CHINA: Beijing Daxing Airport Is GatewayTo China

Five years ago, Daxing was a dusty area of farmland to the south of Beijing, largely neglected by visitors to the city. That’s no longer the case, now that an enormous airport has emerged there to thrust China even closer to toppling the U.S. as the world’s biggest aviation market.

Beijing Daxing International Airport, an 80 billion yuan (US$11.2 billion) starfish-shaped structure hailed by state media as a “new gateway” to the country, opened this week, just in time for the People’s Republic of China’s 70th birthday.

A state-of-the-art terminal designed to eventually handle more than 100 million passengers a year is symbolic for President Xi Jinping, who faces a raft of challenges, including a trade war with the U.S., a slowing economy and mass protests in Hong Kong.

Xi has identified aviation as a key strategic industry. The president attended an official opening ceremony for the new airport, designed by the late Zaha Hadid, on Wednesday.

Within two decades, annual passenger traffic in China’s skies will reach 1.6 billion, according to the International Air Transport Association, more than the country’s population today.

China has set a goal of having 450 commercial airports by 2035, almost double the number at the end of 2018. It’s also developed a jet to compete with Boeing and Airbus.

The vast new airport should increase Beijing’s passenger capacity by 60% and help unclog the capital’s other international airport – the second busiest in the world behind Atlanta – to the north, which often has long delays despite a huge new terminal opening there ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Bottlenecks at Beijing Capital International Airport likely capped annual passenger traffic growth at an average of 4% from 2013 to 2018, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Denise Wong said.

China has little option but to spend big and fast to have a shot at keeping up with demand. In its latest annual report on the commercial aviation market, Boeing said it expects airline passenger traffic in China to grow 6% a year.

McKinsey & Co. says the extra slots at Daxing – which will initially have four runways and eventually seven, including one for military use – could open new direct connections to places such as San Diego.

Beijing now joins major cities including London, New York and Tokyo with more than one international airport. The high-speed rail connecting Daxing to West Beijing will begin operations at the end of the month.

“It can get 10 if not hundreds of new destinations connected to Beijing over the years,” said Steve Saxon, a McKinsey partner in Shanghai. “This is the power of having large connecting hubs.”

Daxing also upends the government’s traditional one-international-route-per-airline model that left long-haul services from Beijing in the hands of Air China.

The new site will become a launchpad to Europe, Asia and beyond for the other two of China’s “Big Three” carriers: China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. They’ll both get their first-ever direct flights to cities including Paris and Moscow.

The goal is to restyle Beijing as an international transport hub as air travel surges with China’s expanding middle class and a greater desire to venture overseas.

The opening of Daxing, which will also help closer integrate Beijing with Tianjin and Hebei, should put China on a stronger footing to compete with traditional transits such as Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as younger hubs like Bangkok, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur.

China still trails many major aviation markets in Asia in terms of connectivity, according to a report by OAG Aviation Worldwide published Tuesday.

Singapore and Hong Kong are the region’s most internationally connected hubs, the report showed. Shanghai Pudong International Airport, China’s top entry, came in eighth.

IATA expects 4.6 billion people to take a flight in 2019, a figure that will almost double to 8.2 billion in 2037 as flying penetrates deeper into the enormous populations of India and Indonesia.

Daxing is just one of many airport projects underway in Asia, collectively costing more than US$100 billion, in a race to handle all those passengers. A new terminal opened at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on September 16.

The relaxation of China’s one-route, one-airline policy at Daxing will encourage Chinese carriers to apply for international routes once monopolized by their competitors, said Yu Zhanfu, a partner at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Beijing who focuses on aviation. Beijing will be a good spot to take a break without making a big detour.

Among the tons of steel and glass at Daxing, passengers will find five traditional-style Chinese gardens with ponds, wooden pavilions and stone bridges.

