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Two pieces of good news for UK travelers (and those looking to visit the UK) as both Qatar Airways and Hainan Airlines announce new services to the UK….and neither involves London!
Qatar Airways to fly their 787 Dreamliner to Birmingham (UK)
I’m pretty sure it’s not my imagination when I say that the arrival of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has seen airlines open up routes that, before, they probably wouldn’t have even considered. The aircraft appears to have given airlines (of all sizes) opportunities that they simply didn’t have a few years ago. Back in June, LOT Polish Airlines announced a raft of new services to Asia using 787 Dreamliners, American Airlines is now considering flying to Auckland using a 787 and United has already said that they will fly to Auckland from San Francisco using one of Boeing’s 787-9s – the aircraft is changing the landscape of air travel.
Now Qatar Airways has announced that it’s going to launch a Dreamliner route between Doha and Birmingham (UK) from 30 March 2016.
The airline will fly the route 8 times/week (daily + two flights on Saturdays) using their 787-8 aircraft configured with two classes of travel (Business Class & Economy Class).
The schedule varies depending on what day you want to travel with QR033 appearing to be the best option from Doha if you’re flying in Economy Class as that avoids an overnight flight.
QR035 DOH 01:25 – 06:45 BHX (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat)
QR033 DOH 07:30 – 12:50 BHX (Tue, Thur, Sat, Sun)
QR036 BHX 09:15 – 18:05 DOH 788 (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat)
QR034 BHX 15:00 – 23:50 DOH 788 (Tue, Thur, Sat, Sun)
Reservations for this route are already open.
It’s good to see airlines offer services to the UK that fly into somewhere other than London. It’s bad enough that British Airways appears to not recognise the UK regions without all the other airlines ignoring them too 🙂
Qatar Airways CEO,Akbar Al Baker, is quoted as saying:
“This additional route strengthens Qatar Airways’ commitment to the regions across the UK and will create new commercial and leisure links between the city of Birmingham and the 152 destinations served by the airline.”
It would be nice if his airline, as 10% owner of IAG Group, could persuade British Airways to offer a few international routes from the regions.
Qatar Airways is a OneWorld airline so this new route may open up some interesting redemption options for those with Avios or even American Airlines miles balances.
Hainan Airlines to operate non-stop service between Beijing and Manchester (UK)
This news is around a week old (sorry!) and, thanks to my recent travels, it managed to pass me by. Nevertheless it’s definitely worth mentioning as it’s yet another international flight to/from the UK that doesn’t involve London.
Hainan Airlines A330-200 – Image courtesy of Aero Icarus via Flickr
The new flight will launch on 10 June 2016 and will be the first non-stop service between the two cities and is expected to inject over $365m (£250m/€340m) into the UK economy by strengthening ties with China and encouraging greater investment.
The flights will be serviced by Hainan Airlines’ A330-200 aircraft and the route will be flown 4 x per week on the following schedule:
HU7903 PEK 01:45 – 06:05 MAN (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat)
HU7904 MAN 12:00 – 05:25+1 day PEK (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat)
As is the trend with airlines nowadays, Hainan fly their A330-200 without a First Class cabin so only Business Class and Economy Class will be available.
Hainan Airlines doesn’t appear to be part of any airline alliance so I can’t see any serious opportunities for good award redemptions but, despite this, it’s nice to have a direct service to Beijing out of the UK’s North West – new routes and more options are always good for travelers.
Featured image courtesy of Curimedia via Flickr
