more passengers travelling to and from China  than Frankfurt, or Paris, or Schiphol. Figures below are for Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong (not other regionals).

About 1,113,000 passengers for Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

About 757,100  passengers for Frankfurt Airport. (2010)

About 1,061,500 passengers for Schiphol (2009)

And 2,074,826 passengers to China including Hong Kong in 2011 for Heathrow.

And 1,993,593 passengers to China including Hong Kong in 2010 for Heathrow.  And 2,065,130 passengers  in 2009.

Passengers:

Details  below

Total annual passengers at Heathrow and its European rivals

For total passengers using the airports, in the 2008 ranking, Heathrow was 3rd in the world, behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta with 90,039,200 and O’Hare Chicago  69,353,600.  Heathrow has many more than even its nearest rival inEurope, Paris Charles de Gaulle.

3. Heathrow                              2008     67,056,200                        2011    69,433,230

5. Paris-Charles de Gaulle   2008     60,852,000                        2011   60,970,551

9. Frankfurt                               2008     53,467,450                        2011   56,440,000

11.MadridBarajas                   2008     50,823,100                        2011   49,662,512

14.AmsterdamSchiphol         2008     47,429,700                        2011   49,755,252

 (2008 data from Airports Council International)   (2011 data, Wikipedia)

How many flights does Heathrow actually have to the emerging economies?

March 5, 2012    There have been letters in the Sunday Times and in the Sunday Telegraph from lists of business people, in support of airport expansion in the south east, and demanding reconsideration of a third runway at Heathrow. They claim that Heathrow is lagging behind Schiphol, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt airport in the number of flights to the emerging and rapidly growing economies. And that therefore the UK will be condemned to an economic backwater if vast amounts of concrete are not poured, and another runway is not provided. But what is the actual situation? Are there really not enough flights to emerging economies from Heathrow? Are the numbers to some destinations low just because there really is not the demand (however much UK business might like there to be the demand)? We investigate what flights there really are from Heathrow already.  Click here to view full story…

What destinations are served by Frankfurt, Paris and Heathrow airports, and how many passengers travel to Chinese destination?

This is the map, from Wikipedia, of destinations served by direct flights from Heathrow.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Air_routes_from_LHR.PNG

This is the map, from Wikipedia, of destinations served by direct flights from Frankfurt.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Air_routes_from_FRA.PNG

Paris Charles de Gaulle airport

? 2011 or 2010?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris-Charles_de_Gaulle_Airport#Airlines_and_destinations

So that was  601,000 + 512,000 =  1,113,000 passengers to China – including Hong Kong  – from Paris Charles de Gaulle in either 2011 or 2010.

Busiest routes at Frankfurt Airport (2010) ^[33]

Rank	Airport	Departing passengers	Airlines
1	Berlin-Tegel	802,000	Lufthansa, Air Berlin
2	Hamburg	745,100	Lufthansa, Air Berlin
3	London-Heathrow	620,500	British Airways, Lufthansa
4	Munich	475,100	Lufthansa
5	Madrid	459,400	Iberia, LAN Airlines, Lufthansa, Spanair
6	Chicago-O’Hare	451,700	American Airlines, Lufthansa, United Airlines
7	Vienna	450,200	Adria Airways, Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Niki
8	Paris-Charles de Gaulle	448,200	Air France, Lufthansa
9	Singapore	429,500	Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines
10	New York-JFK	365,400	Delta, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines
11	Istanbul-Atatürk	355,900	Condor, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines
12	Dubai	337,700	Condor, Emirates, Lufthansa
13	Washington-Dulles	334,900	Lufthansa, United Airlines
14	Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi	330,900	Lufthansa, Thai Airways
15	Rome-Fiumicino	320,300	Alitalia, Ethiopian Airlines, Lufthansa
16	Tokyo-Narita	302,600	All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa
17	Barcelona	295.055	Lufthansa, Spanair
19	Toronto-Pearson	289,100	Air Canada, Air Transat, Lufthansa
20	Antalya	285,000	Condor, Pegasus Airlines, Sky Airlines, SunExpress, TUIFly, XL Airways
21	Amsterdam	282,200	KLM, Lufthansa
22	Palma de Mallorca	280,000	Air Berlin, Condor, TUIfly, Lufthansa
23	San Francisco	277,300	Lufthansa, United Airlines
24	Copenhagen	276,400	Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines
25	Zurich	272,700	Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines
26	Beijing-Capital	270,500	Air China, Lufthansa
27	Shanghai-Pudong	264,900	Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Lufthansa
28	Stockholm-Arlanda	264,000	Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines
29	Newark	255,000	Continental, Lufthansa
30	Lisbon	253,900	Lufthansa, TAP Portugal
31	Seoul-Incheon	236,400	Asiana Airlines, Korean Air, Lufthansa
32	Athens	228,100	Aegean Airlines, Lufthansa
33	São Paulo-Guarulhos	223,500	Lufthansa, TAM Airlines
34	Helsinki	222,700	Finnair, Lufthansa
35	Hong Kong	221,700	Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa
36	Moscow-Domodedovo	220,500	Lufthansa, S7 Airlines, Transaero
37	Prague	220,000	Czech Airlines, Lufthansa
38	Dublin	214,700	Aer Lingus, Lufthansa
39	Oslo-Gardermoen	213,300	Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines
40	Tel Aviv	211,300	El Al, Lufthansa, Sun d’Or International Airlines

So that was 270,500 + 264,900  + 221,700 = 757,100 passengers to China including Hong Kong in 2010.

