Tag Archives: Shanghai

Emirates will ramp up its operations in China ahead of the New Lunar Year and in response to strong travel demand, boosting connectivity to its gateways; Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing as the country reopens its borders and eases its COVID-related entry restrictions. Shanghai – service resumption from 20 January 2023 with twice weekly service, gradually increasing to daily service from 1 March 2023. Emirates will resume passenger services to Shanghai starting with two weekly flights operated by an Airbus A380 aircraft from 20 January 2023, with EK302 departing from Dubai to Shanghai non-stop and EK303 making a short stop in Bangkok before returning to Dubai. This service will ramp up in frequency to four weekly flights operated by a three-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft from 02 February 2023. During this period, Emirates’ flight EK302 will depart Dubai at 03:45hrs and arrive in Shanghai at 15:40hrs. The return flight EK303 will depart Shanghai at 17:40hrs and arrive in Bangkok at 21:45hrs before taking off from the Thai capital at 23:20hrs and arriving in Dubai at 03:20hrs the next day.* Emirates will further boost its Dubai-Shanghai route from 1 March 2023 with a daily non-stop service. Emirates’ flight EK304 will depart Dubai at 09:15hrs and arrive in Shanghai at 21:05hrs. The return flight EK303 will leave Shanghai at 23:00hrs and arrive in Dubai at 05:20hrs the next day.* Guangzhou – daily nonstop from 1 February 2023. Emirates currently operates a non-stop flight from Dubai to Guangzhou as EK362, and a return flight from Guangzhou to Dubai via Bangkok as EK363, four times a week. Starting from 1 February 2023, the airline will increase services between Dubai and Guangzhou with EK362/EK363 operating as daily …

Etihad Airways is set to strengthen air connectivity between the UAE and China next year, starting with an additional weekly frequency on its Abu Dhabi – Shanghai route. Subject to regulatory approval, from February 2023, the airline will fly to Pudong International Airport (PVG) two times per week using modern Boeing 787 and 777 aircraft. Combined with a weekly service to Beijing and a twice-weekly service to Guangzhou, this will provide travellers with five weekly nonstop flights between Abu Dhabi and China. Martin Drew, Senior Vice President of Global Sales & Cargo at Etihad Aviation Group, said: “Etihad Airways is delighted to add a second weekly passenger service to Shanghai following the further relaxation of Covid-related travel measures. “China is a market of primary importance to Etihad, and as one of the country’s largest financial and economic centres, Shanghai plays a crucial role in our network. “Etihad is committed to developing our operation to China, and we look forward to welcoming more travellers on board in the new year to experience our award-winning hospitality.” Today’s announcement follows the launch of nonstop flights between Abu Dhabi and Guangzhou in October 2022, when Etihad Airways became the first international airline to operate long-haul passenger flights to the top three Chinese gateways since the start of the pandemic. The airline marked another milestone in China earlier this year when it operated the first regular international passenger flight to recommence to Beijing when the capital reopened for international direct travel in June 2022.

As part of its efforts to achieve the Sharjah Tourism Vision 2021, which aims to attract more than 10 million tourists to the emirate by the year 2021, the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) announced that it will organise roadshows in three Chinese cities — Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai. The campaign, which is set to run from September 16-20, is aimed at stimulating the Chinese outbound travel market to Sharjah by encouraging them to take advantage of the UAE’s visa-on-arrival policy for Chinese tourists. The growing number of Chinese tourists to Sharjah who come to explore the emirate’s cultural and heritage identity has made it one of the most important markets for SCTDA. Therefore, the roadshow will add immense value to the Authority’s efforts to attract more Chinese travellers to the emirate, by creating awareness on its product offerings and other special packages. In line with this, the roadshows in Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai will see SCTDA highlight the emirate’s ambitious development projects in cooperation with the public and private sectors before Chinese audiences. H.E. Khalid Jasim Al Midfa, Chairman of SCTDA, said, “The number of visitors from China during the second quarter of this year has reached to 13,289, which reflects the consistently increasing interest of Chinese tourists to visit Sharjah, and it is expected this figure will go even higher by the end of this year. In view of this growth, SCTDA’s upcoming roadshows in three Chinese cities will strengthen communication channels with travel, tourism and hospitality industry leaders, and will promote exchange of best practices, successful experiences, and insights on latest trends to effectively support the growth of the tourism industry.”

The national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, Etihad has upgraded services on three key Asian routes this week, introducing larger aircraft to accommodate growing demand. Flights between the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, and two major Chinese cities, Shanghai and Chengdu, have been upgraded with next-generation Boeing 787 Dreamliners, while the South Korean city of Seoul has been boosted from a Dreamliner to an Airbus A380 ‘super jumbo’. “Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing air transport region in the world, and China is the fastest-growing individual market. As we continue to modernise our aircraft fleet, and as we work with tourism partners to increase visitor numbers to Abu Dhabi, we are deploying newer, larger planes to key markets throughout our network,” said Robin Kamark, Chief Commercial Officer of Etihad Airways. Chengdu, in south-central China, is a city of 7.4 million people. Etihad has upgraded its daily Abu Dhabi – Chengdu flights from 262-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft to 299-seat Boeing 787s, a 14 per cent increase in seats. Shanghai, China’s largest city, with a population of more than 24 million, has been upgraded from Boeing 787-9 aircraft to larger Boeing 787-10 jets, seating 336 passengers, up 12 per cent. And Seoul, the capital of South Korea, with a population approaching 10 million, has been upgraded by Etihad from the Boeing 787-10 to the 494-seat Airbus A380, a massive 47 per cent increase. With the upgrades of the Shanghai and Chengdu routes, Etihad now operates Dreamliners to all four of its China gateways, having introduced these planes to Hong Kong and Beijing earlier this year.

