Air NZ planning Beijing-Europe route
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Air New Zealand is planning a new Asia-Europe link service to ride on the burgeoning Chinese travel market, a report said.
Ed Sims, the airline’s head of international business, was quoted by The Dominion Post as saying that the direct service to Beijing starting next month would serve as a launching point to increasingly lucrative European destinations.
In 2000, it ended the unprofitable four-weekly Frankfurt service, the report said. But with France and Spain becoming more important and with more fuel-efficient aircraft, Europe could be viable, Sims was quoted saying.
Beijing was favoured as a stop-off point because Air New Zealand believed that by 2015 China would be the country’s third largest tourism market, overtaking the 230,000 visitors from the United States. New Zealand also sees some 300,000 British tourists a year.
Beijing is also a high-volume market, boasting a new terminal opened in time for the Olympics, and transit lounges not available at Shanghai, Air New Zealand’s other Chinese destination.
Beijing also had significant European expat traffic as well as governmental and ambassadorial business, the report said.
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