Sichuan Airlines Wants To Start Flying To Boston

Hainan also flies BOS-PVG. It’ll be the 7th.

No Chinese Airline flies SFO to Chengdu, only United does. So, they could fly there if they wanted.

Of course, I would not be eager at all to fly them out of SFO to anywhere

I see a small chance of a 3U/B6 codeshare once this route goes in effect

Sichuan Airlines wanted to fly to Zurich (forming a routing CTU-PRG-ZRH-PRG-CTU) starting March 31, but still hasn't begun. Not even bookable on their website.

They've also announced Chengdu-Zurich, Tel Aviv, Copenhagen and Cairo.

Chinese college students in Boston and Chinese tourists. Those two factors help improve (although obviously not guarantee) the chances of this flight lasting.

If they can't fly to JFK given that Hainan already flies that route, I wonder why they don't try flying from Chengdu to Newark instead of Boston. I also wonder why they chose Boston over Chicago, Toronto or Washington, which seem like more obvious choices over Boston.

Why would you ever connect via Chengdu to get between Beijing and LAX? Intentionally overfly Beijing and skip the nonstop options?

That’s a customer who has lots of time - not a priority for policy.

Sichuan wants to fly to another US location? After reading your review of them, I only have this to say.

God help us all.

Amazing, when you consider Boston had no destinations in Asia in 2012.

Interesting. CX does well with BOS-HKG, so it'll be interesting to see how this does.

it is really interesting to see a westerner's perspective on 3U flights. actually, 3U has gained a somewhat god tier status amongst Chinese for their business catering since it has such great variety in J, especially on regional routes. Every single Chinese friend I talked to wanted to take 3U in J and begged me for mile strategies (lol). it seems like the fact that they let you take food "to go" captivated a huge chunk of Chinese expats' hearts. Chinese do not care about hard product, and speaking Chinese on a carrier like 3U really helps with soft product. Meanwhile, others avoid it like a plague haha!

This flight will be for all the MIT and Harvard students.

Maybe they'll have a lounge for their business class pax, which they don't at LAX

3U is a cool airline in CN, I'd fly it anyday than UA unless i really want to get rich.

An absolutely atrocious excuse for an airline. Once was enough. Never ever again!

This won't only be for students. Chengdu is a big tech town, and Sichuan's strategy is clearly to connect it to other tech centers (i.e., Boston, Tel Aviv, San, Zurich (UA already has SFO covered).

In addition, Chengdu is one of the nicest and most interesting cities in China, and one of the greatest gastronomic destinations in the world, and should be a destination for US tourists.

If you ever saw what kinds of cars Chinese students driving in Boston, ya'll would not ever have these questions.

@Mak Shenzhen is where the tech is in China not Chengdu

Although I understand why competition can be good, does it really add as much value with Chinese carriers?

Yes. It’s a pain to connect twice if you use Sichuan airlines from LAX to Beijing.

That’s why you’d take Air China from LAX to PEK

Sure, I guess you’d have another choice but I’m Not sure prices would change or either airline would compete on service if both airlines operated the flight since China isn’t really a full market economy anyway

A smarter strategy would be for China to hub its airlines even more

I'd be happier if Hainan added it from Boston.

@d3King China is a big place and Chengdu is also a big tech hub. Shenzhen is more small manufacturing/assembly related but most of the large computer and telecom hardware and software manufacturers and developers have significant presence in Chengdu Lan De (perhaps because Sichuan University is a big tech school). The automotive industry is a massive presence nearby in Chongqing, the largest metro area in the world at the moment.

This will be the 8th Asian flight since El Al flies Boston-Tel Aviv

I think within 5 years there will be #9 and #10: Seoul and either Mumbai or Delhi.

If China axes one route/one airline - does Hainan focus only on Beijing? Doesn’t the US have a say in how many frequencies are used in Tier I cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou). That would still need to be ironed out.

I cannot undestand why every time BOS is mentioned on this website, there will be some comments on how unbeliveable BOS is chosen over Chicago, Toronto etc. Do you guys even know that Boston is both an education hub *and* a biomedical research hub? There are tons of college students and grad students and postdocs and visiting professors etc from not just MIT and Harvard, but also Boston U, Boston College, Northeastern, Tuft, Brandeis etc - more than a few dozen, I would say. And that's just one part. The other part are the other tons of medical residents and fellows and researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's, various Pharmaceutical companies. And oh, separate from biotech, both microsoft and google have offices in Boston. Chicago? Toronto? *yawn*

It’s nearly December and no further word on this route. It would be their longest route with a plane they’ve just taken on, so I’d expect (if it even happens) a late Q1 start.

But to echo the comment above, Boston is punching way above its weight class with most Asian/Middle East flights running mid-90% LF (and they aren’t giving away the seats, either).

Someone mentioned India. Emirates and Qatar largely feed that need now. The financial woes of Indian airlines means that the route will probably go unserved.