Hainan Airlines has announced plans to introduce a second route to Vienna, just months after Austrian authorities denied traffic rights to Chinese counterpart China Eastern Airlines.
Starting Dec. 1, Hainan intends to begin nonstop service to Vienna Airport (VIE) from Chengdu Tianfu International Airport (TFU), which serves the capital of China’s Sichuan province. The new year-round route marks the first direct connection between the cities and will be served three times per week using Airbus A330-300 aircraft.
“This will consolidate our role as a central hub between Europe and Asia and create new opportunities for tourism and economic exchange,” VIE CEO Julian Jäger says. “In cooperation with the Austrian Consulate General, access to the center of Sichuan will be made much easier. Overall, we are well on the way to recovery in flight connections to China.”
This addition expands Hainan’s Austrian network to two routes, complementing its existing Shenzhen-Vienna service, which originally launched in October 2018 and resumed in June 2024 after a four-year suspension due to the pandemic.
Vienna Tourism CEO Norbert Kettner welcomed the planned Chengdu flights, highlighting China’s significance to Vienna's tourism sector. “The resurgence of Vienna flights from China is helping us significantly in addressing Chinese luxury travelers,” Kettner says. "In 2019, Chinese visitors accounted for more than half a million overnight stays in Vienna, making it our second-strongest long-distance market after the U.S."
OAG Schedules Analyser data indicates that in addition to Hainan's Shenzhen-Vienna service, there are currently two nonstop routes between China and Austria. Austrian Airlines operates four flights per week from VIE to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, while Air China provides six weekly connections from Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) to VIE.
Overall, seat capacity between the nations stands at about 7,500 two-way weekly seats. This is a decline compared to 10,000 at this time in 2019 when Austrian Airlines also served PEK and China Southern Airlines flew to VIE from Ürümqi in northwest China.
The proposed introduction of Hainan’s Chengdu-Vienna route comes despite a decision by Austrian authorities in July to block China Eastern Airlines’ planned service between Shanghai and Vienna, citing unfair competitive advantages due to the use of Russian airspace, which Western airlines, including Austrian Airlines, are unable to access. China Eastern originally hoped to launch operations in June, flying three times per week to the Austrian capital.
As reported by Aviation Week, several European airlines have announced plans to suspend routes to mainland China owing to growing competition from Chinese carriers and a lack of access to Russian overflights. Virgin Atlantic will suspend its sole route to China on Oct. 26, halting flights between London Heathrow Airport (LHR) and Shanghai, while British Airways is pausing its LHR-Beijing Daxing route as of the same date. Additionally, Lufthansa will drop its flights to PEK from Frankfurt.
“European airlines are in an extremely unequal competitive position with China, as well as with airlines from the Persian Gulf and Bosporus,” a statement from Lufthansa said in late September.
“All airlines from these countries benefit from low location costs, low social standards and high government investment in the aviation sector. For more than two years, they have also been using Russian airspace, unlike European and American airlines. The shorter routes result in further cost advantages.”
Meanwhile, Chinese airlines are expanding their networks across Europe. Recently, China Eastern launched flights to Milan Malpensa and Venice from Xi’an and Shanghai, respectively, while China Southern introduced a new route connecting Guangzhou and Belgrade, Serbia.
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