After starting a new five-day a week service from London to Shanghai yesterday, British Airways (BA) said that it expected the route to be profitable within three years but it would not open a service to another Chinese city in the short term.
BA's first new long-haul service since November 2002 landed at Pudong Airport and was met by Christopher Hum, the British ambassador to China. It takes the number of direct weekly flights on the route from five operated by a single carrier, Virgin Atlantic, up until the spring of last year to 15 operated by three, also including China Eastern Airlines.
The arrival of the new boy has set off a price war, with BA offering return economy fares of 3,990 yuan for a limited period, an offer matched by Virgin and China Eastern.
'Virgin went into profit in its fourth year on the London-Shanghai route,' BA chairman Martin Broughton said. 'As with other new routes, we do not expect to make a profit in the first year. We would expect to be profitable within three years.'
Chief executive Rod Eddington said that, as with India, the mainland market was large enough for everyone. 'BA is building its network around demand rather than supply.' The carrier will start a London-Bangalore service in October.
Under the Sino-British air agreement, British carriers can fly to Beijing, Shanghai and four other Chinese destinations.
