I expect the announcement being made this month or next.

From 2008, but it is interesting.
"The most high-profile overseas deal Massport is trying to land is direct service to Beijing provided by Grand China Airlines, also known as Hainan Airlines Group. That service has been anticipated by government officials for more than two years but won't happen until after the summer of 2009, if at all.

Last week, the China-based carrier said it would launch its first North American route on June 9, a nonstop flight between Beijing and Seattle.

Massport said Boston is the largest US market lacking nonstop service to Beijing, based on the volume of passengers who annually travel to China's capital through connecting flights - about 44,000 a year."

From the Globe when JAL announced the launch of it's flights between Tokyo and Boston:

http://articles.boston.com/2011-05-2...pan-airlines/2

"Massachusetts had the highest percentage of international college freshmen of any state in the country in the 2009-2010 school year, according to the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts � the majority of them coming from India, China, Korea, Canada, and Japan. The association found the economic impact of these students on the state economy is more than $1 billion.

The ease of having a nonstop flight from Tokyo will make Boston a more attractive place for students and their families, said Richard Doherty, president of the association. �When parents are able to put a student on a plane and know that the plane�s going to land, that the next stop is the city they�re supposed to be in, that�s a huge relief,�� he said."



Of course, none of this matters until CX gets the 787s to be able to run Boston-Hong Kong non-stop, if they ever decided to do so.

http://www.boston.com/travel/blog/20...ort_seeks.html

They ordered A350's.

Won't the 773-ERs make it?

yes but its too big for the demand

I always thought Boston has a good amount of Asians (especially ones of Chinese descent) with the proliferation of top colleges that seems to be mostly filled by Asians (like MIT), but guess I was wrong.

I bet a large percentage of Asians are not international students. Top O&D market from BOS to asia includes NRT 67000, PVG 44000, ICN 43000, PEK 39000, HKG 39000, BOM 31000 (all per year for 2010 ending in Q2). CX has a good shot at attracting HKG, BOM passengers and those going to South East Asia, Southern China, Taiwan. So if you add up, they could fill a 787 3-4 times a week, but I am not sure about the yields.

Not sure if there are enough J passengers though. I think CX would want to fill up those seats first before worrying about the low-yield leisure traveller!

While I agree you definitely have the # of bodies for that amount of service, my suspicion is the biggest problem with 3-4 weekly service is you significantly dent premium demand, which is needed to make that load profitable. Problem is business travelers demand frequency....so you'd still probably have the situation of the premium BOS travelers connecting via YYZ, JFK or ORD. The meeting in HK isn't going to wait because your BOS-HKG flight doesn't go today and tomorrow.

I reckon CX could easily fill a plane 3-4x weekly to Seattle, Honolulu, Boston, Philly, and maybe other cities....but the problem (in my view) is making the load a profitable one, especially given the existing frequencies (2x daily SFO, 3x LAX, 1x ORD, 4x JFK, 2x YYZ, 2x YVR) are numerous. If the rumor about EWR is true then you'll have 5x dailies to NYC! There is a clear pattern in what CX does for North American routes - emphasize frequency over # of destinations. I bet you see either SFO or ORD get another daily before you see a route like BOS. And alas, even if there is a new route, I'd have to imagine DFW plays into the cards first.

Thanks! I didn't realize that.

Boston's runways don't allow for non-stop, fully-loaded flights to Asia with non 787-aircraft. This is the reason that Korean Air pulled out in 2001, and why JAL is returning with non-stop flights to Tokyo now that they have the 787s. I believe Korean Air will return with the Boston-Seoul flight with the 787s in their fleet.

Then how did they operate BOS/SEL in both directions? The equipment was 744s.

It was payload restricted, if I'm not mistaken. I believe that route also included an add-on in Dulles.

What is the cause of this? They don't have enough runways at Logan that's long enough for big birds?

methinks a full 744+full tank would be the problem: MTOW permitted for the runway < MTOW of a 744. (remember say BOS-LHR) only needs like 7 hrs of gas, while BOS-HKG needs more than double!

The longest runway at BOS is 10000ft long, which isn't quite enough for a fully loaded 747/777 bound for Asia. At SFO, especially during the winter when they really load those 747s up with fuel due to strong headwinds, most of the flights I've been on have used up almost all of the 11000ft runway they have there (28R).