British Airways wants to see UK added to China's visa waiver scheme

SHANGHAI (Reuters) -British Airways would like to see Britain added to China's growing list of countries eligible for its 30-day visa-free scheme to increase demand after suspending its Beijing flights last year, an executive said on Wednesday.

China has been steadily extending its 30-day visa waiver scheme. As of June, it included 55 countries. It does not include Britain, although British passport holders last year were included in a 240-hour transit visa-free policy.

"We're working with the UK government and diplomatically with the China government around seeing if we can get the UK into that programme," the airline's Chief Planning and Strategy Officer, Neil Chernoff, told media in Shanghai.

"I think that that's one way that we can improve demand."

British Airways suspended flights to Beijing in October, one of several foreign carriers that pulled Chinese services as they struggle with a ban on flying over Russian airspace and a slower than expected rebound in Chinese travel after the pandemic.

Longer flights around Russia mean higher fuel and crew costs, and aircraft utilisation is lower, putting airlines that cannot overfly Russia at a disadvantage to Chinese carriers that can take those shorter routes.

"In a place like China, which is not subject to the same restrictions we have in the UK, they can obviously offer a more competitive product because their flight times are less," Chernoff said.

British Airways, which still flies daily to Shanghai and Hong Kong, is constantly evaluating whether to bring back its Beijing route. Demand has not caught up with increasing supply since the pandemic, Chernoff said.

When the direct flights from London Heathrow to Beijing were halted, the airline initially said the suspension would last until November 2025, but there is no timeline yet of when they will resume, Chernoff said at an event celebrating the 20th anniversary of British Airways' Shanghai route.

Britain's Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British Airways has a joint venture with state-owned China Southern and on Wednesday said it was deepening it by allowing frequent flier points to be collected and redeemed by both sides.

(Reporting by Casey Hall, Sophie Yu and Lisa Barrington. Editing by Mark Potter)