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China Southern is launching flights from Shenyang to Los Angeles. This seems like a strange thing for the airline to do, but there is actually a lot of logic behind it.

One Route, One Carrier Policy

One of China’s interesting aviation policies is its stance on long haul routes. Currently only one Chinese airline can operate each long haul route (there are a few exceptions to this). There are three American airlines (Delta, American, and United) flying between Shanghai and Los Angeles. In contrast, only one of China’s airlines flies this route, China Eastern.

This means that there are now flights to Los Angeles from 13 Chinese cities. Beijing and Shenzhen flights are operated by Air China. China Eastern operates flights from Nanjing and Shanghai, while Changsha, Chengdu, and Chongqing are operated by Hainan Airlines. Hangzhou and Jinan are operated by Sichuan Airlines, and Qingdao and Xiamen by Xiamen Air. Finally, Guangzhou, and (from December) Shenyang, are operated by China Southern.

Why Shenyang?

While it could seem that China Southern just picked a random Chinese city for the sake of operating a second route to Los Angeles, this is not the case. Shenyang is a focus city for China Southern and from Shenyang China Southern operates many routes across mainland China and into South East Asia.

Furthermore Los Angeles is one of the US biggest gateways to the rest of the US. Hundreds of domestic flights land here every day and with China Southern’s codeshare agreements with other airlines, a passenger could for example fly from New York – Los Angeles – Shenyang – Bangkok all on the same ticket, probably at a much lower price than a more direct route with less stops.

Shenyang is a city with a population of over 8 million. There are currently no direct flights operating this route meaning that currently at least one stop is required to reach Los Angeles. Let’s take 1st September for example. With current prices we could fly from Shenyang to Los Angeles with China Southern stopping in Guangzhou. This takes a total of 19hr 45min at a cost of $624pp. For only $499pp we could fly with Hainan, however this would take 64 hours stoping in Taiyuan and Changsha.

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About The Route

Taking between 11hr 40min and 12hr 30min, the flight covers a distance of 5,900 miles. Shenyang isn’t far from the border with North Korea, making this the shortest flight between Los Angeles and mainland China. Crossing the international date line, the flight will operate from Shenyang on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday following the following schedule:

CZ609 Shenyang to Los Angeles departing 1:20AM arriving 9:00PM (-1 day)

CZ610 Los Angeles to Shenyang departing 12:40AM arriving 5:10AM (+1 day)

China Southern are opting to operate this route using their Airbus A330 fleet. With 284 seat, the airline offers 3 classes of travel in this aircraft on international routes. 256 economy seats, 24 business class seats, and 4 first class seats. This puts the total capacity of the Shenyang route at 852 passengers per week in each direction. In contrast China Southern’s Guangzhou route has a capacity of 4469 in each direction per week using an A380 7 days a week, and a B777 3 days a week.

China Southern will be launching the new Shenyang ✈︎ Los Angeles route on 18th December 2018 with tickets available now!