The new airport also has facial recognition and paperless check-in systems using technologies from companies including China Unicom and Huawei Technologies.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China is offering airlines incentives to use the new airport. They’ll get priority when it comes to obtaining rights for international flights, CAAC’s deputy director of transport department, Yu Biao, said in July.

Foreign carriers can choose to operate in both airports in Beijing, or one of them, but those that switch to Daxing can acquire new routes or more convenient slots, Yu said.

Daxing expects one fifth of its passengers to be transfers by 2025. Among international flag carriers, British Airways said in July it plans to shift its direct Heathrow-Beijing flights to the new airport from October 27, helping it maximize a code-sharing agreement with China Southern.

China Eastern has kept its Beijing-Shanghai route at the old airport, which is closer to the central business district.

The next step will be for us to keep expanding new routes, said CAAC’s Yu. We’d like to see more foreign carriers operate in Daxing.

CHINA: Beijing Daxing International Airport To Become Busiest In The World

Construction of China’s mega-airport has finally been completed. When it opens for business on September 30, Beijing Daxing International Airport will be the world’s largest single-terminal airport covering an area of over 1.4 million square metres – that’s more than double the size of Heathrow’s four terminals combined.

With a total of seven runways planned, the new airport will ultimately handle over 100m passengers each year and rub shoulders with Atlanta International in the US as the world’s busiest.

The total budget for the airport, which took just under five years to build, came to a total of £9 billion. To put that into perspective, building a third runway at Heathrow is projected to cost £14bn, and won't be operational until 2026 at the earliest.

The Chinese capital already has an enormous airport in the northeast. Ahead of the Olympics in 2008, Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) opened a third £3bn terminal to bump up the total capacity to 85m passengers a year.

But the city has seen a strong surge in air traffic growth and Capital airport has become overcrowded since 2016, exceeding the 100 million mark in 2018.

Located 46 kilometres south of Tiananmen Square, Daxing (PKX) will act as a second international airport for Beijing and relieve its overloaded sister site. The much smaller Nanyuan Airport – the oldest in China – will be closed once Daxing opens.

Building an airport of this capacity is not straightforward. The designers had to find a way to bring all facilities under one roof whilst laying the foundations for the next phases of the airport expansion.

To prepare for the influx of passengers, the architects had to fundamentally rethink how an airport is designed.

The result is a seven-floor complex with an underground structure linking to a satellite building – which is yet to be built, but will increase the annual capacity to 72m passengers, with further expansion to come.

Unlike the typically linear design of airport terminals, Daxing resembles a starfish. We wanted to design a building that is the most compact with minimal walking distances, says Jean-Charles Content, lead architect at ADP Ingénierie, an engineering subsidiary of the company that operates the Paris airports.

In 2014, the company was awarded a contract to design the terminal building, alongside several partners including late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, and the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD).

The building is designed to allow for sufficient space between each pier to fit all aircraft and organise the flow, Content says.

The layout was inspired by traditional Chinese aesthetics, which often feature spaces centred around courtyards, and has 79 aircraft stands arranged across five piers.

Once passengers reach the commercial area in the centre of the structure, Content explains, they will have to walk no more than 600m – the equivalent of eight minutes – to the furthest gate. The sixth pier is separate, and will host administrative offices and parking.

High-speed, regional, and subway trains will connect the airport to the city of Beijing and other parts of the country. The big difference with this train station is that it’s not a dead end, it’s not located in front of the terminal.

The train station is literally underneath the terminal, says Content. From the platform of the airport express service, lifts will take passengers directly to the departure levels.

But to house a railway station inside an airport complex – with trains that run at 250km per hour – BIAD had to earthquake-proof it, says lead architect Wang Xiaoqun.

Some 1,000 anti-seismic isolation bearings were built into the concrete slabs of the ground level to prevent the terminal building from shaking. As a result, the airport is capable of withstanding an 8.0 magnitude earthquake.

Daxing will be the first airport with two departure levels. Because we designed a terminal for 45 and then 72 million passengers and there is a lot of equipment to fit in for check-in and security, we needed to create a second level for departures.

