China National Aviation Holding’s flagship carrier Air China launched its first direct Beijing (PEK)–Venice (VCE) route on July 2, signalling renewed appetite for long-haul travel and commemorating four decades of Sino-Italian air links. Flight CA973 departed Beijing Capital’s Terminal 3 with a load factor above 90 % and landed in the lagoon city after a planned 11-hour sector, greeted by a water-cannon salute and a joint ceremony with SAVE Group, Venice Airport’s operator. The new service will run four times a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays) using a three-class Boeing 787-9 configured for 293 seats, including 30 lie-flat business seats aimed squarely at corporate travellers and high-end leisure segments. Air China already flies to Rome and Milan; the Venice addition gives the carrier 25 European destinations and restores its network to 85 % of pre-pandemic capacity. The schedule allows same-day onward connections to Florence, Zagreb and Vienna on partner carriers as well as domestic Chinese connections via Beijing’s hub bank. For Italian stakeholders, convenient non-stop access to China’s political and technology centre is expected to stimulate inbound tourism to the Veneto region—home to luxury-goods clusters in Vicenza and Treviso—and support exporters of fashion, wine and machinery seeking faster access to Chinese markets. Bilateral trade exceeded € 80 billion in 2025, according to Italy’s foreign-trade agency, but executives have cited limited seat capacity and high fares as obstacles to post-pandemic growth. Travel-management companies (TMCs) forecast that corporate travel volume between the two nations could rise 25-30 % over the next 12 months if current visa-free stays of up to 30 days for Italian passport holders remain in place. Air China’s business-class return fares are debuting at about RMB 22,000 (US$ 3,030), roughly 15 % lower than one-stop competitors routing via Doha or Dubai—an early indicator of healthy yield management but also of intensifying competition on Europe-bound corridors. Mobility takeaway: Multinational firms with offices across northern Italy can now schedule Monday-to-Friday itineraries without overnight layovers. Freight forwarders should note that the 787-9 offers up to 15 tonnes of belly-hold capacity per flight, creating new options for high-value textiles and urgent aerospace components.
Source: National Business Daily
