AIR CHINA is targeting the trade with a promotion that could lead to an increase in the number of customers using Beijing as an alternative way of flying to Australia and Asia.
The airline is offering passengers stopovers in Beijing with free accommodation for a night and free UK regional connecting flights to Heathrow.
Services are on three-class Boeing 747-400s. Business customers can use a limousine service to arrive at Heathrow for flights to Beijing and beyond.
Last year, the airline carried 30,000 passengers from Heathrow – double the 1995 figure of 16,000. It attributed the rise to a marketing of onward services from China.