I’m in Hong Kong tonight, en route from Beijing to next week’s Fortune Global Forum in Delhi. My transition between mainland China and India, Asia’s two rising giants, affords ample time to ponder the things they have in common. But at the moment, I’m thinking about something they DON’T share: an easy way for business travelers to get from one to the other.
If your job requires you to make regular visits to Asia’s two emerging powerhouses, here’s my advice: Don’t live in either one. Set up camp instead in Hong Kong or Singapore. I know: As the crow flies, this makes no sense. But if you happen not to be a crow (or CEO with dibs on the G-V), the logic is brutally clear. To connect directly from Beijing or Shanghai to Delhi or Mumbai (or vice versa), the options are all grim. Basically you can choose from among the two countries’ clunky state-owned carriers or — for reasons I won’t even pretend to understand — Ethiopian Airlines. Most of these flights are red-eyes, leaving or arriving in the wee hours of the night. So even though China and India share a border, it’s virtually impossible to get a direct connection from one to the other that leaves in the morning and arrives in the evening. Beijing and Delhi are separated by a time difference smaller than that separating New York and LA. But fly direct from one to the other and you’re doomed to a day of nasty jet lag.
Most of the folks I know whose job requires them to both Chase the Dragon and Ride the Elephant, shun the direct flights and revert to some combination of flights on Singapore Airlines, Thai Airlines or the new Cathay Pacific/Dragon Air alliance. China-India routes on those carriers, though far more civilized, are chronically overbooked. If I ring any less than a week in advance for a seat on one, Angela, my Hong Kong-based travel agent, throws up her hands in despair.
So forget geography. For now at least, a passage to India remains far more comfortable if it originates from London than from any city in North Asia. The improbable exception to this rule: Tokyo. On Sept. 1, Japan’s All-Nippon Airlines launched a direct all-business-class flight between Mumbai and Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. Flights run six days a week. Almost by accident, Angela booked me on this flight on its second day of operation. I couldn’t believe my luck. There were only 36 seats, so boarding in Mumbai was a snap. The plane is a Boeing 737-700, so pretty small, but with so few seats, the interior feels surprisingly roomy. In-flight service was impeccable and the food was five-star. There was even an electrical port for my Mac. True, it was an overnight flight, but I barely noticed. We left Mumbai at 8:15 pm sharp. I had dinner, flipped through a magazine, dozed off for a few hours, and the next thing I knew I was slurping somen noodles for breakfast over Mt. Fuji. We touched down at 8:30 am. Totally painless!
On my last India trip, Angela pointed out to me that, in fact, the new ANA flight isn’t just the fastest way between Mumbai and Tokyo but, depending on the day, can also be the quickest way to get from Delhi to Beijing. You fly first to Mumbai (hundreds of miles in the wrong direction), catch the ANA flight to Tokyo (hundreds of miles too far east), hop a second ANA connection backtracking to Beijing — and can still arrive in the Chinese capital more than an hour before the next best connection via Singapore. Japanese media report that as of Oct 28, Japan Airlines will begin operating daily flights between Tokyo and Delhi, up from four flights a week now. My guess is that these new connections will do as much — if not more — than former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s recent visit to Delhi to boost commercial ties between Japan and India. As a new Beijing resident, I can only pray that Sonia Gandhi’s pending visit to China achieves a comparable commercial aviation breakthrough.
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