That is one of the biggest features, says Jean-Yves Coulot, ADP Ingénierie's general manager for China. We wanted to keep it compact and under the same roof.

The top level will have traditional check-in facilities for international and domestic flights, the one below will be dedicated to frequent flyers who are primarily travelling domestically.

The separation is meant to speed up the check-in and security process, Coulot says, particularly for people who checked in on their phones and want to leave their luggage at a self-service bag drop.

From facial recognition at check-in to real-time baggage tracking on mobile phones, travelling through Daxing will be a paperless experience for passengers, according to a spokesperson for SATS, which services aircraft while they are on the ground.

The Singapore-based company will be responsible for the ground handling and inflight catering at the new airport, it already is at Beijing Capital International Airport.

The architects were not only tasked with designing an airport that would make the travel experience as efficient as possible, but also with executing it at speed.

It took less than five years to actually build the airport. We have been extremely impressed by the speed of this project, says Coulot.

At a stone-setting ceremony held on December 26, 2014 the site was still farmland, he recollects, adding that they have been able to build one of the largest airports in the world in such a short time.

The design, however, was a long time in the making. ADP Ingénierie was involved in an initial master plan phase and, from 2011 to 2014, was shortlisted several times and then finally awarded the architecture contract.

Once the concept design was honed, BIAD took over to carry out the development.

It’s a pretty impressive piece of execution, says Richard Gammon, managing director of global aviation at engineering firm Aecom, which was not involved in the project. He compares Daxing airport to Abu Dhabi’s new Midfield Terminal – of similar scale and complexity, that building was commissioned more than ten years ago and, in 2017, had to be delayed to late 2019.

When the airports have strong government backing, and particularly when there is alignment between airlines and airport operators, they tend to move quickly, he says.

But the making of this airport has been a truly international endeavour: Germany’s Thyssenkrupp delivered 155 elevators and 22 escalators whilst Wirtgen machines were used to pave the apron area.

Xsight Systems, an Israeli company, provided an AI-powered detection software that will help keep the runways safe from bird strikes and other potentially damaging objects.

The challenge with any airport project is the long timeline and complexity. The aviation industry is fairly fast-moving, so I would be interested to see what level of adaptation and flexibility was built into that design, says Gammon, adding that industry changes can affect what technology and equipment is used or the way airlines operate, which in turn, dictates the number and types of aircraft stands needed at an airport.

In Europe and the US, for instance, airlines are increasingly moving from larger aircraft to operating smaller, more efficient ones at higher frequency, he says.

My experience of Asia is that typically they would rather go fast and implement changes after the opening. However, if the design is not adapted and updated, airports risk becoming a construction site again shortly after opening.

BIAD may have preempted those risks. The airport will handle 45m passengers a year when it opens, increasing to 72m passengers and two million tonnes of cargo by 2025 once a satellite building has been built.

The whole satellite design and construction will start once the airport is in use, says Xiaoqun.

In the long run, Daxing airport will be able to accommodate 620,000 flights and more than 100 million passengers a year – in the hope of taking away traffic from other Asian hubs such as Dubai and Tokyo – but this will require constructing three additional runways and a whole other terminal building.

ADP Ingénierie’s Content proposes mirroring the design of the first terminal, but only time will tell if that is the right approach.

Of course, in time, there will be another competition, there will be new ideas, he says. The future may not look exactly like that.


Tourism Observer

CHINA: Hainan Airlines Introduces Flights To Edinburgh

Hainan Airlines inaugurated the first-ever direct flights between Scotland and China today with HU749, the first service between Beijing and Edinburgh.

The four weekly flights to the Scottish capital is the country’s first connection to the Far-East.

Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport said: This is a momentous day as we connect not only Edinburgh and Beijing for the first time, but Scotland and China too.

It is a route which has immense opportunities for our countries, from tourism and business to culture, education and more.

