Juneyao Air will fly between Dublin and Shanghai from 2020

Juneyao Air flights from Dublin to China’s largest city will launch in March 2020.

Chinese airliner Juneyao Air will launch bi­-weekly flights between Dublin and China’s largest city, Shanghai,  on March 29.

“We see strong demand for travel between Ireland and Shanghai, and we are sure that this new service will grow the market by significantly improving the connectivity between Shanghai and Dublin,” Wang Junjin, Juneyao Air Chairman, said.

Shanghai is the second Chinese destination passengers can fly to from Dublin Airport. Passengers will, in addition, have an opportunity to connect from Shanghai Pudong Airport to 40 other cities in China, six destinations in Japan and ten other places in the Asia-Pacific region.

The new route will operate on Sundays and Thursdays, with a short stop in Helsinki on each leg. Planes will take off from Dublin at 10:00am, landing in Shanghai at 6:30am the next morning. The return flight is scheduled to leave for Dublin at 0:55am local time.

A boost for tourism

The city of Shanghai, with a population of 25 million, is the most popular destination for Irish passengers out of all currently unserved destinations. There are 42,000 trips between Ireland and Shanghai each year.

Dublin Airport Managing Director, Vincent Harrison, described the Shanghai flights as great news for Ireland’s economy.

“Shanghai is a major global economic hub and this new route will significantly boost Irish tourism and trade, making it easier for Irish firms to do business in China, and enhancing the options for Chinese tourists wishing to visit Ireland,” Mr Harrison added.

Ireland wants to meet its target of attracting 200,000 Chinese tourists every year by 2025. About 100,000 Chinese visited Ireland in 2018 as estimated by Tourism Ireland. This was an increase of 11% compared with 2017.

Juneyao Air

The company will operate flights between Dublin and Shanghai with a Boeing 787-9 aircraft of 324 seats.

Juneyao  Air is one of the biggest airline companies in mainland China, owning 74 aircraft. A total of 18 million passengers have taken flights offered by the airliner. While being one of the leading carriers in China, it only launched its first European route, to Helsinki, in summer 2019.

Apart from Juneyao Air flights from Dublin to Shanghai, the airliner will launch flights to Athens and Manchester in 2020. In the meantime, it is also trying to break into the air cargo market between China and Ireland.