The new route will replace the Chinese carrier's flights between Tel Aviv and Guangzhou, while China Eastern will fly the Tel Aviv - Guangzhou route.
Hainan Airlines is launching a new route from Tel Aviv to Shenzhen in China. The new route will replace the Chinese carrier's flights between Tel Aviv and Guangzhou.
Shenzhen, which has 20 million residents, is a 30-minute ride from Guangzhou on the high-speed railway between the two cities. Hainan will receive a substantial grant for the new route for moving the route from the Shenzhen local government, which wants to make the city an international hub.
Hainan operates flights from Shenzhen to a number of destinations, including Osaka, Japan; Auckland, New Zealand; and Brisbane, Australia, which creates the possibility of connection flights from Israel to these destinations. Hainan also operates direct flights from Tel Aviv to Beijing and Shanghai.
Due to Shenzhen's proximity to Hong Kong, Hainan will not receive a grant from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism for opening the new route, but the grant it receives from the Shenzhen government will make up for this. The large companies located in Shenzhen, including Huawei and Tencent, make the city primarily a business destination.
Termination of Hainan's route from Guangzhou will enable another Chinese airline, China Eastern, to replace it with its own direct flights to Tel Aviv. A third Chinese airline, Sichuan Airlines, launched a direct route from Tel Aviv to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, in 2018.
Of the 4.1 million tourists who visited Israel in 2018, 104,500 were from China.
Hainan will operate two weekly flights between Tel Aviv and Shenzhen, starting on February 22, 2019. Dreamliners will be used for these flights, taking off around noon from Israel and at night in the return flights from China. Price of flights appearing on Hainan's website start at $650 for roundtrip flights with "economy cyber" class seats.
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