Route brief · LON → SHA
London → Shanghai
$536
−26% vs typical
seasonal median $720 · difference $184
Sep 24 – Oct 8 · 14 nights
China Southern1 stop
- Usual monthly lows
- $629–$743
- Board rank
- Stronger than 71%
- Route sample
- 8 observed months
Cached fare — the booking search re-prices live before you pay.
Destination briefSHAShanghaiThe Bund on one bank, a science-fiction skyline on the other — and a visa-free transit window worth checking.Best windowMar–May · Sep–NovAirportsPudong (PVG) · Hongqiao (SHA)All routes into ShanghaiWhen this route gets cheap.
Cached-fare history: across 8 months, Sep is the cheapest for LON → SHA. Best time to be there: Mar–May · Sep–Nov.
Fares bottom out in September around $534 and peak in March near $918 — a $384 spread across the 8 months we track. The cheapest itinerary we are tracking makes one stop and takes about 14 hours outbound, on a 14-night trip — ticketed under China Southern, which on a connecting fare need not operate every leg. At $536 for 9,197 km each way, that works out to about $29 per 1,000 km flown. That is well under the $44 that long-haul fares on this board typically run. Across the 25 departure cities we track at a similar distance from Shanghai, this fare ranks 3rd — 11% above the $482 from Istanbul. That puts it in the cheaper half of the 37 routes of similar length we watch out of London, where the middle fare is $661.
Cheapest day in the next 4 months: Sep 1 · $534 (26% below median)
Tap any day → live search
The median cached fare across this calendar is 2% lower than when tracking began on Aug 8 — $738 then versus $726 now, across 6 recorded snapshots. This is a calendar-level trend, so an individual deal above can be lower. The lowest single day we have seen here is $534, on Sep 1.
September 2026
Cheapest in Sep · around $534
26% below the $720 typical fare
Cheapest round-trip fare found per month · London → Shanghai · cached-price history
Route facts
- Airports
- Heathrow (LHR) · Gatwick (LGW) · Stansted (STN) · Luton (LTN) ↔ Pudong (PVG) · Hongqiao (SHA)
- Flight time
- ~14 hours outbound
- Distance
- ~9,197 km each way
- Typical price
- $720 round-trip (seasonal median)
- Airlines on the board
- China Southern
- Itineraries
- Connections on current fares
- Best months to visit
- Mar–May · Sep–Nov
LON → SHA, answered.
Is $536 a good price for London to Shanghai?
Yes — the seasonal median for this route is around $720 round-trip. At $536 you're 26% below that, saving about $184, which we rate good for this route.
What is the cheapest month to fly from London to Shanghai?
Across 8 months of cached-fare history, Sep comes out cheapest on this route. The best months to actually be in Shanghai are Mar–May · Sep–Nov — when those overlap, that's your window.
How far in advance should I book LON → Shanghai?
We do not publish a number for this, because we cannot measure it yet. Answering it honestly means watching the same departure date on this route over many weeks as it approaches, and that archive is still filling up — so any "book N days ahead" figure here would be borrowed from somewhere else rather than measured. What we can measure is which month is cheap: across 8 months of cached fares, Sep comes out lowest on this route. See /guides/what-moves-a-flight-price/ for what does move a fare.
Are there nonstop flights from London to Shanghai?
The current cheapest fares involve a connection, ticketed under China Southern. Nonstop options exist on many dates at higher prices — check the live search for your exact dates.
Are these prices guaranteed?
No — these are cached fares found on real searches (this one on September 1). Airlines reprice constantly, so the booking search re-checks the live price before you pay. Fresher finds are far more likely to still be available.
Next step
Sleeping in Shanghai?
Lock the flight first — then compare stays for Sep 24 – Oct 8 · 14 nights.
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Missed it?
Cached fares expire. This route has a feed of its own — follow it and the next LON → SHA drop reaches you as soon as we find it.
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