Air China, Southwest branch has a new flight route from Chengdu to Osaka. It will be the company’s second route from Chengdu to Japan.

There will be three flights every week on the new Chengdu-Dalian-Osaka flight route. Flight CA151, using an A319 aircraft, takes off from Chengdu, stops at Dalian and then arrives at Osaka’s Kansai Airport. And reverse.

Previously, the only air route from Chengdu to Japan landed in Tokyo, with a stopover in Beijing, That route was also operated by Southwest Air China.

Jun Li, an analyst covering the transportation industry for Shanghai-based Everbright Securities said, ‘As the industrial center shifts from coastal cities to the central and western regions, there will be more and more routes to Japan, South Korea, Europe and even North America connected to these regions to meet business or tourism requirements.’

Jun Li added the aviation industry in Yunnan and Guizhou province, both located in southwestern China, will to some extent benefit from developing tourism.
Source: Emerging China

Newly inaugurated air services between Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (shown here) and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport are the second international air route from Haneda Airport, which generally has been dedicated to domestic routes.

The new service provides four round-trip flights a day, operated by Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines.

Narita is Tokyo’s international airport but is located far from central Tokyo (1 hour by the fastest train) and in a different prefecture. It opened in 1978 after riots which reached war-like proportions.
Haneda is technically called Tokyo International Airport and is located in Tokyo proper. It is the busiest airport in Japan and the fourth-busiest in the world, even though it handles very little international traffic.
Hongqiao is Shanghai’s second airport.
Pudong is Shanghai’s international airport.

Both Haneda and Hongqiao are closer to their respective city centers than the main international airports for Tokyo and Shanghai. So a link between these two airports would be great for passengers provided the timing of the flights was right. Gate to gate, a one-way trip to central Shanghai from central Tokyo using the new air route takes about four hours — about an hour less than it takes when using Narita and Shanghai’s Pudong international airports.

Trouble is Haneda has few spare arrival and departure slots.

Thus, current flight schedules on the route are not convenient enough for businesspeople on a theoretical day trip to Shanghai. Even if they depart from Haneda Airport on the day’s first flight at 9:10 a.m., they could only stay in central Shanghai for up to an hour because the last flight heading for Haneda departs at 1:30 p.m.

By contrast, the last flight from Pudong to Narita departs at 5:05 p.m., with about 14 round-trip flights a day on the route. If early-morning and late-night flights on the route become possible, it may boost demand for other international services from Haneda.
Source: Daily Yomuri Online

China and Japan will launch regular charter flights for passengers between Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport later this month.

China Eastern, a hostess is shown in our illustration, Shanghai Airlines, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways (ANA), will start four daily flights between the two airports.

The flights were agreed by the two governments during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Japan in April.

At the moment 16 airlines from both countries have 738 flights a week, linking 19 Chinese cities and 17 Japanese ones. More than 7.5 million passengers were carried in 2006.

The extra flights are all part of a move to mark the 35th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between China and Japan. There will be cultural and sports exchange activities this year, including marathons in Beijing and Dalian.
Source: Shanghai Daily

Japan and China have agreed to launch shuttle flights between Tokyo’s Haneda airport (shown here) and Shanghai’s Hongqiao airport starting in October.

The agreement was reached during a meeting between visiting Japanese Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Tetsuzo Fuyushiba and Yang Guoqing, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

In April, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao agreed on the launch of the shuttle service possibly within this year, so the two countries can mark the 35th anniversary of the normalization of their diplomatic ties.

Since then, Japanese and Chinese aviation officials have negotiated with the aim of operating four round-trip flights a day between the two airports.

The move is another push toward realizing a link of the three key northeastern Asian airports of Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul with shuttle flights.

Japan and South Korea have been operating eight round-trip shuttle flights a day between Haneda and Seoul’s Gimpo airport. South Korea and China have agreed to set up shuttle flights between Shanghai and Seoul.
Source: Kyodo News