Officials at Manchester Airport are on their way to China in an attempt to obtain direct routes to Beijing and Shanghai, reported Crain's.

This week, Andrew Cornish, managing director for the airport will be meeting officials at Air China to discuss on flight connections, before speaking at the China Regional Airport Conference 2008 in Chengdu.

In the month of September last year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) made an announcement that it had granted approvals for 27 new routes to Europe: one of these was a daily service to Manchester. CAAC said that the new routes would begin in 2009.

But, according to the report of the newspaper, experts say it is 'far from a done deal', as no dates have yet been fixed for the start of services.

Obtaining the new routes would be a big achievement for Manchester airport, whose traveller numbers have stagnated to about twenty-two million during the last few years.

According to a spokesperson, the airport was continuing the discussion with state-owned Air China-the largest carrier in the country-to obtain the routes.

He said, "It is not the first time we have met Air China. We are very keen to see Far East services to China. That is why we are investing the time".

Whether we come back with signature and a piece of paper I do not know. We are going to continue discussions and continue the relationship with them. They have said they want Air China to operate out of Manchester and our response is that we would welcome them with open arms".