Very strange move. I understood what they were trying to do with CTU as that is really untouched territory from Europe, but Hangzhou?

I agree with the other poster who mentioned the Bay Bridge. This flight could've made sense years ago pre-bridge, but really unnecessary now as there is pretty good access from Shanghai to Eastern Zhejiang. I remember flying from SHA to NGB back in the old days, no one even operates that route anymore because of the bridge.

I'm not sure the 2nd tier cities can support long haul flights from Europe / North America yet, they've all struggled thus far. For the near term I see direct flights to PVG/PEK/HKG/CAN while the second tiers are served by regional hubs like NRT/ICN/HKG/PEK etc.