Gatwick Airport is gaining another long-haul connection with the launch of flights to Shanghai in December operated by China Eastern Airlines.
Shanghai has been the showpiece of China’s dramatic economic growth and is a global financial centre.
It drives growth in the Yangtze River Economic Zone, a region accounting for 20 per cent of China’s GDP and responsible for a third of the country’s imports and exports.
The services to Shanghai will begin on 7 December 2018, with Airbus A330-200 flights departing Gatwick on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 12.00h, and flying to Shanghai Pudong Airport, providing more than 3,700 tonnes of cargo capacity each year.
Gatwick Airport chief executive officer, Stewart Wingate says: “I’m delighted to welcome China Eastern to Gatwick and look forward to the start of this vital new link to Shanghai which, like London, is undoubtedly one of the world’s most important cities and business hubs.”
The airport has also released its figures for July, with monthly cargo volumes rising 28.8 per cent to 10,129 tonnes, and by 26.3 per cent on a moving annual basis to 109,315 tonnes, helped by new long-haul routes.
Wingate says: “July’s traffic figures demonstrate that Gatwick’s long-haul network is driving the airport’s growth. These connections to China and other non-European countries will take on extra significance in a post-Brexit Britain as we become more reliant on them to generate vital growth through trade and by exploiting the other business opportunities that they provide.”