After nearly three years of halting its direct services between China and Mexico, Hainan Airlines (HU) could be looking to reestablish passenger flights between both countries. This week, Mexico’s Embassy in China reported the possibility of Hainan resuming its service between Beijing International Airport (PEK) and Tijuana International Airport (TIJ).
Coming back to Mexico?
In early 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mexico and China lost all connectivity. First Aeromexico (AM) suspended its commercial flight between Mexico City International Airport (MEX) and Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) in late 2019 in the middle of a controversial competition with Emirates over the Barcelona-Mexico City route. Then Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines (CZ) scrapped their flights to Mexico (Beijing-Tijuana and Guangzhou-Vancouver-Mexico City, respectively). Suddenly both countries went from having seven flights per week (three by Aeromexico, two by Hainan, and two by China Southern) to zero and has remained that way throughout the last two years.
Get the latest aviation news straight to your inbox: Sign up for our newsletters today.
The Asian segment has been the slowest to recover for the Mexican aviation industry; for instance, Aeromexico has only just announced the return of its flights to Tokyo, Japan, and has yet to restore its connectivity to Seoul, South Korea. On the other hand, Shanghai was permanently scrapped in 2019 after years of being a solid route for the Mexican carrier.
Nonetheless, it seems like the connectivity between Mexico and China may be coming back.
What did the Mexican Embassy in China say?
On Wednesday, the Mexican Embassy in China released a short statement saying that Hainan Airlines might be interested in returning to Mexico. It said,
“The Embassy of Mexico in China, with the support of the General Consulates in Shanghai and Guangzhou, has been working to re-establish passenger flights between Mexico and China. Hainan Airlines has shown interest in resuming flights to Mexico as a “hub” to connect with Latin America. Meanwhile, in order to solve the needs of travel between China, Mexico, and Latin America at the moment, Hainan Airlines also consider operating passenger charter flights.”
The Embassy added that the scheduled flights are currently under evaluation and that Hainan Airlines will be responsible for defining the route, dates, and possible costs.
Incredible! – there’s zero direct connectivity between China and Latin America
It’s weird, right? We are used to seeing Chinese airlines all over the world (let’s put aside for a moment the COVID-19 pandemic and the Chinese draconian measures that are still heavily impacting the country's international connectivity). Even before 2020, there were minimal direct flights between China and Latin America, despite Latin America having a lot of commercial and cultural ties with the Asian superpower.
In November 2019, there were only seven weekly flights between these two regions, and they all went through Mexico. Currently, there are zero. If a Latin American passenger wants to go to China, their best option is to travel via the United States or Canada. Using data by Cirium, there are currently 14 weekly flights from China to these two North American countries, operated by Xiamen Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Air China, and Sichuan Airlines. That’s nothing compared to the 391 weekly flights there were in November 2019.
Should Hainan Airlines restore its flights to Mexico? Let us know in the comments below.