China Southern Airlines’ highly anticipated launch of direct flights between Beijing Daxing and Tehran, Iran, has been delayed due to Iran’s recent military strikes and heightening political tensions and rhetoric over the Middle East.
Aimed at international flyers?
The new China Southern route was announced in early March, on social platform X – over two weeks before the announcement on the airline’s Weibo account. This difference in timing caused commentators to speculate that the flight is more aimed at international flyers than Chinese passengers. The airline has previously said its Iran routes were the result of “Citizens of Iran and China, especially businessmen and students, [who] have repeatedly called for more flights between the two countries.”
The route was set for its inaugural journey on 15 April 2024, but on 1 April, Israel bombed Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria. Amid precautionary airspace closures and US warnings of an “imminent” strike, Iran’s promised retaliation came on 13 April, with an attack involving drones, cruise missiles, and ballistics that caused widespread aviation diversions, schedule changes and groundings for thousands of passengers.
Travel alert and flight cancellations
China’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs proceeded to issue a travel alert for Iran on 14 April, urging anyone thinking of travel to the region not to make the journey and, sure enough, China Southern followed this by cancelling its first flight between the capitals.
The Beijing-Tehran route is now scheduled to open instead on Friday 19 April. Simple Flying reported on 16 April that tickets were still available for purchase. However in the current political climate departure is not a done deal and passengers would be advised to keep a careful eye on travel warnings, and airline and airport updates.
New air routes opening up
With China now pushing to boost its travel sector after one of the strictest and latest pandemic lockdowns, other new air routes are also becoming available. As one of China’s three major airlines, China Southern has long operated a popular Urumqi-Tehran route between the two predominantly Muslim regions. It also recently initiated another first: a flight from Beijing Beijing Daxing to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia took off for its inaugural flight yesterday (16 April) departing Beijing at 15:21 local time.
International flights between China Southerns headquarters in Guangzhou and Doha, Qatar will commence the following week, on 22 April. In addition, the carrier’s Guangzhou to London Gatwick service will start up again from 20 June, this year.
