China Eastern is relaunching flights to London Gatwick

China Eastern Airlines is bringing back flights to Shanghai from London Gatwick, a route which was cancelled at the start of the pandemic.

The service will start on 26th June using an Airbus A330-200.

There will be four flights per week, departing Gatwick on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Flights will depart London at 11.35 and arrive at 06.10.

China Eastern will continue to operate its existing daily flight from London Heathrow to Shanghai.

China Eastern is a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance. In theory this means that you can earn and spend Virgin Points on these flights following the entry of Virgin Atlantic into SkyTeam earlier this year.

In practice this is not currently possible. China Eastern is one of two SkyTeam partners – the other is Italy’s ITA Airways – where redemptions are ‘coming later in 2023’. You also cannot earn Virgin Points on China Eastern until later this year, although earning is possible with ITA Airways.

Full details of how to spend Virgin Points on SkyTeam partner airlines can be found in this HfP article.