We know Edinburgh is second only to London for Chinese tourists and we are eager to welcome more people to our fantastic capital city, but it’s also about connecting people from Scotland to Beijing and wider China thanks to Hainan’s hub network.

Hainan is one of the world’s most prestigious airlines and we are proud to be working with them. This is something the city has worked towards for a number of years and we are delighted to see this day finally arrive.

Minister for Business, Innovation, and Energy, Paul Wheelhouse, said: Securing direct links between Scotland and China is one of our key priorities for route development.

This new direct Beijing to Edinburgh route is an exciting first chapter indirect air connectivity between Scotland and China. It will enable China and Scotland to become closer in partnership and in travel time, building upon existing strong links for business and tourism.

The Scottish Government and our agencies look forward to working with Hainan Airlines and Edinburgh Airport to make this route a great success.

Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said: This first direct service from China to Edinburgh represents a gear change for Scottish tourism and further cement Scotland’s reputation as a world-class destination.

As the Chinese market has grown over the years so too has the Scottish capital’s popularity with Chinese visitors and it continues to be the top destination outside of London.

Through our ongoing work with key Chinese tour operators, we have seen visitor itineraries extending over the years.

Bringing visitors from China directly into the heart of Scotland will create greater opportunities for tourism businesses right across the country, as visitors stay longer and explore further.

Paul Lewis, managing director of Scottish Development International said: We’re working hard to ensure that more Scottish companies can take advantage of trade and investment opportunities in China, while at the same time trying to attract more Chinese companies to base their European operations here.

A direct air route is a significant enabler of both these goals and we welcome Hainan Airlines’ first ever route between Edinburgh Airport and Beijing Capital International Airport.

The flight currently includes a stopover in Dublin after its arrival in Edinburgh due to excessive demand interest at that airport for Chinese flight.

On Tuesdays and Saturdays, the aircraft will arrive into Edinburgh at 0600 and will then depart at 0800 to Dublin, to which it will carry on to Beijing after departure from Dublin.

On Thursdays and Sundays, the flight arrives into Edinburgh from Dublin at 0910 before departing for Beijing at 1110.

This flight continues the carrier’s continued expansion out of the UK, having launched their first Manchester route over two years ago this month.

As the carrier is slowly receiving the licensing from the CAAC - Civil Aviation Administration of China, it is becoming a little clearer into where the carrier wants to start their expansion.

With services from Capital Airlines out of Gatwick being operated on already, they are starting to cover all areas of the UK. The other airports of interest could potentially be those such as Glasgow, Birmingham and potentially Stansted if the demand appeals to HNA.

In terms of investment, the carrier is definitely putting money into the route developments they establish.

This comes following the news that the HNA board are looking to raise over $1 billion in capital to fund certain elements of the airline, placing worries into the security of these routes in case the airline has to downsize.

However, Hainan seems to be playing the UK market very strongly and are slowly, one by one, opening up China to most of the UK and beyond.

Especially with the Dublin connection point, where they can capture some of the Irish catchment areas on top of this, thus boosting their presence into Europe as well.


Tourism Observer

CHINA: Ever Growing Tourism Makes China World's Fastest Growing Aviation Market

The fortunes of China's largest airlines have risen with the ascent of the Chinese travelers, whose demand for overseas trips have helped make it the world's fastest-growing aviation market.

However, the airlines took many U.S. dollar-denominated loans to buy planes as part of an ambitious fleet expansion, exposing them to the depreciation of the yuan which lost 6.6% of its value against the dollar last year.

Oil prices, which plunged in recent years, have also started to firm, causing jet fuel costs to begin to rise.

China's flag carrier on April 27 posted profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 1.47 billion (USD 213 million) for January to March, down from RMB 2.4 billion during the same period last year.

Its domestic rival China Eastern Airlines said net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 2.82 billion for the quarter, up from RMB 2.6 billion a year earlier.