535,400 without Hong Kong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_Airport

Busiest international routes at Heathrow^[67]

Rank	Airport	Passengers handled (2010)	Passengers handled (2009)
1 (1)	New York City – JFK	2,969,530	2,478,722
2 (2)	Dubai	1,787,561	1,745,005
3 (3)	Dublin	1,493,613	1,604,044
4 (4)	Hong Kong	1,386,779	1,528,886
5 (5)	Amsterdam	1,333,124	1,509,787
6 (6)	Paris – CDG	1,299,701	1,338,307
7 (9)	Frankfurt am Main	1,266,240	1,201,354
8 (7)	Los Angeles	1,189,309	1,235,549
9 (8)	Chicago – O’Hare	1,138,012	1,218,516
10 (10)	Madrid-Barajas	1,093,538	1,127,369
11 (13)	Newark	1,091,818	1,003,041
12 (15)	Rome – Fiumicino	1,032,872	945,369
13 (11)	Singapore	1,022,220	1,123,503
14 (17)	Munich	975,465	907,897
15 (21)	Mumbai	957,439	861,667
16 (12)	Toronto – Pearson	940,448	1,013,477
17 (14)	Washington – Dulles	920,514	1,001,468
18 (25)	Delhi	918,196	756,013
19 (19)	Stockholm – Arlanda	912,362	891,493
20 (16)	Johannesburg	886,146	921,194
21 (20)	Zurich	876,385	888,246
22 (22)	Copenhagen	870,072	853,849
23 (23)	Boston	866,719	850,620
24 (18)	San Francisco	860,617	892,735
25 (33)	Geneva	859,143	640,131
26 (31)	Istanbul – Atatürk	855,071	653,169
27 (24)	Miami	822,315	846,211
28 (30)	Athens	784,308	666,171
29 (32)	Vienna	731,100	649,007
30 (29)	Lisbon	727,335	697,460
31 (27)	Sydney	696,301	741,583
32 (26)	Tokyo – Narita	683,186	753,997
33 (35)	Milan – Linate	647,636	599,415
34 (37)	Doha	640,782	583,380
35 (28)	Barcelona	605,989	725,005
36 (35)	Bangkok – Suvarnabhumi	597,826	599,574
37 (39)	Berlin – Tegel	596,543	513,659
38 (33)	Oslo	592,477	610,700
39 (38)	Helsinki	578,543	560,235
Total		37,925,601	37,737,808

.                 Shanghai + Beijing (2010)            662,690

As Heathrow has such high numbers of passengers, the figures to Shanghai and Beijing are not shown in the top 39. But the CAA figure is 662,690.

Hong Kong alone had 1,386,779 passengers in 2010 from Heathrow. A much higher number than Frankfurt or Paris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Heathrow_Airport

2011 figures from the CAA   link  show that there were 662,000 passengers travelling to Shanghai and Beijing, and 1,412,826 passengers to Hong Kong (all from Heathrow apart from 286).

That makes a total of 2,074,826 passengers to China including Hong Kong in 2011.

And 1,993,593 passengers to China including Hong Kong in 2010    link    

And 2,065,130 passengers including Hong Kong  in 2009.  (There were slightly less to  Beijing and Hong Kong in 2010 than in 2009, but more to Shanghai).

CAA international passenger figures for 2011

International Air Passenger Traffic To and From Reporting Airports for 2011
Comparison with the Previous Year

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/80/airport_data/2011Annual/Table_12_1_Intl_Air_Pax_Route_Analysis_2011.pdf

Amsterdam Schiphol

Guangzhou and Hanghou direct flights were added in 2011.

In 2009 there were 1,061,518 passengers to China.  No more up to date information is available.

World’s busiest airports – 2010 Statistics – figures show the total of airports serving the city combined.

London has by far the most.

The following list is generated from two lists compiled by CAPA Centre for Aviation based on data from Airports Council International, one ranking cities with multiple airports^[1] and the other ranking individual airports.^[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_busiest_city_airport_systems_by_passenger_traffic

Rank	City	Total Passengers	Airport(s) included
1.	London	127,353,419	Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City, Southend[3]
2.	New York City	107,586,717	JFK, Newark, LaGuardia, Westchester[4], Long Island[5], Stewart[6]
3.	Tokyo	98,024,708	Haneda, Narita
4.	Atlanta	89,331,622	Hartsfield–Jackson
5.	Paris	86,203,669	Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Beauvais
6.	Chicago	84,302,427	O’Hare, Midway
7.	Los Angeles	79,981,524	LAX, Long Beach, Bob Hope, John Wayne, Ontario[7]
8.	Beijing	76,171,801	Capital, Nanyuan[8][9]
9.	Shanghai	71,684,808	Pudong, Hongqiao
10.	Dallas/Fort Worth	64,867,419	DFW, Love Field

and it continues ….

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_busiest_city_airport_systems_by_passenger_traffic

Posted: Sunday, March 18th, 2012. Filed in General News, Recent News.