Heathrow begins serving 10th Chinese airport

Heathrow has pledged to become the "destination of choice" for Chinese trade, tourism and investment if it is allowed to build a third runway after it began serving its 10th destination in the country.

The west London hub welcomed its first flight arriving directly from the city of Chongqing on Saturday.

The three-times-a-week service by Tianjin Airlines will be able to transport up to 81,000 passengers a year and offer space for 3,744 tonnes of annual exports and imports.

Chongqing is a popular tourist destination as it is used as a launching point for boat trips down the Yangtze River and to the Three Gorges Dam.

This is the fifth new Chinese route for Heathrow this year.

The increase in flights follows negotiations between the UK and Chinese governments which saw a restriction on flights between the countries lifted.

Analysis by consultancy Frontier Economics found that last year's flights to China via Heathrow contributed £510 million to the UK economy.

Although Chongqing is Heathrow's 10th Chinese route, rival airports in the European Union connect daily to eight other airports in the country, such as Hangzhou, Chengdu and Kunming.

Heathrow claims this is evidence that its plan to build a third runway must go ahead.

The airport's chief commercial officer Ross Baker said: "We are tremendously pleased to welcome our 10th direct connection to China.

"Heathrow is proud of its role as the UK's hub airport and biggest gateway for Chinese passengers and cargo going between our two countries.

"But we have much further to go, and now that Parliament has voted unequivocally in favour of Heathrow expansion we will ensure London, and the UK, become the destination of choice for Chinese trade, tourism and investment."

Support from Labour MPs helped push through the proposals to expand Heathrow with an overwhelming majority of 296 in a Commons vote in June.

But a legal challenge to block the project has been launched by a group of councils, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Greenpeace, who claim the Government has failed to properly deal with the impact on air quality, climate change, noise and congestion.