From late October Air China has added "Capital Pavilion" Business Class service to its Beijing-Vancouver route with new Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft, as well as premium three-cabin service to its Shanghai-Beijing-Paris route with Airbus A340 wide-body equipment. The premium cabin service features Air China's recently upgraded First Class, "Forbidden Pavilion", as well as Air China's lie-flat "Capital Pavilion" Business Class, in addition to traditional Economy Class service.

In upgrading these two routes, Air China has now increased its premium cabin service to eleven international routes, covering all of North America and most major cities in Europe.

Air China has already launched upgraded premium-cabin A330/A340 service on nine international routes, including the three U.S. nonstops of Beijing-New York, Beijing-Los Angeles and Beijing-San Francisco. In Europe six routes receive the Forbidden Pavilion and Capital Pavilion three-class service: Beijing-London, Beijing-Madrid-Sao Paulo, Shanghai-Milan-Rome, Shanghai-Paris, Beijing-Frankfurt and Shanghai-Frankfurt.

"Air China is working hard to provide a global, high-quality airline that is well recognized by passengers, most valuable in China, most profitable in China, and competitive worldwide," said Mrs. Lan Zhang, Vice President of Air China. "By offering three excellent classes of onboard service across a strong global network, Air China is satisfying more and more passengers as it increasingly connects China to the world."

The "Forbidden Pavilion" First Class seat features the private-compartment style of elite first class seating, with individual partitions for private space and a fully flat in-flight bed that extends to nearly 6 feet 3 inches in length. In the new "Capital Pavilion" Business Class, nearly five feet of seat pitch separate 21-inch wide seats that extend and recline 170 degrees. Air China has made similar improvements in other premium class in-flight and ground-based passenger services.

As China's sole designated flag carrier and the Airline Partner of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Air China serves 77 domestic and 40 international cities with an extensive network from its Beijing hub, conveniently linking passengers between China and destinations around the world. In North America, Air China serves New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vancouver with daily non-stop service to Beijing.