By Jenny Wagler
By securing China’s biggest airline as a new carrier and, with it, the first direct Canadian flight to Guangzhou, Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is continuing to solidify its position as a gateway to Asia – and, more specifically, China.
“We have more flights to China than any airport in North America,” said Tony Gugliotta, Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA) vice-president of marketing and business development, noting that the airport operates 57 weekly flights to Mainland China and Hong Kong.
In a new coup for the airport, the VAA has secured China Southern Airlines as a new carrier and gained Canada’s first direct flight to Guangzhou – China’s third-biggest city and the capital of Guangdong province.
The Vancouver-Guangzhou service is scheduled to begin June 15 with three flights weekly.
VAA estimates the new service will generate 44 person years of employment, $2.2 million in wages and contribute $3.5 million to B.C.’s GDP annually.
“The flight really facilitates what we’re trying to do here: to become a gateway between North America and Asia,” Gugliotta said.
“So it’s important that we have these international carriers establish flights to their hub airports out of Vancouver.”
Gugliotta said business travellers, Chinese leisure travellers taking advantage of Canada’s approved destination status and a large Metro Vancouver population with heritage in Guangdong are key markets for the new flights.
On the business-traveller front, he noted that Guangdong has China’s largest provincial GDP and is where China’s manufacturing base first developed.
He added that besides travellers from B.C.-based companies with manufacturing operations in China, the VAA also anticipates attracting China-based business travellers as interest grows in B.C. investment opportunities.
Gugliotta said that while previously passengers have been able to connect to Guangzhou through Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Seoul, Korea, the direct flight is a key win for YVR.
“What we find is if you have a direct service, it stimulates travel,” he said.
Gugliotta opined that other airports have doubtless been trying to court China Southern as well.
“It’s a very competitive environment,” he said, noting that the deal has been in the works for a few years. “Oftentimes I go to Asia and meet with airlines and when I’m in the waiting room, there’s airports who are just leaving and after me there are airports who are just coming in to meet.”
As to YVR’s edge in securing the flight, Gugliotta noted that Vancouver presents the shortest cross-Pacific route to Guangzhou.
He also emphasized Vancouver’s ethnic links to the province.
“Vancouver will be a very important tourism spot for Chinese nationals and I think China Southern sees that as a huge opportunity, so that’s another advantage.”