After more than one-year suspension of direct flights between China and the UK, two airlines recently announced that they will resume direct passenger flights from middle March following some coordination between transport officials in both countries.
On March 3, UK airline Virgin Atlantic announced on its Wechat account that following negotiations between the UK Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), Virgin Atlantic was approved to fly two trial direct flights between Shanghai and London in mid-March.
The announcement noted that flights from London to Shanghai will operate under limited capacity, while flights from Shanghai to London will have no restrictions.
Five days later, the airline released a China-UK direct flight trial schedule on its Wechat account. The schedule showed that on March 18 and March 25, passengers in London will be able to fly directly to Shanghai on a 12 hour route, while on March 20 and 27, the flights from Shanghai to London only take seven hours.
In addition to Virgin Atlantic, China Southern Airlines also announced on February 25 that it would start flights between Guangzhou and London as early as March 17. It noted that the schedules are for reference only and subject to final government approval.
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