In 2024, several European airlines which include SAS, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Lufthansa and LOT Polish Airline suspended or reduced their flights to China. Air France-KLM also reduced flights to Beijing and Shanghai from January 2025. British Airways cut flights to Beijing but maintains its flights to Shanghai from London Heathrow.
Only seven European carriers remain on China-Europe routes, down from 14 in 2019. These include Belavia (Belarus), Finnair, Air Serbia, Turkish Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM.
Operating costs increase due to airspace closure
As of 25 March 2022, 36 countries including EU countries, the UK and the US, closed their airspace to Russian airlines, Russia has in turn, banned airlines in most of those countries, from entering or flying over Russia, in retaliation to sanctions imposed on it following its invasion of Ukraine
This lack of access to Russian airspace has significantly increased flight times and operational costs, ultimately impacting profits and European airlines’ competitiveness on the market versus their Chinese and Asian counterparts.
Virgin Atlantic noted that rerouting flights from London to Shanghai around Russia adds up to two hours to the journey, significantly increasing fuel costs. On top of that, the airline has to deploy more flight crew, further driving up operational expenses.
Chinese airlines now hold the advantage as they can still fly over Russia and are aggressively expanding their routes to Europe as they rush in to fill the gap. Whether this will be sustainable in the long term remains to be seen and it will be interesting to monitor the situation.
Slow recovery of business travel
In addition to the complications caused by rerouting, the demand for these routes has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. The slow recovery of business travel, which was a key revenue driver for these airlines, has hit the profitability of long-haul routes, especially those to China. Despite keeping its Beijing-Munich route, Lufthansa’s suspension of its Beijing-Frankfurt service reflects this trend.
According to an analysis conducted by CAPA – Centre for Aviation, data over the last decade demonstrated the dwindling control of European airlines over the UK-China market. In fact, from a combined 54% of the seat share in August 2014, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways make up just under 15% in October 2024.
Chinese Airlines launch new flights to Europe
China Eastern will launch its Shanghai–Copenhagen route on July 17, 2025. This thrice-weekly service will make China Eastern the sole operator on this route, filling a gap left by SAS, which discontinued its Copenhagen–Shanghai service in late 2024. Another key addition is the Nanjing–Paris route, which began service on July 9, 2025.
In June, the airline began daily flights between Shanghai and Milan and also between Shanghai Pudong and Geneva. Eastern’s Shanghai–Venice route, which was first introduced in 2024, has seen its frequency increase to four weekly flights as of June as well.
In April, Air China resumed once-a-week flights to Paris from Chengdu.
Sichuan Airlines also expanded its European operations, further strengthening the dominance of Chinese airlines on China-Europe routes. The airline launched nonstop flights between Chengdu and Madrid on 27 April, establishing the only nonstop connection between the two cities. Athens has also been mooted as a potential destination in the future.
Hainan Airlines started flying from Oslo to Beijing on 22 March, three times weekly. In May, it started flying from Haikou to London Heathrow. The airline launched a thrice-weekly flight between Chengdu and Vienna in December last year and resumed its Madrid to Shenzhen service in November.
Madrid Gets The Largest Increase
In absolute terms, Madrid will see the most growth when it comes to flights to China from Europe (excluding Russia). Over 500 flights are planned this year as compared to 2024, with a substantial amount of this increase coming from the new/resumed flights on the Beijing-Madrid sector.
China and Türkiye to double weekly flights
In May, Türkiye and China signed a new air services memorandum of understanding that more than doubles weekly passenger flight rights between the two countries—the first such expansion in 15 years.
The agreement raises permitted weekly passenger frequencies from 21 to 49 on both sides, with Turkish carriers also gaining rights to serve three new Chinese destinations: Chengdu, Urumqi and Xi’an.
In June, China Eastern Airlines launched direct flights from Xi’an, Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, to Istanbul. This will be the second direct international route to Türkiye after the airline’s Shanghai-Istanbul route.
Currently, the market is served by five airlines – Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Sichuan Airlines and Turkish Airlines – all of which had exhausted the available bilateral frequencies under the previous agreement. The frequencies will now increase to 49 flights per week.
Sabre Market Intelligence data shows that two-way traffic reached about 555,000 passengers in 2024, up from 267,000 in 2023 and above the 449,000 recorded in 2019. Istanbul–Shanghai was the busiest Türkiye–China route in 2024, accounting for 150,369 passengers, followed by Istanbul–Beijing (97,800) and Istanbul–Guangzhou (84,400).
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