It is not often that changes to the world’s longest routes list occur. However, that happened over the weekend, with China Southern returning to Mexico, this time from Shenzhen. It operates non-stop to Mexico City and is the world’s ninth-longest non-stop scheduled passenger service. The return to Mexico came shortly after the carrier began Beijing Daxing-Riyadh and Guangzhou-Doha.
Due to Mexico City’s high elevation, which impacts take-off performance on long flights with heavy payloads, it stops in Tijuana en route home to refuel. Unsurprisingly, Tijuana-Shenzhen tickets are not available.
The SkyTeam airline is no stranger to Mexico. Between 2017 and 2020, it flew to Mexico City from Guangzhou, the carrier’s primary airport. It operated via Vancouver in both directions. Now China Southern is operating to/from Shenzhen, its third most-served airport by May flights.
Perhaps it switched to Shenzhen as it is close to Guangzhou and Hong Kong. It did not change airports because demand is higher; booking data shows fewer than 4,000 people flew between the two cities in 2019. However, this is misleading, as it does not include those who traveled overland to Guangzhou to get on China Southern’s then-operated services.
Shenzhen is an immense 7,639 nautical miles (14,147 km) from Mexico City. Flying via Tijuana on the return only adds 11 nautical miles (20 km), which is partially why the airport was chosen.
The first flight left China on May 11 and runs twice-weekly. It deploys the three-class, 314-seat Airbus A350-900. The current schedule is as follows, with all times local:
The World Bank shows that China is a vital trading partner of Mexico. Many Chinese businesses and related enterprises exist in Mexico, including electrical car production and mobile phones; it’d be interesting to see how much flying management has. Chinese tourists to Mexico are also a significant source of demand.
Photo: Telsek | Shutterstock
Booking data shows that 189,000 passengers flew between the two countries in 2019. Due to the recovery from COVID, it was less than half of that number last year.
With 30% of the traffic, Shanghai-Mexico City was the largest origin-destination; no wonder Aeromexico served it between 2008 and 2019. Elsewhere, Hainan Airlines flew Beijing Capital to Mexico City via Tijuana in both directions between 2018 and 2020.
Shenzhen-Mexico City is China’s longest non-stop passenger service. However, it ranks third when one-stops are added, behind Air China’s Beijing Capital-Madrid-São Paulo and Beijing Capital-Madrid-Havana.
It is China Southern’s longest airport pair, surpassing the previous number one, Guangzhou-New York JFK, by 10%.
Photo: Omid Behzadpour | Shutterstock
It is Mexico’s longest non-stop route, but it ranks second to Emirates’ Dubai-Barcelona-Mexico City operation if one-stop services are included
The list, based on May to September, is as follows. As ever, it is for passenger services only, and it uses the Great Circle, with the real-world distance likely to result in a slightly different order. For space reasons, I haven’t included other details.
What do you make of it all? Let us know in the comment section.
