China Eastern seeks SkyTeam alliance; eventually great news for family & adoption travel

China Eastern Airlines, that country's #3 carrier, announced Friday it was applying for membership in the SkyTeam airline alliance, aiming for entry in mid-2011.


SkyTeam already has the country's largest airline, China Southern, as a member. China Southern's key hubs are at Guangzhou and Beijing; China Eastern's main hub is at Shanghai. SkyTeam also includes Korean Air with its large Seoul hub, Delta - with its strong Transpacific network and Tokyo hub, and will be bringing Vietnam Airlines and Taiwan's China Airlines into the network shortly.


The potential value in this action is very strong - Shanghai is not just a major financial center, but also a great destination for family tourism - and the new international airport at Pu Dong (PVG) is well designed with plenty of room to grow and no noise or zoning issues. Shanghai has built a magnetic-levitation train connecting the airport with the central city, and is extending it out to the older domestic airport, Hongqiao (SHA).


The issues that SkyTeam has to work on to make this move a success include:

• China Eastern's limited international reach - only a few routes to Europe and Australia, a daily nonstop to Los Angeles, 5-per-week service to Vancouver, and 4-per-week service to New York JFK. The carrier has only a small fleet of A340 and A330 long-range craft (and a few old A300-600R mid-range birds); 787s are on order but only enough to replace the older A340s and A300s, and maybe get Vancouver and New York to daily frequency.
• The timing of the North American flights is not convenient for connections on either end. The LAX and Vancouver flights leave those cities after midnight; arrivals are too late to make any West Coast or mid-continent flights. The JFK flight arrives mid-afternoon and leaves at 4:35 pm; OK for Florida connections but not timed well for other traffic. 
• Right now, Shanghai's Pu Dong airport handles the international flights; while Hongqiao takes the domestic runs. Hongqiao is certainly more convenient for the city's residents and businesses, but the two airports are as far apart as Baltimore and Washington-National ... farther than JFK and Newark, or Houston-Intercontinental and Hobby.  Maybe when the maglev train is complete, shuttling between the airports will take only a half-hour, but today, that journey will run at least a couple hours. And you still have to re-clear security. 

So, in the next two years (since most of you in the adoption process will only be getting to China then...), SkyTeam needs to convince its members:

• To re-time its North American (and Australian) services to arrive Shanghai in early afternoon instead of dinnertime. Doing this also pushes the arrival times into North America early enough to clear Customs and make connections to inland cities.
• To build several banks of domestic connecting flights from Pu Dong
• Delta already flies a daily 777 run to its megahub in Detroit, but it doesn't connect with families leaving Guangzhou.  (China Southern only flies to Hongqiao from Guangzhou at that time of day.) Again, adding some early morning Pu Dong domestic flights would allow adoptive families to make an easy connection; Delta doesn't need to change the eastbound flight times by even a minute...
• Though, with better feed from inland Chinese cities, Delta might want to consider adding a few additional nonstops to major hubs - PVG to Minneapolis, Seattle, and Atlanta in that order

It's an interesting time to be watching the travel business. We'll keep you informed as to your Transpacific options on weninchina.com's flight planning page, updated every quarter.  A fresh update was loaded yesterday!


(Photo courtesy PhillipC via Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0 license)

China Southern Airlines' Guangzhou-Los Angeles nonstop: comments

Looking at the map, the only nonstop service from Guangzhou to the USA would seem to be the simplest choice for returning adoptive families. No intermediate connections, no ground travel to Hong Kong, no worries about your child’s visa and passport status.

Comments on other blogs recommend the inflight service on China Southern’s long-range flights (compared favorably to other Asian carriers – which means several steps up from US-based airlines, even in economy class…). You earn Delta SkyMiles and can even book the entire trip through Delta.

So, why hasn’t this flight been the automatic choice?

For many years, the flight ran only 4 days per week – which meant extra days spent on Shamian Island if your consular appointment didn’t mesh with the flight. With the Spring 2010 schedule, however, they’ve added a fifth day, so we will see if the added convenience translates into more business.

The flight arrives Los Angeles at 7 pm. After getting through Customs, most of the same-day connections to US cities have long gone, with only a few late, late night departures to the East Coast and some Midwest airports available. The LAX website says the China Southern flight averages a delay of 27 minutes (18% of the flights are delayed by more than an hour.) If your connection is missed, then you’ll have to find a hotel room in L.A. on very short notice, and that’s a hassle you’d like to avoid at all costs on this trip.

Arrival at LAX is at the Tom Bradley International Terminal, an experience regarded neither as smooth nor particularly friendly. Waits can be long, especially when there are numerous arriving flights – and there are plenty of Mexican flights arriving at 7 pm.  Also, the multiple-terminal arrangement makes it a hassle to move your bags and family – especially after a long haul – and after sunset.

 We’d like to offer some suggestions to China Southern and Delta:

• Move the departure time from Guangzhou up by 2 to 3 hours, allowing an arrival at LAX in the 4 pm – 5 pm range. This would open up connections to the entire West Coast, as well as permit Mountain Time Zone families to make the dinnertime flight to Delta’s Salt Lake City hub, where they could catch the last bank of flights to their hometowns.
• Departure from LAX could be moved up a bit as well without affecting potential connections. The arrival at Guangzhou would be earlier as well – around 5 am – but this would give families ample time to clear Chinese Customs, freshen up and stretch their legs, and have a good meal before continuing on to their adoption cities.  The China Southern Boeing 777-200 that operates this flight would have enough time to operate a turn to Beijing and back before heading out to L.A. again.
• As the economy begins to improve, be ready to add Monday and Thursday frequencies to make this a real daily service. SkyTeam won’t be able to make Guangzhou a genuinely competitive East Asian hub without strong frequency on key routes – in sharp contrast to Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific’s double-daily and triple-daily nonstops to L.A., San Francisco, Vancouver, etc.  Mainland carriers have to allocate their aircraft and staff less efficiently than we’d care for, and operate some routes for purely political reasons, but they still have to make some profit – and that comes from long-range routes to major business centers.

For the full discussion of all your Transpacific options, check our flight planning article at weninchina.com. We'll be posting another update there soon to reflect the Summer 2010 flight schedules.


(Photo courtesy Phinalanji via Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0 license)