Air China goes double daily on London Heathrow flights: shorter transits from Sydney

Air China will ramp up its London Heathrow flights to double daily from October, resulting in shorter connection times in Beijing for travellers making the full trek from Sydney.

The airline is also swapping out the Boeing 777-300ER from the Beijing-London route for a smaller Airbus A330 on both flights, which comes without first class.

From October 26 2014, CA937 from Beijing to London moves forward to a 12:30pm departure from its current 2:10pm pushback, slimming the transit time down from 8hrs 20m to 6hrs 40m for passengers connecting from Air China’s CA174 flight from Sydney.

Touching down in London at 3:55pm on the same calendar day, travellers can reach the home of the Big Ben just in time for an evening catch-up, or ahead of meetings on the following day.

On the return, the retimed CA938 service is wheels-up from Heathrow at 5:40pm, ending the journey in Beijing at noon the next day.

Allowing for a longer transit in Beijing, CA855/CA856 flights also kick off from October 26, running at similar times to the original schedule of CA937/CA938.

From London Heathrow, both CA856 and CA938 provide ample time to connect in Beijing if flying home to Sydney on CA173 – with 4hrs 50m to spare if arriving on CA938, and an even-better 2hrs 10m from the new CA856 flight.

Air China’s revised London flights can now be booked through the airline’s website:

Whether you take CA937 or CA855 onwards from Beijing to London, travellers with an Australian passport can now enjoy a visa-free transit in China.

That means you could head into town for a meeting or even a touch of sightseeing during that lengthy stopover in Beijing before making your way onwards to London that afternoon, which certainly beats spending the day in the confines of the airport.

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Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.