Smaller Chinese cities lure more airlines to fly direct international flights from their airports

Expect an ever increasing number of direct flights connecting global metropolises with second- and third-tier mainland cities you may never have heard of, as the Chinese middle class’s growing appetite for air travel puts more mainland airports on the map for airline companies.

Xian to Sydney, Chengdu to Osaka, Shenyang to San Francisco … those are but a few of the direct routes being added this month according to CAAC filings, while America’s United Airlines is going to launch a Xian to San Francisco service next year that will be the Shaanxi capital’s first trans-Pacific route.

Mainland air hubs beyond Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are quickly moving up in terms of global prominence, with a new airport connectivity report by industry consultancy OAG, showing that Kunming is now the world’s 48th most connected report – only seven places behind Hong Kong, one place behind Beijing, and 17 places behind Shanghai Pudong, which in 31st place was the most connected Chinese airport.

While that may not be a fair reflection of those air hubs’ relative importance as connectivity was measured by the ratio of flight connections to the number of destinations served, mainland airports claimed five places on the list of the 25 fastest-growing airports in terms of global connectivity.

China’s airports and airlines lead the world in flight delays: US survey

Shanghai Pudong was the world’s third-fastest-growing airport, seeing its connectivity score double in five years to have 89,698 connections on its busiest day this year, according to the report. Kunming was the eighth-fastest-growing one, with connections on its busiest day also doubling in the same period to 42,540. Xian, Chengdu and Guangzhou were the other mainland airports to make the top 25 fastest growing list, which was topped by Turkey’s Istanbul.