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Airlines

New Agreement More Than Doubles Number of Allowed Flights Between UK and China

Brian Sumers

Photo Credit: British Airways promoted itself in 2015 at the GREAT Festival of Creativity in Shanghai. British Airways will have the rights to start new China flights under a deal announced Tuesday. Flickr / UKTI

Skift Take

China is a long way from being an open market, but for carriers in China and the UK, this is welcome news. And since it means more flights, and more competition, it could lead to sightly lower fares.

UK and Chinese airlines will be able to more than double the number of flights between the United Kingdom and China under the terms of a deal announced Tuesday. Passengers carriers from each nation will have rights to fly a combined 100 weekly roundtrips, up from 40 currently, while cargo airlines will have no limits on trips at all. Passenger airlines also will be able to fly between any destination in the UK and any destination in China. Previously, carriers could only serve six points in each country. Many of the world's largest countries now have Open Skies agreements with each other, allowing all airlines to fly as much as they want between any two points. This is why airlines may start as many flights as they want between the United States and the UK.

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