The CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) and the UK Department for Transport have agreed to restart direct passenger flights between the two countries, according to a statement from the British embassy in China issued on Wednesday.

Initially, the direct flights will be provided by Chinese airlines, while the resumption of flights conducted by British Airways is still ongoing, according to the statement on the embassy's official social media account.

Four Chinese airlines are back on the route

According to the information gathered by Simple Flying from airlines' announcements, four Chinese airlines have indicated their plans for resumption of flights between the UK and China.

Air China will be the first Chinese domestic airline to resume this route. On August 8th, Air China announced that it would resume scheduled operations between Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) and London Heathrow Airport (LHR) from August 11th, and operation between Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) and LHR from August 13th. Both routes are on a weekly basis, and will be flown by the Airbus A330.

Air China set the base price for the economy, premium economy, and business class at 12,270 RMB (1,822 US dollars), 18,440 RMB (2,738 US dollars), and 42,720 RMB (6,278 US dollars) respectively, which are much expensive than the fare before the pandemic, but significantly reduced from any current transit flight.

China Eastern Airlines, one day after Air China's announcement, said it would resume operation between Shanghai Pudong Airport and London Heathrow Airport, although the flights currently are only scheduled on August 12th and 19th in China Eastern's announcement.

China Southern Airlines published a statement about ticket booking between Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN) and London Heathrow Airport early last February. There has been no news since then, until today, when China Southern officially announced the mentioned routes would be resumed from August 17th.

Below is the first batch of direct routes resumed between China and the UK:

It is worth noting that all flights are selling one-way tickets from China to the UK at the moment, and no tickets are sold for the return flights back to China, presumably due to China's strict COVID prevention policy.

20 months suspension of direct flights between China and the UK

Many countries, including China, suspended flights to and from the UK after two new coronavirus strains were discovered in the UK in December 2020. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin confirmed the suspension at the regular press conference on December 24th, 2020.

Since then, no direct flights between the two major economies have been scheduled during the last 20 months. Passengers have mainly relied on connecting flights.

For example, a flight from Guangzhou Baiyun Airport to London Heathrow Airport requires a transit in Paris, and the journey takes up to 27 hours. Since the resumption of direct flights on August 11th, the flights will take just over 11 hours.

Have you been bothered by no direct flight from China to the UK in the last 20 months? How much longer do you think that the return flight tickets will be open for sale? Please share your thoughts with us.