China Southern Airlines to resume service to Pyongyang, North Korea

China Southern Airlines is to launch new services to Pyongyang, North Korea.

China Southern Airline’s Henan Branch will operate this new service operating Monday, Wednesday and Friday using either a Boeing 737-300 or Boeing 737-800 aircraft. According to unofficial statistics, 240,000 Chinese visited the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 2005.

China Southern Airlines will also be resuming its service to Moscow. The airline's branch in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in Northwest China announced that it will use a Boeing 737 or 757 aircraft from Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, to Moscow every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Return flights will be on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The five-hour flight between Urumqi and Moscow was suspended in 2003 amid the Asian financial crisis and affected by the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that hit China.

Mr. Li Jian, General Manager of China Southern Airlines' Xinjiang Branch, said that the company will operate four two-way flights on the route every week, making Urumqi one of the best choices of transferring stations on international air traffic from Europe to East and Southeast Asian region. Currently, China Southern Airlines operates four air routes between China and Russia, namely Urumqi-Moscow; Urumqi-Novosibirsk; Harbin-Khabarovsk and Harbin-Valdivostok.

Trade volume between China and Russia amounted to US$29.1 Billion in 2005. However, Xinjiang, which borders Russia, only conducted a little more than 1% of the trade. The region is eyeing more shares in the trade market by smoothing out traffic barriers.

The airlines’ Guangxi Branch is also to formally launch a new service between Guilin and Macau, using its newly-delivered Boeing 737-800, with daily service except Sunday.

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