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Air traffic between China and Greece is expected to rise significantly in the near future. The governments of these two countries just signed a new memorandum of understanding that will allow their airlines to double the number of flights between China and Greece. Currently, airlines nominated by Greece and China are together allowed to offer a maximum of 14 weekly flights between them. But this right is not being used to its fullest. Only one carrier, Air China, flies between Greece and China. Air China serves Athens from Beijing three times weekly, year-round. Flights depart Athens just after 1 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and arrive at 4.30 am on the following day in Beijing. These are operated by an Airbus A330 aircraft and last 10 hours. The current agreement is fairly restrictive, which is why there are only six weekly flights between China and Greece. The limited options for frequencies, destinations and carriers that are allowed to operate flights has resulted in not all 14 weekly options being used for flights. The new agreement, according to Greek Travel Pages, will allow “common code flights on routes between the two countries”. This means that Aegean Airlines and Air China could establish a codeshare agreement on Air China’s flights. This is not unlikely as they are both members of Star Alliance. Read Original Article |