China's top economic planner has approved China Southern Airlines' 14.8-billion-yuan ($2.15 billion) plan for a base at a new Beijing airport currently under construction, a day after it approved a similar scheme by China Eastern Airlines.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on Friday that China Southern will fund 30% of the construction cost, while the remaining RMB 10.3 billion will be financed using domestic bank loans.

China Southern Airlines plans to build a 14.8-billion-yuan (USD 2.15 billion) base at a new Beijing airport, while China Eastern Airlines has a similar plan at 13.2 billion yuan.

China Eastern's 13.2-billion-yuan plan for a similar base at the new airport was given the green light on Thursday.

The airport will be the world's largest in surface area when completed, roughly in line with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest by number of annual passengers.

China's economic planner approved China Eastern Airlines' 13.2-billion-yuan (1.54 billion pounds) plan for a base at an expansive new airport in Beijing that could eventually be the world's largest, when completed.

The National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its website that the base will cover 1.17 million square meters, and 30% of the investment, or RMB 3.96 billion, will be funded by China Eastern.

The remaining RMB 92.4 billion will be financed using domestic bank loans, the statement added.

China plans to complete the first phase by 2019, and will be able to serve 45 million passengers a year with four runways on the first opening. Two more phases would push the capacity to an annual count of 100 million passengers.

That would put the airport as the world's largest in surface area, roughly in line with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest by number of annual passengers.

Upon completion, rival state carrier, China Southern Airlines, will also relocate to the new airport from the existing Beijing Capital International Airport, the airport project managers told reporters last year.

They said China Eastern and China Southern will handle 40% of the new airport's footfalls.

Beijing Capital International Airport (Beijing PEK) ranked second in the top 20 busiest airports last year, growing 5% to over 94 million passengers in 2016.

Beijing Capital International Airport (Beijing PEK) ranked second in the top 20 busiest airports last year, growing 5% to over 94 million passengers in 2016, according to Airports Council International (ACI), global trade representative of the world’s airports.

Atlanta-Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL) retained the top spot as the world’s busiest airport, boasting over 104 million passengers, 2.6% more than 2015.

Beijing PEK saw subdued growth in previous years as it faced continuing capacity constraints. Conversely, ATL experienced above average growth levels spurred by aircraft fleet expansions in 2015 by Delta Air Lines, its major operator.

Traffic at the world’s 20 busiest air passenger hubs grew 4.7% in 2016. With over 1.4 billion passengers passing through their airports in 2016, this group of 20 represents 18% of global passenger traffic.

Asian airlines continued to make important inroads in the North American market on key international and trans-Pacific segments across airport pairs, particularly between North America and China.

One of the major Chinese airports serving the trans-Pacific routes and other international routes includes Shanghai Pudong (PVG), which grew 9.8% in 2016 to over 66 million passengers. It climbed to ninth place in 2016.

The Chinese hub also serves the catchment area of Shanghai, one of the most populous city markets in the world and a major centre for trade and business. PVG, which represents over 60% of Shanghai’s passenger traffic in 2016, and Hongqiao (SHA), the city’s sister airport, surpassed the 100 million passenger mark in combined passenger traffic.

Shanghai joined the ranks of the world’s busiest city markets in 2016, in the company of London, New York, Tokyo and Atlanta.

The Chinese government has selected China Eastern Airlines to be part of a pilot scheme to reform state-owned enterprises to mixed Public/Private ownership models.

The scheme, which is being rolled out in a slow and controlled manner, is intended to reinvigorate China's bloated public sector by creating globally competitive multinational corporations capable of turning a profit by 2020.

As part of the first pilot reform scheme, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) have included a broad spectrum of SOEs. Aside from China Eastern, they include China Southern Power Grid, Harbin Electric Corporation, the China Nuclear Engineering & Construction Corporation, and China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. More precise details will be released shortly the official Xinhua news agency said last week.

The reform process has been in motion for a few years, with China Eastern selling a 3.55% stake to Delta Air Lines back in 2015 for USD450 million. China Southern is also in the process of securing regulatory approval for the sale of a 2.76% stake to American Airlines.

