China enters 2013 with new long-haul routes from BA, Finnair, Hainan, Qatar – and more to come

China is overwhelmingly a domestic market and will be home to the majority of growth, followed by regional Asian flights, but not to be overlooked are long-haul routes. 2012 finally captured the market's attention of China being a long-haul destination, in no small part due to China Southern making aggressive moves into Europe and Australia. China Southern's expansion was complemented by foreign carriers further entering secondary Chinese cities in a bid to capture untapped markets but also because slots at primary airports continue to be maxed out at all but midnight hours.

With that situation unlikely to change, long-haul Chinese growth in 2013 will continue to be anchored around secondary cities. Already planned developments in 2013 are British Airways and Qatar Airways entering Chengdu, a familiar secondary city, and Finnair being the first non-Asian carrier to serve Xian. At the tail end of 2012 China Eastern launched Nanjing-Sydney services while Hainan opened Dalian-Seattle flights. Also on the cards for 2013 are further developments from Air France-KLM, United entering secondary cities, Sichuan Airlines expanding to Australia, and 787 deliveries to China Southern and Hainan opening new routes.