JAKARTA - The British Airways airline will double the number of Mandarin-language cabin crew on the Chinese route, Chief Customer Officer Calum Laming said, as the airline's efforts to expand in the world's second-largest aviation market.
The airline expects to add 50 Mandarin-language cabin crew on its flights to Beijing and Shanghai in July, Calum Laming told Reuters, bringing the total to 100 and making China the second largest overseas crew base after India.
"Going back to the market is a top priority for this airline. We will not double the number of crews if not," Laming said, quoted by Reuters on February 1.
"Mampu doubled the number of cabin crew on the plane to have many benefits in terms of language, in terms of cultural awareness," he said.
The British-flagged airline resumed direct passenger flights to Shanghai in April and to Beijing in June last year, after China reopened borders closed due to nearly three years of COVID-19 restrictions.
However, the airline faces intense competition from Chinese state-owned airlines in terms of tariffs, and has to fly on longer routes across Russian airspace due to war-related bans on Ukraine.
British Airways is the second-largest flight operator to and from China in December 2019, making 133 flights a month before the pandemic, according to aviation data provider Cirium.
However, the airline currently only offers 89 flights a month, according to data in December 2023, placing it fourth behind China's three largest airlines: Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines.
Laming said the shortage of aircraft across the industry was the biggest obstacle in increasing the number of flights to China.
"Getting a new plane is very, very difficult right now," he added.
It is known, this is the third British Airways attempt to build its brand in China in just a decade.
The airline added flights to Chengdu in 2013, but canceled the route three years later, citing a lack of commercial eligibility.
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In 2019, British Airways became the first international airline to announce they would fly from Beijing's new Daxing Airport, but then the pandemic overturned the industry.
"We're really seeing the recovery," Laming said.
"We had a huge demand for recreation last summer and we expect a fantastic peak of the Lunar New Year's travel season."
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