China Southern Airlines all set to begin flights between Kunming and Islamabad
China Southern Airlines will soon start regular flights between Kunming and Islamabad from mid of this year.
The news was shared in a meeting of the Airline’s Executives with Pakistan’s Consul General to Chengdu, Muhammad Mudassir Tipu.
The delegation of the airline including Hu Yaohui, Director International Marketing and Ma Yun Deputy Manager met the Consul General in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province this week.
The flight will fly on Guangzhou-Kunming-Islamabad route. The Kunming-Islamabad route’s flight time will be nearly four hours while the return flight will take five hours’.
Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, is known as ‘the City of Eternal Spring’ for its pleasant climate and flowers that bloom all year long. With a history of more than 2,400 years, it was the gateway to the celebrated Silk Road and today it is the provincial political, economic and cultural center of Yunnan as well as the most popular tourist destination in southwest China.
“China Southern has planned to start three-day-a-week flights from June this year given the depth and breadth of China-Pakistan relations, Pakistan’s strategic location, it’s tourism potential, as well as Pakistan’s economic growth” said Hu Yaohui.
He added that with the commencement of this flight trade, economic, commercial, and tourism ties will expand between China and Pakistan and the broader region. He hoped that passengers would be able to transit from Islamabad to other Middle Eastern countries via this flight.
The China Southern has approached the Chinese government to authorize the start of the flight, the Director maintained.
The Consul General (CG), Muhammad Mudassir Tipu welcomed the start of the flight and emphasized that it was a clear demonstration that Pakistan’s relations with China were vigorously expanding in a host of areas.
The CG hoped that as a consequence of CPEC and OBOR initiatives, as well as Pakistan’s growth trajectory, wider economic and commercial opportunities will be generated necessitating enhanced connectivity between Pakistan and western China.
The CG underlined that in recent years Pakistan’s tourism industry was significantly flourishing and direct flights will provide impetus to both Pakistan and China’s tourism potential.
The CG offered full co-operation and support to the Airlines for smooth operations of the flight and hoped that Airlines will continue to deepen and expand its relations with Pakistan in future.
China Southern Airlines operates the largest fleet, most developed route network and largest passenger capacity of any airline in China. The Airline fleet is ranked the first in Asia and the fourth in the world. It operates more than 2000 daily flights to 224 destinations in 40 countries and regions across the world.
