Direct flights from Europe to China

139 nonstop city pairs from 32 European airports in 22 countries to 21 airports in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan – 166 airline services with about 857 flights a week in each direction (September 2026 timetable, Russia and Belarus excluded).

United Kingdom (165 flights a week), followed by Germany (114) and Italy (95). The single busiest route is London Heathrow–Hong Kong with 42 weekly flights.

Eastbound, the shortest is Istanbul–Ürümqi (China Southern, 6 h 05 min); the longest is Lisbon–Hangzhou (Beijing Capital Airlines, 14 h 30 min). Westbound flights take longer because they fly against the jet stream – the longest is Taipei–London Heathrow at 15 h.

Since 2022, EU, UK and Swiss airlines have been banned from Russian airspace and must fly a longer southern route over Central Asia; Chinese airlines can still overfly Russia. On Frankfurt–Shanghai, China Eastern is scheduled at 10 h 45 min eastbound, Lufthansa at 11 h 50 min. On Helsinki–Shanghai the gap is even bigger: Juneyao Air 8 h 45 min, Finnair 12 h 20 min.

Yes – 14 European airports have nonstop flights to Hong Kong and 10 to Taipei. They are listed as destinations in each country's table. The map itself only covers Europe.

Russia and Belarus have many flights to China, but travellers from the EU, the UK and Switzerland cannot fly there directly under the current airspace bans and sanctions, so they are not a practical gateway and are left out. Istanbul is included: it is on the European side of the Bosphorus and a common transfer point.

Most are. 8 services are seasonal or summer-only, e.g. London Gatwick–Guangzhou (China Southern), Rome–Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific), Milan–Nanjing (Neos), Barcelona–Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific). 11 services only started in 2026, including Frankfurt–Beijing Daxing, Vienna–Xi'an, Zurich–Shanghai, Milan–Beijing Daxing, Venice–Beijing. Each row in the tables shows its season.

Use the flight number lookup further down: every operating flight number on these routes (both directions) has its own row with the scheduled aircraft type and flight time. Codeshare numbers (for example a Lufthansa number on an Air China flight) are not listed – look up the operating airline’s number instead.