China Eastern Airlines in the network the desk measures
Computed on 2026-09-07 from AeroDataBox scheduled route statistics. The desk holds departure schedules for 571 airports, and for the MU code that yields 652 city pairs across 209 of them. It is a measured sample of the published timetable and not the whole of it. Frequencies move with the season, and a quote is priced on the flights running the day you ask.
209airports on this carrier
45countries and territories reached
652scheduled city pairs held
3,735average daily flights across them
The schedule the desk holds carries the MU code on 652 city pairs, reaching 209 airports in 45 countries and territories. Some of those sectors are flown by China Eastern Airlines and some are sold under its code and flown by a partner, which is how the published timetable states it and how a booking has to be read. 83.7 per cent of those airports sit on Asian time zones, and the next largest block is on European time zones.
01The longest sector held for the carrier is New York (JFK) to Shanghai (PVG) at about 11,874 km, and the shortest is Hangzhou (HGH) to Shanghai (PVG) at about 166 km. 387 of the pairs are under 1,500 km and 48 run past 5,000 km, a medium haul shape that usually joins a Gulf departure at a single interchange. The airport that appears most often on those pairs is Shanghai (PVG), on 141 of them, which is 21.6 per cent of everything held under this code.
02The thickest sector under the code is Shanghai (SHA) to Shenzhen (SZX) at about 46.1 movements a day, which across a full day is roughly one every 0.5 hours. On a sector at that cadence a missed departure costs a wait rather than a night. That sector does not touch Shanghai (PVG), the airport this code is booked through most often, so the desk treats it as a seat sold under the code rather than flown by the carrier, and confirms the operating airline before it quotes. 311 of the 652 pairs run four or more times a day and 107 run once a day or less. The second figure is the one that matters when a consignment leaves the factory late, because on those sectors the desk will quote a different carrier rather than promise an hour it cannot hold. After Shanghai (PVG) the code leans on Kunming (KMG) on 81, Xianyang (XIY) on 72, Wuhan (WUH) on 60 pairs respectively, and those are the airports a dispatcher looks at second when the first routing is full.
The sectors that carry the MU code most often
The 16 sectors the MU code appears on most often, out of 652. Flights a day is the average daily scheduled movement on the busier of the two directions, as held on 2026-09-07. The schedule lists a code against a sector whether the carrier operates it or sells it, so read this as where the code can be booked. Distances are great circle, computed from the published coordinates of the two airports.
Where MU meets the UAE gateways
China Eastern Airlines is one of the carriers a courier can board without leaving the Emirates. The desk holds 1 pairs under this code touching Abu Dhabi (AUH), so a booking can start at a UAE counter and stay on one ticket to the delivery city.
Night restrictions on the airports the MU code uses
A hand carry is bought for the hours it saves, and an airport that will not take a movement after a certain hour can spend those hours back. 20 of the 209 airports this code is booked through carry a restriction the desk holds in writing, checked 2026-09-07. Exemptions and seasonal variations exist, and the desk confirms the position with the airport or the carrier before it books.
- Shanghai (PVG), night operations. Operates around the clock.
- Seoul (ICN), night operations. Operates around the clock.
- Hong Kong (HKG), night operations. Operates around the clock. Night departures to Europe and the Gulf are routine.
- Singapore (SIN), night operations. Operates around the clock.
- Madrid (MAD), night operations. Operates around the clock. Night departures to the Americas are routine.
- Taipei (TPE), night operations. Operates around the clock.
Published lanes that carry the MU code
The site publishes a page for 346 courier lanes. China Eastern Airlines appears in the schedule on 9 of them, and the one it flies most is Seoul to Shanghai at about 22.4 movements a day. That overlap is the honest test of whether a carrier is useful to this desk rather than merely famous.
- Seoul to Shanghai, about 22.4 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 822 km.
- Shanghai to Singapore, about 16.4 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 3,806 km.
- Shanghai to Los Angeles, about 6.4 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 10,415 km.
- Shanghai to Frankfurt, about 5.1 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 8,860 km.
- Paris to Shanghai, about 3.6 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 9,266 km.
- Shanghai to Istanbul, about 3.1 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 8,020 km.
- Shanghai to Vancouver, about 1.4 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 9,016 km.
- Zurich to Shanghai, about 1.1 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 9,031 km.
- Copenhagen to Shanghai, about 0.9 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 8,277 km.
The countries the MU code opens
Of the 45 countries and territories reached, 25 are reached at a single airport, which for a courier means one airport of entry and a road leg for everything else in that country. The deepest is China with 125 airports on this code. The country desk for China sets out the customs practice, the working hours and the road legs behind these airports.
China (125 airports), Japan (8 airports), South Korea (6 airports), Taiwan (4 airports), Vietnam (3 airports), Thailand (3 airports), Cambodia (3 airports), United States (3 airports), Canada (3 airports), United Kingdom (3 airports).
Where to go next on the MU network
Each of the 209 airports above has its own atlas entry with the full destination list, and each of the 652 sectors can be opened in the calculator with the flying time, the distance and the delivery hour worked out. Start with the atlas entry for Shanghai (PVG), the route calculator with Dubai to PVG already filled in, the carrier index for the other 236 airlines the desk lists and the airport atlas itself.