China Southern Airlines this week inaugurated flights from its base at Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport to London’s Heathrow Airport. The Chinese carrier’s first flight landed in the UK capital on the evening of June 6, 2012 and fulfilled a route development project that commenced in 2004. It will offer three flights per week on the route using a Four Class Airbus A330-200, but has plans to increase capacity as soon as it can secure additional access at London’s constrained international gateway.
The deal to bring the new trade route to Guangzhou has taken BAA, the operator of London Heathrow eight years to come to fruition after first discussions with China Southern opened in 2004. The problem is that because Heathrow is classified as full, (operating at 99.2% of its permitted capacity), the Chinese carrier has been unable to secure suitable take-off and landing slots to enable it to launch the new route.
According to BAA, the UK has missed out on trade, jobs and economic growth because of an existing Government’s cap on flights at London Heathrow. In the meantime, it says, 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, the airport operator notes.
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. The main European hub airports of Paris CDG, Frankfurt or Amsterdam Schiphol boast direct flights to Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Xiamen, Nanjing, Shenyang and Qingdao this year, in addition to flights to Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai, the only Chinese markets served directly from the UK.
“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,” said Colin Matthews, Chief Executive Officer, BAA. “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.”
Other airlines from major emerging economies would like to add new routes at Heathrow, according to BAA, 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, claims the report.
“The launch of the Guangzhou-London air service marks a bold new step forward in China Southern's aviation development in the London marketplace. This new air service will play an important role in China Southern's "Canton Route" strategy and will serve as an air bridge that connects Europe with China and Australasia,” said Mr Si Xianmin, President of China Southern Air Holding Company and Chairman of China Southern Airlines Company Limited.
The new route will be the first between the UK and Guangzhou and is expected to boost trade. More than 25 per cent 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. The previously highlighted Frontier Economics report 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.
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