Dubai Airports and China Eastern celebrated the announcement of three weekly non-stop flights between Shanghai and Dubai International (DXB) at an event in Dubai recently. Scheduled to begin on September 17, the non-stop services are an addition to China Eastern’s three existing flights between Shanghai and Dubai with a stopover in Kunming, the capital city of China’s Yunnan province. The new services will offer customers greater choice and facilitate ease of travel between the two destinations. A top trading partner for the UAE, China is a major contributor to DXB’s traffic with more than 2.2 million travellers in 2017. China Eastern’s association with DXB goes back to 2010 when it commenced service between Dubai and Kunming via Dhaka. As part of the event, Eugene Barry, Executive Vice President of Dubai Airports’ Commercial Group, presented a certificate of appreciation to Randy Cui, General Manager (UAE) of China Eastern, for the carrier’s role in boosting UAE-China connectivity through a strong partnership with Dubai Airports.

Etihad Airways and China Southern Airlines have announced a new codeshare partnership, taking the number of codeshare agreements signed by the Abu Dhabi based airline to 53. Under the new agreement, China Southern Airlines will put its ‘CZ’ code on Etihad Airways’ daily services between Beijing (PEK)/Shanghai (PVG)/Chengdu (CTU) and Abu Dhabi. The codeshare partnership will give China Southern guests the opportunity to book codeshare flights to and from Abu Dhabi, and connect on to Etihad’s network of over 100 destinations worldwide. Mohammad Al Bulooki, Etihad Airways’ Executive Vice President Commercial, said, “With this partnership, either airline can use its strengths to benefit the other and offer more choices, with enhanced connectivity, to all the guests, alongside world-class services and products offered by both the airlines.”

Effective from July 1 2017, Emirates will provide an all-A380 service on its Beijing (PEK) and Shanghai (PVG) services when it upgrades the second daily flights, EK308/EK309 on its PEK route and EK304/305 on its PVG route, replacing the current Boeing 777-300ER operations. The move will increase capacity to both Beijing and Shanghai, offering Emirates passengers even more seamless A380-to-A380 connections between the two Chinese cities and over 30 international points, including 18 points in the UK and Europe, via its hub in Dubai. This upgrade strengthens Emirates’ overall mainland China offering, which also includes services to Guangzhou, Yinchuan and Zhengzhou. The additional seats on the routes will support more business and leisure travel departing from and arriving in China, while offering passengers an exceptional global travel experience. The popular Emirates A380, which offers up to 519 seats in a three class configuration on Chinese routes, now flies to seven North Asian cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul in South Korea and Narita, Japan.

Around 600 companies, destinations, organisations and travel service providers from nearly 70 countries and territories will be represented in China’s new three-day business to business travel trade show on the grounds of the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Conference Centre. ITB China is the Chinese off-shoot of annual ITB Berlin, the World´s Largest Travel Trade Show ®, and its sister show, ITB Asia, in Singapore. The inaugural event has attracted around 600 exhibitors among which 28% are offering MICE products, 34% leisure, 31% Corporate and 7% travel technology solutions. More than one third of the exhibitors made their way from all over Asia and China to the first ITB China. Around 40% coming from European countries, 10% from the Middle East and some 10% from the Americas.

For the second year in a row, the Ministry of Economy is organizing a promotional roadshow under the slogan ‘Visit UAE’ in the People’s Republic of China from March 27 to 28, 2017 in Shanghai and Beijing to showcase the UAE’s world-class tourism destinations. The delegation will be headed by H.E. Mohammed Khamis Al Mheiri, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy and Advisor to the Minister for Tourism Affairs. Accompanying him are H.E. Abdullah Saleh Al Hammadi, Director of the Ministry of Tourism’s Tourism Department, representatives of tourism agencies in the UAE, hotel and tourism and travel companies. H.E. Al Mheiri said that the latest edition of the roadshow aims to attract more Chinese tourists to the UAE and represents collective nationwide efforts organized by the Ministry of Economy in cooperation with relevant bodies and departments to highlight the country’s diverse tourist destinations, attractions, and distinctive and innovative services awaiting tourists. The Undersecretary pointed out that the UAE’s tourism sector is growing rapidly thanks to the full support of the wise leadership. He also noted the continuous development of industry-enhancing infrastructure and sustained investments in innovative tourism facilities and services as well as the diversity of tourism options offered by the different emirates to foreign tourists. H.E. emphasized that the participation in and organization of events abroad are of great importance in enriching the image of UAE tourism among foreign visitors as well as introducing special advantages and incentives offered by the sector to different countries. He added they help secure a greater share of the global tourism and travel markets. H.E. Al Muhairi pointed out that China is a priority tourism market for the UAE due to its great …

‘Building the bridge between East and West,’ an exclusive ITB China preview event with more than 60 journalists from China and 15 other countries concluded at the Jin Jiang Tower in Shanghai. Three months before the official opening of ITB China, the new marketplace for the Chinese travel industry, experienced industry professionals shared and discussed their point of view and insights on the Chinese travel industry. Among the distinguished speakers were Dr. Martin Buck, Senior VP Travel & Logistics/Messe Berlin, David Axiotis, General Manager/ITB China, Eduardo Santander, Executive Director/European Travel Commission, John Li, Vice President /Jin Jiang International Hotel Management Co.,Ltd, Mason Ma, General Manager All Region-based Tourism Strategic Marketing & Advertising Department/Ctrip, Frank Wu, General Manager of Overseas Sourcing Center / Tuniu, Tom Jenkins, CEO / ETOA – European Tour Operators Association and Charlie Li, CEO / TravelDaily China.