New non-stop flights between Vancouver and China have been announced just as it seemed that there would temporarily be fewer flights between the two destinations.
Air China announced February 5 that it is increasing the number of weekly flights between Vancouver and Beijing to 11 from seven, starting May 17.
On January 30, Sichuan Airlines surprised travellers by announcing a "temporary" reduction to two from three flights per week on its Vancouver-Shenyang-Chengdu run between April 7 and June 7.
Sichuan Airlines launched that flight route in June and has since operated flights on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. It is the Sunday flights that will be cut.
"It's very encouraging to see Air China launch new flights," NDP Tourism critic Spencer Chandra Herbert told Business in Vancouver.
"Let's hope it works out. Sichuan Airlines made a big thing about their flights and then they reduced the number because they weren't getting the traffic."
China Southern launched thrice-weekly flights in June 2011 and bumped that up to five times per week during the summer of 2012.
Another successful newcomer providing flights between Vancouver to China is China Southern Airlines. It launched the first non-stop flights between Canada and China's most populous province, Guangdong, in June 2011 when it started flying three times per week between Vancouver and Guangzhou.
It then boosted service on that route to five times per week last summer.
John Korenic, Vancouver International Airport Authority (VIAA) director of aviation marketing, told BIV that there were only 18 non-stop flights between Vancouver and China in the summer of 2002. That number had more than doubled to 40 by the summer of 2012.
