Chinese airline launches regular direct flight service to Saudi Arabia

BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China Southern Airlines, a leading Chinese airline, said that its inaugural flight from Beijing to Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday was a success, and it marked the commencement of the first regular direct passenger flight service from the Chinese mainland to Saudi Arabia.

The flight, implemented by the Airbus A330-300, will be provided on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The departure flight will take off from Beijing Daxing International Airport at 15:10 local time and arrive at the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh at 20:10 local time. The flight duration is approximately 10 hours, according to the company.

Meanwhile, the return flight takes off at 22:10 local time in Riyadh and will arrive in Beijing at 12:00 noon the next day. The return flight's duration is about 8 hours and 50 minutes.

Zhang Dongsheng, a marketing official with China Southern Airlines, said that as the Belt and Road Initiative has harvested pragmatic cooperation results in recent years, China and Saudi Arabia have continued to deepen economic, cultural and tourism cooperation.

Zhang said that the launch of the regular direct flight will further promote people-to-people as well as economic and trade exchanges between the two countries.