CHINA: Air China Starts “Fully Entrusted-No Baggage Claim"

Begining January 1, 2017, passengers who fly on Air China’s flights departing from Europe and the Americas for Chinese cities with a transit in Beijing can benefit from Air China’s newly introduced “Fully Entrusted-No Baggage Claim” service.

With the “Fully Entrusted-No Baggage Claim” service, passengers can, in the form of pre-authorization at the airport of origin in Europe and the Americas, fully entrust their checked baggage to Air China, and Air China can, on behalf of the passengers, open their checked baggage in transit via Beijing for inspections by the customs and quarantine authorities.

Passengers who need the service are required, while checking in at the airport of origin, to sign the baggage tag(s) to confirm that they agree to fully entrust Air China with process of inspections by the customs and quarantine authorities.

After arriving at Beijing Capital International Airport, passengers can directly clear the immigration without having to claim their checked baggage and then proceed to the transit zone for the onward connecting flight.

The service will cut the time passengers usually need to spend going through the transit formalities, enhancing passengers’ travel experiences.

CHINA: Air China First Class Flight Review

Flying on Air China Boeing 777-300ER From Beijing to London

The only benefit of Air China First Class seems to be getting a comfortable seat. This, and the flight departure time was my main reason for choosing to fly Air China from Beijing to London. Having suffered yet another delayed domestic flight from Ordos to Beijing the night before, I was glad of a few extra hours sleep before leaving Beijing, instead of taking the British Airways flight 3 hours earlier.
At the Airport

Check-in at the massive Beijing Capital International Airport was quick, although devoid of any Premium service and with a check in agent that couldn’t understand English. All very disappointing with this being the hub for Air China, and since they have only a small number of First Class customers you would think they might take more interest in them. This trip was on a full fare First Class ticket, not an upgrade or discount price.

From check in there is a train to the E wing of Terminal 3, a journey of about 5 minutes. Exiting the train, you line up for Immigration and then Security screening – there is a First / Business class Fast Track security, but this is often slower than standard processing.

Airside in Terminal 3 there is the usual plethora of scent spraying tax free shops, higher end brands such as Bulgari, Mont Blanc, Salvatore Ferragamo and others. More shops have been squeezed in at the expense of customer comfort, and useful items such as Flight Departure screens are now almost impossible to find.

One noteworthy point is that you will find Beijing Capital International Airport very hot in summer and cold in winter, supposedly because of Chinese energy saving rules. This day in August and the temperature inside the airside section was 26 degrees Celsius, as you queue at immigration even hotter.

Air China First Class Lounge

Air China have First and Business class lounges on the floor above the shopping area. Without proper air conditioning and in full sunshine from the glass exterior walls, the temperature inside was closer to 27 degrees. There is a check of boarding cards as customers enter the lounge, but no proper greeting or welcome is offered by these staff.

Facility wise, this lounge is very poor by first class standards. Overcrowded because Air China sell lounge usage to many other airlines, the lounge remains unchanged since opening in 2008. Chairs are worn and grubby, carpets stained and unpleasant.

The 2 showers are cramped, humid and unhygienic. This theme is replicated in the washroom facilities which are a health hazard. During this visit, the gents washroom cleaner was using the same hand cloth to wipe around the urinals and then proceeding to wipe the counter areas by the washbasins (same cloth, no rinsing etc). For anyone familiar with China, this is a fairly common cleaning technique in China and seriously underlines the problems they have.

Lounge food is Chinese options primarily, and the quality is awful. You rarely see a western or non-Chinese customer eating in this lounge.

