Tianjin Airlines (GS, Tianjin) has secured official approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to begin longhaul operations as of summer this year.
In a statement, CAAC said it had approved the Hainan Airlines (HU, Haikou) subsidiary's requests from the following route allocations:
- 4x weekly Chongqing to Vancouver International, Canada via Tianjin;
- 2x weekly Chongqing to London via Tianjin;
- 1x weekly Tianjin-Moscow;
- 1x weekly Chongqing-Moscow.
Operations are on-board A330-200 equipment, the first of which is known to be cn 1756 currently undergoing completion with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac).
Meanwhile, Air China (CA, Beijing Capital) has announced its own plans to use its Shenzhen Airlines (ZH, Shenzhen) unit to develop longhaul services out of Shenzhen. No timeframes were given for the move.
