China Eastern Returns to Stockholm as Chinese Carriers Dominate Europe

China Eastern Airlines has brought back its Shanghai-Stockholm service, one more step in the steady rebuilding of China-Europe air links in which Chinese airlines now hold most of the capacity.

The Route

China Eastern launched Shanghai Pudong-Stockholm Arlanda on 14 September 2026 with three flights a week, according to Aviation Week’s weekly route roundup. The carrier flew the route from 2018 until the pandemic suspended it in 2020. Aviation Week did not state the aircraft type for the Stockholm service.

A Market Tilted Toward China

Behind the route lies a shift in who flies between China and Europe. Chinese carriers now account for about 83 percent of China-Europe capacity excluding Russia, up from roughly two-thirds in 2019, Aviation Week reported.

Two factors explain much of that change. Chinese airlines can still fly over Russia, a route unavailable to European competitors since February 2022, which shortens flight times on many Europe-Asia sectors. Disruption in the Middle East has also affected the Gulf hub carriers that once carried a large part of the traffic between Europe and Asia, according to the same analysis.

Aviation Week projected China-Europe capacity excluding Russia at 12.1 million two-way seats for the summer 2026 season, compared with 10.4 million for the previous year.

Other Chinese Expansions

China Eastern is not alone. For summer 2026 it planned a Shanghai Pudong-Zurich service with Airbus A350-900s three times a week from 18 June, and expected to operate 20 China-Europe routes with a 15.8 percent share of capacity, second to Air China.

Air China was adding daily Beijing Daxing flights to Frankfurt and Milan Malpensa, and China Southern was launching Beijing Daxing-Helsinki. Together these additions show Chinese carriers shifting capacity to markets where the Russian airspace advantage is greatest.

Demand Behind the Growth

Passenger flows give a sense of the appetite. Switzerland-China traffic rose 17.8 percent year on year to about 345,000 passengers in 2025, Aviation Week said, which helped justify China Eastern’s Zurich launch.

What It Means for European Carriers

The imbalance is a policy issue as well as a commercial one. European airlines face longer routings to many Chinese cities, while Chinese rivals fly shorter paths. How long that lasts depends on the airspace restrictions, which sit outside the control of airlines or the bilateral agreements that govern traffic rights.