Birmingham-Beijing direct flights to operate this summer

Birmingham Airport has announced that it will host a new program of charter flights between Beijing and Birmingham, to be operated by Hainan Airlines twice weekly, starting on Friday July 3 and ending on the Saturday August 28.

The announcement was made on Tuesday at a special event hosted by Birmingham Airport and Visit Britain at The GREAT Festival in Shanghai.

Hainan Airlines will operate twice weekly flights on a Boeing 767-300 aircraft, with 223 seats, which is 32 in the business cabin and 191 in economy.

The flights will operate from Beijing to Birmingham each Friday and Monday. The program is estimated to carry almost 4,000 Chinese tourists into the UK on package tours and contributing 19 million pounds ($29.2) to the regional economy.

Jo Lloyd, Birmingham Airport's Commercial Director, leading today's event, said that her team is looking forward to welcoming the thousands of Chinese passengers arriving twice weekly into the Midlands during the summer.

"Not only is this a significant market test, it paves the way for future sustainable scheduled flights into Birmingham from China that will support the growth in Chinese visitors as well as the region's economy," Lloyd said

Lloyd said that her team is also hopeful that flight programs will include departures from Shanghai and Guangzhou as well as Beijing to Birmingham in the future.

Sajid Javid, a UK member of parliament who is also the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, welcomed the news.

Javid said that the UK's offering extends much wider than just London, so this new route allowing Chinese visitors fly direct to the heart of England this summer will allow them to access more of what the UK can offer.

"Improving international connections is a key part of our long-term economic plan, and a regular flight between China's capital and Britain's second city will boost the tourist industry and help forge links between businesses in both countries," Javid said.

Sally Balcombe, CEO at VisitBritain said that these new charter flights will help the UK achieve its target of 1 billion pound Chinese visitor spend within five years, which is over double the current annual level.

"China is a huge tourism opportunity for Britain. Our current share is small in volume but high in value. Chinese visitors already stay longer here than in our European competitor destinations and are high spenders – every 22 additional Chinese visitors we attract supports an additional job in tourism," Balcombe said.

"Having direct access to Birmingham will not only increase tourism to the local area, but importantly, across the nations and regions of Britain - something VisitBritain leads on," she said.

Birmingham Airport will also unveil its new Chinese branding – 'Birmingham Airport, Shakespeare's Airport'at the event. It will be used in China to promote Birmingham as a gateway into the region which is home to many great places of interest to Chinese visitors, such as Stratford upon Avon, the home of Shakespeare.

Direct flights to China from Birmingham have been made possible thanks to an investment by Birmingham Airport to extend its runway to enable longer haul flights. The development was opened in April 2014 by the Prime Minister and was inaugurated by the first Birmingham-Beijing charter service in July 2014.