China’s three largest state-owned airlines are rapidly expanding routes and capacity to Europe, taking advantage of the cost advantage that flying over Russian airspace provides, the Financial Times reports.
Chinese airlines benefit from Western sanctions on Russia
Western carriers have significantly reduced direct flights to China in 2024 due to the high costs of having to bypass Russia. Since the switch to winter schedules, European airlines have reduced their capacity between China and Europe by 48.5%. Finnair was the most affected, with a reduction of almost 90%. Scandinavian SAS has removed almost two-thirds of its capacity on routes to China, while Dutch KLM, Swiss and German Lufthansa have cut about half. Even before the switch to winter schedules, British Airways had reduced its capacity on the China route by almost 40% and cancelled flights to Beijing until November 2025, while Virgin Atlantic cancelled its only flight to mainland China.
Chinese airlines, which were not affected by the ban, rushed to fill the vacuum, increasing the number of flights and offering cheaper tickets despite ongoing financial losses. Now they offer prices that are 5-35% lower than European carriers on direct flights between China and Western Europe, thanks to the savings on routes via Russia.
European carriers are unhappy with competition
According to analysts, in October 2024, the passenger capacity between China and Western Europe for the three main Chinese carriers — Air China, China Eastern and China Southern — was 18% higher than in the same month in 2019. As the consulting company Ishka specifies, the number of flights of these airlines to the UK, Spain and Italy in the first nine months of 2024 increased by 25-45% compared to 2019.
The reaction of European carriers was quite predictable: having prepared to continue to prevail in the market due to anti-Russian sanctions, they complain about unfair competition. For example, Lufthansa stated that Chinese airlines have an “excessive advantage” since they receive more state support, lower costs and the opportunity to fly via Russia. “Our airlines serving, for example, Berlin-Beijing have to take a different route if it’s a German airline compared to a Chinese airline,” said Berlin airport CEO Aletta von Massenbach.
This is not the first time that China benefits from the sanctions imposed on Russia. The introduction of sanctions on hydrocarbons has forced the Kremlin to seek new partners for oil and gas exports in Asia. Beijing has become Moscow’s main trading partner, supplying it with oil and gas. Last year, trade between the countries amounted to at least $220 billion.
