As China Eastern arrived in Hamburg in northern Germany, the ribbon held by Hamburg Airport’s Head of Aviation Marketing Jörgen Kearsley was cut by Chuanbo Shan, Chief Marketing Officer China Eastern Airlines; Hongmei Chen, PR China’s Consul General to Hamburg; Frank Horch, Hamburg’s Economy and Transport Senator; and Michael Eggenschwiler, CEO Hamburg Airport. A cake was also baked, featuring the hybrid skyline of both Hamburg and Shanghai.

After the press conference for China Eastern’s new service between Wuxi and Taipei Taoyuan, gifts were exchanged between the airline’s General Manager Jiangsu, Ma Xulun, and Wuxi City Party Secretary, Mao Xiaoping.

China Eastern Airlines launched two new routes on 29 August; one in Asia and one in Europe. The SkyTeam airline added a new destination in Germany when it extended one weekly of its daily services between Shanghai Pudong (PVG) and Frankfurt (FRA) to continue to the northern German port city of Hamburg (HAM). Flights operate with 264-seat A330-200s. Notably, this is Hamburg Airport’s first route to the Far East since LTU served Malé in the Maldives until 2001. From Wuxi (WUX), China Eastern also began flying across the Taiwan Strait to Taipei (TPE). Flights operate eight times weekly – daily, and an extra frequency on Mondays – with 158-seat A320s. Competition comes from Shenzhen Airlines’ six flights a week that launched on the same day.