China Southern Airlines will launch a daily flight from Heathrow to Beijing’s Daxing airport on Wednesday (7 June), in partnership with British Airways. The route complements two other new services from Chinese carriers between Gatwick and Shanghai.

The Beijing launch will mark the first time China Southern has flown between UK and Beijing. The carrier, which claims to be the largest at Beijing Daxing, will depart Heathrow at 22:30, arriving at 15:25. The return flight departs Beijing at 11:55, arriving Heathrow at 15:45.

Flights are on a 314-seat Airbus A350, with economy return fares from £495. Premium economy rates are from £1,683 and business class £3,385.

China Southern operates a codeshare with BA and BA returned to Daxing on Sunday (4 June) for the first time since 2020, flying four times a week. China Southern previously flew from Heathrow to Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Sanya and its home base of Guangzhou. A daily Heathrow-Guangzhou resumed in April.

This month also sees two other services to China begin from Gatwick. Air China began operating daily to Shanghai yesterday (4 June). It will have competition on the same route from China Eastern, which resumes Shanghai services on 26 June. It will initially fly four times a week, increasing to daily on 1 July.