Air China beefs up services

Air China will start a Beijing – Siem Reap nonstop service 1 December as part of a wider expansion of routes to Southeast Asian destinations.
The new service cuts the need to fly to Bangkok to connect with flights to Siem Reap.
CA825/6, will operate twice weekly (Wednesday and Sunday) from 1 to 31 December this year, and will increase to four weekly (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday) starting 2014.
In related expansion in Southeast Asia, Air China will start a services Beijing -Chiang Mai and Wuhan – Chiang Mai, later this week and increase frequencies on its Beijing – Bangkok and Beijing – Phuket routes.
The airline confirmed it will introduce a service from Beijing to Chiang Mai, 7 November, to draw more travellers to the northern gateway destination, where most tours of what was once the Lanna Kingdom begin.
Using a B737-800, the airline will offer three weekly flights from Beijing Monday, Thursday, and Saturday to Chiang Mai.
The outbound flight, CA823, will depart from Beijing at 1830 and arrive in Chiang Mai at 2240. The return flight, CA824, will leave Chiang Mai at 2345 and arrive in Beijing at 0500.
Initially, the airline is committed to flying the route for the winter season through to March 2014. Beyond that it will depend on traffic demand.
All of the traffic will be generated in Beijing making the flights virtually scheduled charters (seats pre-sold the tour operators who work with Air China).
Air China is a member of Star Alliance, which will allow business travellers resident in Chiang Mai to use the service to connect with international flights to the US and Japan on either Air China or other alliance airlines.
On 27 October, the airline added a third daily flight to Bangkok using a B737-800.
The additional flight, CA809, departs from Beijing at 0040 and arrives in Bangkok at 0505. The return flight, CA810, departs Bangkok at 0610 and arrives Beijing at 1150.

Sourced: ttrweekly