New airlines and destinations: all the ways to fly nonstop from Italy to China

Last Wednesday, Hainan Airlines (Voted 'best Chinese company' at Skytrax Awards 2023) made its debut at Milan Malpensa Airport, inaugurating its three-weekly (Monday, Wednesday and Saturday) connections to Shenzen, a southern Chinese city a few dozen kilometers from Hong Kong. The flight is operated with Boeing 787-9s configured in two classes with 30 seats in Business Class and 262 in Economy Class.

The Milan-Shenzen is one more piece in the 'Reconstruction' of the network between Italy and China that had been completely (or nearly) wiped out by the Covid pandemic, which for the Great Wall Country has been in effect for the better part of three years. It was not until January of this year, in fact, that the Beijing government reopened its borders to foreign visitors, and it had to wait Last Aug. 30 for the abolition of the swab within the previous 48 hours compulsory departure for anyone wishing to enter the country.

In this newly found climate of total normalcy, another Chinese airline will debut in Milan (and the Italian market) on Oct. 30: it is about Juneyao Airlines, certainly the least known of the Chinese airlines flying abroad, which will connect Malpensa with Zhengzhou, a city located in east-central China, virtually unknown to us but with a population exceeding 10 million. Two-class Boeing 787-9s (a 29-seat Business and a 295-seat Economy) from the Shanghai-based airline will fly the route twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. Flight duration will be 10 hours and 30 minutes to China and 11 hours and 40 minutes from China.

It will still take time to return to those 700,000 passengers who had traveled between Malpensa and China in 2019, but already, nine months after the reopening of China's borders, there are 25 weekly connections, if one counts the three just started from Hainan and the two now forthcoming from Juneyao.

Air China, in fact, flies daily from the northern Italian hub to Beijing with Airbus A350-900 outfitted in three classes (32 in Business, 24 in Premium economy, 256 in Economy), daily to Shanghai also with A350-900 and to Wenzhou (on the central coast of China) with two-class A330-200 (30 in Business and 207 in Economy). And then there is Italy's Neos, which with its 787-9 two-class (28 seats in Premium Economy and 331 in Economy) serves Nanjing Monday and Thursday.

However, the real Italian 'capital' of flights to and from China is Rome Fiumicino Airport. The Eternal City has always held great fascination for China's new mass tourism. As many as 6 airlines connected it to 11 destinations in 2019 Chinese, with traffic volume exceeding 900 thousand passengers that year.

Today there are five airlines and eight destinations for a total of 30 weekly frequencies. There is Air China, which connects Rome to Beijing daily with three-class Boeing 787-9s (30 in Business, 34 in Premium economy, 229 in Economy) and to Hangzhou (a city a hundred kilometers from Shanghai) three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) with two-class A330-300s (30 seats in Business and 271 in Economy).

China Eastern has a daily connection to Shanghai with two-class A332-200 (30 seats in Business, 204 in Economy) and two weekly frequencies (on Mondays and Fridays) to Wenzhou with four-class A350-900 (4 seats in First, 36 in Business, 32 in Premium Economy, 216 in Economy).

China's third 'big', China Southern Airlines, serves its main hub in Guangzhou four times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) with two-class Boeing 787-9s (28 seats in Business and 269 in Economy).

Hainan Airlines, which, thanks to a code-sharing agreement signed with ITA Airways, has been applying its HU code since last April on seven Italian domestic destinations connecting with Rome Fiumicino Airport (Catania, Naples, Bari, Venice, Florence, Bologna, Turin) and on 2 international destinations (Paris and Athens), connects FCO twice a week to Chongqing (Tuesdays and Fridays) and to Shenzen (Thursdays and Sundays) with two-class Boeing 787-9 (30 seats in business, 259 in economy).

Finally, Sichuan Airlines flies from the Eternal City to its hub in Chengdu (in central China) three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) with two-class A330-200s (24 seats in Business, 250 in Economy).

On the list of companies flying between Italy and China is a big absentee: ITA Airways. Alitalia had occasionally connected Rome with Beijing and Shanghai, but in very recent years had preferred to limit its connections to the Far East to Tokyo and Seoul. It is possible, if not highly probable, that after the go-ahead for the agreement with Lufthansa, in the redefinition of 'spaces' within the German group, China will be back on the map of Italy's leading airline.

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