Whilst taking a photograph of the hot food display, a member of catering staff quickly came over shouting that it was illegal to take photos of the food, and then repeating the word delete! 1 red and 1 white wine is available, usual soft drinks and beer. You cannot get a proper coffee in this lounge, aside from the most disgusting and unpalatable stewed coffee that sits untouched on a hot plate. Air China lounge WiFi uses the airport free 5 hour WiFi service, and with the firewall restrictions and poor speed of service, it is not worth trying to log on.
Boarding the flight

Time to board cannot come soon enough, and staff warn that Gate E62 it is a 10-15 minute walk to the boarding gate. Air China first class customers are supposed to get a complimentary buggy service from the lounge, and staff had to be reminded twice about this before a buggy was arranged. They also forgot to say that boarding was to be via bus from a very remote stand, almost off the airfield.

Despite the sign for Priority boarding, staff take no notice and First Class queue up behind all others to await transport to the aircraft. As boarding card slips are taken, staff point to a small VIP/First Class bus outside. The theory of some premium service is quickly dissipated when all following economy cabin passengers realise nobody is in control and they quickly board and fill the bus. The bus driver looks puzzled, but being China he is not going to ask questions and prepares to drive off. It transpires the London bound aircraft is a 10 mins bus dive away, parked by the maintenance hangar.
First Class Onboard Air China

A quite new Boeing 777-300ER on this flight, fitted in a 3 cabin configuration with 8 First class suites (1x2x1 layout), 42 Business class flat bed seats (2x2x2 layout) and 261 Economy class seats. To their credit, Air China is one of few airlines that retain a 9-across seat layout in Economy class, most airlines having squeezed in 10-across seating.

The first class seat is comfortable for sitting, relaxing and sleeping, and has reasonable privacy. When you want to sleep, staff will lay down a cover and offer a nice duvet.

The IFE does not start until about 30 minutes after take off, and closes down before top of arrival descent. Screen size is good in First, but the choice of Western/International movies and TV programmes reminds you this is a Chinese airline, and well below standards in this area.

Two local English language Chinese newspapers are offered, but no English language magazines or foreign newspapers are available. A small amenity pouch labelled as L’Occitane is at the seat; aside from a small L’Occitane lip balm and body lotion, all other products are non-branded, cheap Chinese amenity items. You don’t get anything better in the First Class washrooms, with a poor quality Chinese brand (Herborist) trying to imitate western products.

The 3 cabin staff (one Purser and 2 First Class attendants) are quite smiley, and provide the first welcome of the day from any Air China staff. A request for pyjamas confuses the younger female attendant, and after seeking translation help from a colleague, she does eventually return with these. Her service throughout the flight followed a similar pattern, and whilst cheerful and willing, she didn’t understand a word of English aside from the dozen standard phrases she had been taught. These two First Class attendants did provide a fairly good level of service and attention, but for Air China’s top international service one does expect staff to understand and be able to converse English.
Air China First Class Meals

The meal service is little different to Air China business class, and it simply doesn’t come close to international First Class standards. A very chilled appetiser is served with plastic pots of dressing.

The soup has to be re-heated because the first serving was not even tepid. The entrée, billed as “grilled beef tenderloin with truffle cream sauce and duchess potato” would be questioned as Economy cabin food, and was wholly unacceptable. Things didn’t get any better, a pre-plated cheese plate offering 5 pieces of dried up cheese and 2 stale cracker biscuits. This was followed by a stodgy and tasteless “opera” cake.

Usual choices of Chinese teas, but very poor coffee choice and coffee taste. A request for chocolates as listed on the menu was met with a simple and unapologetic response “we don’t have any”.
Air China First Class Trip Summary

It is apparent that despite the Air China statement to be recognised as a “world-class” airline, there is little hope of this at the present time, and Air China standards make it one of the weaker members of Star Alliance from a Quality perspective. As the country’s flag carrier, Air China is being outperformed by government owned rival China Southern Airlines, and privately owned Hainan Airlines.

Thinking about whether one would want to repeat the Air China first class experience, the answer is no – unless a “very” cheap or discounted fare was available, to get the only benefit which is a comfortable seat.

For the price paid for this trip, Air China First Class is a real disappointment.