Travel China Planner

AirAsia Berhad announced that it will resume the roundtrip international air route between Kuala Lumpur and Tianjin from February 1, 2010.

In late 2009 the airline has announced that it was suspending this route between November 23, 2009, and January 30, 2010. According to Wang Bin, the public relations manager of AirAsia China, flights will leave Tianjin at around 14:00, which will be more convenient for passengers from nearby cities. AirAsia will also add more airport buses and intercity buses to make it easier for passengers outside Tianjin to catch the flight.

The average occupancy rate of all AirAsia’s China routes has reached 75%; occupancy rates on the Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Guilin, Hangzhou, and Chengdu routes have even reached an average of 85%.

The Tianjin route is AirAsia’s first in northern China. The airline is currently planning promotional activities in cities around Tianjin to improve the visibility of this route.

China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines have announced that they will cooperate by codesharing on the Beijing to Seoul and Shanghai Pudong to Seoul routes.

By codesharing, the two airlines are extending their network at little cost and travelers will be able to book on either route with either airline and accumulate frequent flier miles with their preferred scheme.

Previously China Southern and China Eastern had launched codesharing on many domestic routes but this is the first time that the two have launched codesharing on international routes.

As a member of SkyTeam, China Southern already codeshares with Korean Air on the Beijing to Seoul and Shanghai to Seoul routes.

To meet the ever increasing market demand, Garuda Indonesia will launch a direct route between Beijing and Djakarta on January 13, 2010.

The non-stop route will reduce the journey time for passengers flying from Beijing to destinations such as Bali, Yogyakarta, and Lombok. Prior to the launch of the new route, passengers from China often need to transfer in Singapore where they had to stay for up to six hours before they could fly on to Bali.

The route will be operated using Airbus A220-200 aircraft, the interiors of which have specially designed with Chinese elements such as the Chinese Red color and the big Chinese character for “Blessing” to appeal to Chinese tourists. The aircraft is configured with 222 seats, including 36 seats in the business class cabin and 186 seats in the economy class cabin.

Garuda Indonesia says it will hire more Chinese flight attendants in 2010 to provide Chinese language services to passengers from China.

Sentota Mujiono, the general manager of Garuda Indonesia China Region, stated that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Indonesia is increasing by 20% a year, and therefore Garuda will keep on increasing the number flights between China and Indonesia. He added that they will also provide a brand new service to enable Chinese tourists to better explore and experience the charm of Indonesia so more of them will choose to fly with the airline.

For the China market, the airline currently runs flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Emirates Airlines has recently set up a Dubai Visa Reception Center in Guangzhou.

The center is established by Emirates Airlines with official authorization to bring convenience to travelers visiting Dubai.

It is learned that the center accepts two kinds of visa application: 96-hour visas and 30-day tourist visas. Travelers will no longer need to find local sponsors, saving them time and money for their application.

China Southern Airlines is planning to launch scheduled charter flights from Guangzhou to Da Nang in Vietnam.

The charter flights will be operated from January 15, 2010, to
January 14, 2011, with two flights a week, on Mondays and Fridays.
Flight CZ6085 will take off from Guangzhou at 20:30 and arrive at Da
Nang at 22:30. The return flight, CZ6086, will depart from Da Nang at
23:30 and get back to Guangzhou at 01:30 the following day.

After these charter flights are launched, China Southern will have
direct flights to Vietnam’s three largest cities Ho Chi Minh City,
Hanoi, and Da Nang.